20D: Parameters, Bracketing and RAW Files

Richard

Basic question: do parameter settings (sharpness, contrast, saturation, etc.) and/or automatic bracketing affect the RAW file or only the JPG?

I am about to make the transition from a P&S to a 20D. :clap I will get the new camera while I am traveling and am trying to figure out how I should use it on the trip. I know I have a lot to learn about both the camera and RAW post-processing. At the same time, I want my first pics to be as good as possible.

I am thinking that if I shoot in RAW + JPG I can just look at the JPGs as I go and worry about the PP from RAW later. As long as I had the focus and metering correct, I could deal with the rest in conversion. Is this correct? :dunno

Thanks,

John Mueller

jpeg only so they say.I always shoot raw only. You can still view those.
Good luck and enjoy your new cam

Andy

the parms have nothing to do with the raw files, only the in-camera produced jpgs. yes, you are correct - get composition, lighting, metering, focus done at shoot. white balance, and any contrast, minor exposure tweaks and even more, can be done via the raw conversion.

good luck!

gubbs

rsinmadrid wrote:

Basic question: do parameter settings (sharpness, contrast, saturation, etc.) and/or automatic bracketing affect the RAW file or only the JPG?

I am about to make the transition from a P&S to a 20D. I will get the new camera while I am traveling and am trying to figure out how I should use it on the trip. I know I have a lot to learn about both the camera and RAW post-processing. At the same time, I want my first pics to be as good as possible.

I am thinking that if I shoot in RAW + JPG I can just look at the JPGs as I go and worry about the PP from RAW later. As long as I had the focus and metering correct, I could deal with the rest in conversion. Is this correct?

Thanks,

You can view the raw files as you go you don't need to save as jpg too , if you're travelling storage space may be a issue if you save both.

Andy

gubbs wrote:

You can view the raw files as you go you don't need to save as jpg too , if you're travelling storage space may be a issue if you save both.

good point. and if you use adobe cs2, with adobe bridge, it really handles previews really really well on the raw files.

Richard

andy wrote:

good point. and if you use adobe cs2, with adobe bridge, it really handles previews really really well on the raw files.

I won't be carrying my laptop, so I will be relying on other people's machines. I don't expect any of them to have RAW viewer capability and I don't want to install any software on them. I will be carrying a portable hard drive for storage, so I don't have to be too worried about space. If I run out, I figure I can burn a DVD or two to make room for more. I find the view screen on cameras fairly useless for reviewing shots, so I thought I would just hook my portable drive to someone's machine and look at the JPGs.

Thanks to all for the information.

mercphoto

rsinmadrid wrote:

Basic question: do parameter settings (sharpness, contrast, saturation, etc.) and/or automatic bracketing affect the RAW file or only the JPG?

Actually, it depends on the converter you use. The parameter settings are stored in the raw file. Canon's software will use this information as the default value during conversion. You can change any of those four values manually before conversion if you wish.

Raw converters not written by Canon don't do this, which is why people usually say the parameters have no effect on raw files, which is only about 99% correct.

If you shoot RAW+JPG so that you have previews I would probably suggest not using large-fine JPG but rather a smaller file format. You'll eat cards fast. The other thing is if your exposure and white balance are pretty darn close when you click the shutter, 20D in-camera JPGs are amazingly good and stand up real well to editing. I feel there is no reason to shoot a 20D in RAW for all shots and all circumstances. I only shoot RAW during difficult conditions or in new scenarios.

Richard

mercphoto wrote:

Actually, it depends on the converter you use. The parameter settings are stored in the raw file. Canon's software will use this information as the default value during conversion. You can change any of those four values manually before conversion if you wish.

Raw converters not written by Canon don't do this, which is why people usually say the parameters have no effect on raw files, which is only about 99% correct.

If you shoot RAW+JPG so that you have previews I would probably suggest not using large-fine JPG but rather a smaller file format. You'll eat cards fast. The other thing is if your exposure and white balance are pretty darn close when you click the shutter, 20D in-camera JPGs are amazingly good and stand up real well to editing. I feel there is no reason to shoot a 20D in RAW for all shots and all circumstances. I only shoot RAW during difficult conditions or in new scenarios.

Thanks for the heads up, Bill. Using a smaller JPG hadn't occurred to me, but it makes sense in this situation.

Just to clarify one point, if I shoot in RAW + JPG and use automatic exposure bracketing, does the camera produce one RAW and three JPG files or three of each?

Cheers,

Shay Stephens

Three of each.

rsinmadrid wrote:

Thanks for the heads up, Bill. Using a smaller JPG hadn't occurred to me, but it makes sense in this situation.

Just to clarify one point, if I shoot in RAW + JPG and use automatic exposure bracketing, does the camera produce one RAW and three JPG files or three of each?

Cheers,

DavidTO

mercphoto wrote:

Actually, it depends on the converter you use. The parameter settings are stored in the raw file. Canon's software will use this information as the default value during conversion. You can change any of those four values manually before conversion if you wish.

Raw converters not written by Canon don't do this, which is why people usually say the parameters have no effect on raw files, which is only about 99% correct.

Then why does the RAW converter (PS or Capture One) say "As Shot" for white balance? Is that the only parameter they pay attention to? I shoot all RAW, never mess with parameters save maybe WB, so I'm curious and a little ignorant.

Nikolai

I must add
If you do bracketing - don't forget that RAW itself allows you to adjust exposure at least for one f/stop. So if you were thinking in terms of bracketing exposure +/- 1, a single RAW file will serve this purpose perfectly, all you'd have to do is to play with exposure in post.

It may be still viable to do bracketing in RAW, in which case you need to adjust your exposure in much wider scale.

Also - remember that bracketing exposure with aperture is *wrong*, since it effectively changes your focal distance. The Good Book says: if you shooting with flash, bracket by the flash "power"; if you bracketing with the available light - bracket by shutter speed.

I know the "auto" bracketing does not allow this, so you have to go full manual. AND you need to have a rock-solid tripod to be be able to change the parameters w/o slightest move, otherwise you'd have to align them later, which can be painfully tedious job.

However, new HDR (from CS2) can do decent auto-aligning, so maybe it's not that bad.

With my tiny little experience with RAW, I found out that in most cases RAW replaces the need for the bracketing very effectively. However, sometimes you have both very bright and very dark areas (I clearly remember Shay manually bracketing for his morning shots of El Capitan:-), but that's the HDR playground anyways...

HTH

Richard

Thanks, Nik. Your explanation was clear. I am really just testing my understanding of what my new camera and RAW processing will mean. I am not going to be able to do any processing while I am on the road, so it is important to know what I need to get right when shooting and what I can figure out later. For the time being, I think I can ignore exposure bracketing and hope for the best in post.

Cheers,