Camera Settings When Shooting RAW Files

Digital cameras have so many settings and options, especially the higher-end cameras, that it can be overwhelming to try to learn them all and then put them into practice. But the good news is that if you shoot RAW files, you can cut down on the number of settings that you need to worry about and fuss over.

The reason for this is that when you are shooting RAW files, settings that involve exposure, contrast, color, saturation, sharpness, etc. can best be tweaked in post-processing. In fact, you will have much greater control over those settings in programs like Lightroom, Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, or whatever software you use for processing your RAW files, than you would by shooting JPEG images and using the camera settings instead.

Of course, most modern cameras give you the choice of shooting RAW files, JPEG files, or even a combination of the two. So you can make your own choice and there is nothing wrong with shooting JPEG files. A lot of people prefer to do that because they think it is much easier and faster to do so. But once you take the shot in JPEG format, the RAW file of information about that image is discarded forever by the camera. Thereafter, you are limited in the adjustments that can be made to the JPEG file itself in post-processing.

Instead, RAW files allow a wide range of adjustments to be made to the image because the camera has saved all of its relevant information about that image that it had captured when you pressed the shutter. So you have a lot more image data to work with and therefore much greater control over the final image as a result. You can then save the image as a JPEG file for sharing with others or printing and you still have the unaltered RAW file for that image if you want to reprocess it again at some point in the future.

And once you get used to opening and working on your files in a RAW converting and processing software program, you get pretty used to the settings and tweaks that are available to you quickly. It doesn't really have to take that much more time to process your images while the results will be so much better if you shoot RAW files and use the settings in your post-processing software instead of those in your camera.

So what should you do with your camera settings that are duplicated in RAW post-processing? Many photographers who shoot RAW files just set them at the most standard settings available in the camera and then leave them alone from there. By doing this, it helps the photographer focus more on the art of photography instead of technical settings while they are in the field. There will be plenty of less demanding opportunities for tweaking the images when you are back home and processing those great RAW images that you just took.