Mini Professional Photography Course: RAW Mode

Here is virtual photography course that will help to hone and develop your skills. This mini photography course covers the RAW mode of your camera.

Materials You Will Need

• Pen and paper
• Camera

Step 1 - Understand RAW Mode

All digital cameras generally process and develop general images in a file format called JPEG. The JPEG file format utilizes different settings for things such as white balance, color saturation and sharpness. All cameras support RAW files. You can opt to save the settings and the camera options in this type of file. Usually, as a camera supports these files, they will defer the processing. The RAW setting generally is only used when additional computer processing is required. If you intend to do more to the photograph, you should always opt for a RAW setting or mode.

Step 2 - How the Raw Mode Control Functions

RAW mode enables you to utilize a mouse or a keyboard to set the photograph or alter the photograph. You can also update the lighting in the background and foreground of the photograph. It makes it much easier to alter the files of the photograph.

Second, using RAW mode gives you an ability to preview the different components of the photograph. You can alter the image size and the image quality. The RAW setting and modes are great to use with white balance settings. You can generate fantastic color casts. In any other mode, such as RGB or JPEG formatting and types, you are not going to be able to create a nice contrast.

Third, the information contained in a RAW mode photograph is so much greater. These types of files generally are not compressed, as you will find with JPEG and TIFF files. The other types of files barely provide 8 bits of information, almost half as much as a RAW file. Because your file format has much larger amount of information, you can better utilize it. You can alter it, update it, highlight it, or color it. You can create great saturation and shadows, as well.  

Step 3 - Using Raw Format with Other Editors

Many editors work with RAW format type files. There are many functional industry-wide photograph-editing software packages. You can easily update and change any picture. If your business depends on photographic retouching and enhancing, utilizing the RAW formatting in your camera is an essential activity.

Step 4 - Understand the Drawbacks to Raw Mode

The major downside to a RAW mode picture file is its size. It is much larger (approximately two to six times larger) than JPEG files. So, when taking photographs in RAW mode format, make sure you have sufficient memory available. It will fill up your memory cards quickly.

Second, it takes you longer to take pictures. Since the files are larger, the camera will take extra time to process the photographs.