“RAW Power”
Never underestimate the power of a RAW file! Anyone starting out in photography, the first piece of advice I tell them is to shoot RAW. Even if you do not have the software to edit them properly right now, you will in the future. Then you can always go back and bring old RAW files into the software and edit them.
There are so many things you can do with a RAW file. With lighting for example. I tend to shoot most things a bit underexposed. With the RAW file, you can bring it into Lightroom and bring those shadows back up. However, if you overexpose and blow out the highlights, you cannot recover those details. Sure, you can shoot a bracketed shot, but that is a whole different monster for another time.
Once you begin to shoot RAW, one thing you never have to worry about again is white balance. I leave my white balance on automatic at all times. With all the other adjustments that a photographer has to make in the field, that’s one less thing you have to worry about. When you are in post editing, you can always switch the white balance to the proper lighting conditions of the shoot. I live not far from a very old church and grave yard. I have been waiting for JUST the right conditions to shoot that graveyard. About a year went by when I woke up to a morning fog. I jumped in the car and shot that graveyard. Halfway through the shoot, I realized my white balance was set to Tungsten. The color was all off. When I got that shoot into post, it turned out to be a happy accident. Tungsten gave the image a more eerie feeling. I left it alone.
You don’t always have to have the white balance set to what it is SUPPOSED to be. It’s your photo, your art, make it look how you want. I was recently on a sunrise shoot of an old church in Lancaster County. When the sun rose, it lit the church up pretty nice. When I got it into post, I played with the white balance to give it more of a golden glow. Even though I shot in sunlight, I set the white balance to custom because it stood out more.
Now let’s talk about color. I am not one to photoshop something into a scene that was not there originally. People have done everything from sky replacements to turning their photo into something out of a fantasy scene. There is nothing wrong with that, it’s just not my style. What I will do however, is play with the colors that are captured in the photo to provoke a certain emotion from my work. If there is a nice sunrise, one especially with scattered clouds, the color will just burst from the horizon. I tend to enhance those colors to get a more majestic feel from them. My favorite example comes from my first photoshoot at Eastern State Penitentiary. At the end of a cellblock, the walls peeled with white paint chips covering the cement walls. The floors were a gray-ish slate stone. Given the history of the location and its decaying look, I wanted to give it a much more ominous feeling. So, when I got the RAW file into Lightroom, I gave it a cold blue coloring that provoked a creepier feel. Now when you look at the finished product, it’s a much more haunting vibe filled with sorrow.
I’m not saying that you should not shoot JPG at all. In fact, I have my camera set to shoot in RAW and JPG. One might think that is a waste of time and space. I like to have both so that I can use them as before and after photos. If you shoot this way, you can actually see for yourself. Edit the JPG and then edit the RAW and see which one you like better.
Do you shoot RAW and what are YOUR reasons?
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All photographs by Keith J. Fisher ©2022 Grazie Santangelo. All Rights Reserved
