[yelvertoft]

Regular readers will know that I have always previously been primarily an in-camera JPEG shooter, having long since adopted the attitude of “Life’s too short for raw”. I took the odd shot in raw mode when I knew I would have to faff about with it a lot in post processing, but really couldn’t be bothered with having to spend time processing every shot from raw to jpeg (or any other format). Many of my pictures are snapshots, memories of people, places and events taken purely for my own benefit and not intended for viewing by anyone outside my immediate friends an family. For this kind of picture, JPEG was just fine.

Now, I still think that life is too short for raw, but take everything in raw mode on my camera. How do I manage to sit comfortably with such self contradictory views? I was put off raw processing very early in my dSLR usage by the awful user interface in the bundled raw processing software that came with my camera. It was all too much bother to process each file individually. From then on, for a very long time, I shot almost exclusively in JPEG.

Then, I discovered an undocumented feature in the bundled raw processing software. I could import multiple files into the processing software at the same time, and either apply the in-camera default settings, or apply my own custom settings simultaneously to all the files imported. After hitting the save button, in a few minutes of background PC processing, I’d have a whole stack of JPEGs, either the same as if I’d used the in-camera settings, or with the custom adjustments applied to all the files. Gone was the need to apply adjustments to every file individually. Hurrah!

Now, I realised, I had the ability to play with the few shots that needed the flexibility of being shot in raw, with the convenience of batch processing the majority that didn’t. What’s more, I didn’t need to decide which mode to shoot in, from shot to shot. With this new found flexibility, I began to shoot exclusively in raw format.

For batch processing large numbers of files as though they were in-camera JPEGs, it was fine to use the bundled software. For more adventurous tweaking, I began exploring alternative raw processors. I had previously used Adobe Camera Raw for processing individual files and had found the user interface to be friendly and the features sufficiently advanced for my needs. I had also got a copy of Phase One’s Capture One raw processing software. You can currently get a free copy of the LE version of Capture One if you buy a Sandisk Extreme III memory card, the card comes with a voucher for the software.

Capture One has its faults, most notably in my opinion, the user interface is not the most intuitive, with the buttons having odd looking labels and the help file written for, and by, people who don’t need to read the help file. Having said that, once you’ve learned what the buttons do, a very steep learning curve but worth persevering, it is an exceptionally powerful piece of software. Once you’ve got the hang of it, it is a very quick process to manage the conversion of either an individual file, or a whole batch. I’ve now completely stopped using the raw processing software that came bundled with the camera. If anybody does start using Capture One, I would advise that you persevere with the interface, I would also advise that, if you intend the output to be posted on a web page, you do not chose the output option to “Embed Camera Profile” in the output options. This embeds a huge stack of camera data in the output file (JPEG or TIFF) that does not compress down, even if you subsequently “save for web” from your subsequent image editing package.

There are many articles out there on the web, and in the specialist press extolling the virtues of shooting raw, I could not be bothered with all the extra post-processing, and still can’t for many ‘snapshot’ pictures. If your software allows you to bypass the tedium of individual processing of files, then that’s a whole chunk of work taken care of.

In summary:
Learn what you can do using the bundled raw processing software that came with the camera, it may be more capable than you think. If there is an option to do “full auto” processing of batches of files, then some of the benefits of in-camera JPEGs are gone.
Learn the basics of raw processing using the bundled software. It may not be the most powerful tool in the box, but it will teach you the basics which will come in handy later.
Once you’ve got the hang of the basics, find a more advanced raw processing software application that suits you (and your camera) and spend some time learning its intricacies. Once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll never look back.

Duncan.