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I'm still new to 'event' photography but last weekend our charity had a Polo day and I said that I'd 'cover' it to see if I could sell any prints to raise money after the event.
(If you want to see the shots they're on my website at www.AlanRengger.co.uk, under Events/Gallery, Sussex Polo2007)
I took all sorts of photos in a reportage style - I think.
I decided in the end to shoot all as JPEGs as I didn't fancy processing a large amount of RAWs afterwards. But some of the pics I want to crop and would rather be starting from the RAW, which I don't have, to retain control and quality.
I ended up with over 150 shots, some good, some OK, some bad.
Do you experienced photographers shoot events using RAW and if so do you then individually process what could be several hundreds of shots?
Thanks.
Quote: Do you experienced photographers shoot events using RAW and if so do you then individually process what could be several hundreds of shots?
Not sure I count as an experienced tog. But this is where I find Lightroom is my best friend. Shooting a wedding for example, import all RAW files, then make basic corrections across all the images such as white balance. These can be synchronised so you don't have to do each one separately. I crop and individually adjust a few that need it then tell Lightroom to export all (as jpegs) at a reasonable size for previewing on disk (it will automatically burn them to sequential CD's). Job done. The RAW files remain unaltered and Lightroom retains the 'virtual' corrections I have made when I need to go back to them.
It depends on the event.
If you're out shooting (say) a horsey showjumping event and flogging 10 x 12's to punters for £30 - 40 then jpeg medium is fine, say shoot jpeg high in case someone wants a real big print done.
If you're doing a wedding and someones paying you £2k to do it then shoot raw and spend a day in post production to get the very best quality that you and your gear are capable of.
I shoot all weddings in Raw, but nearly all event photos were they want the print straight away in jpg fine or medium from the D200, upload straight onto the Mitsubishi IT500 crop and adjust if needed then print.
All the lighting etc will have been checked with my my trusty light meter and a test print done before the customers arrive.
Hope that helps
Andrew
cards and hard drives are cheap now, and CP1 or lightroom make RAW as easy as JPG, so surely it's a no brainer?
it's a bit like going out on a piss up with just cash in your wallet - if you wanted to go clubbing but didn't have enough cash, you're stuffed. If you take your bank card, you can get more cash out and do what you want.
shooting JPG limits you
shooting RAW frees you
I shoot both, cards are cheap so carry a couple more. 98% of the time all that is needed for events is the JPEG however if there is a need for an enlargement or a mistake happens i.e dial slips on camera then I have a safety net by having the RAW file. For a wedding I prefer to work on the RAW and have the safety of the JPEG if I get file corruption (not happened yet, but there is always a first time) Easy to put the images in to 2 seperate folders and pick which file type is needed.
Mike
When I started it was with a DCS520 that only shot raw, but now I shoot JPEG as I shoot far too many images to justify raw, even though I would if I could. I try to get the best image I can, cropped and exposed at the start, it gives my printer a bit less to do.I suppose computing storage and power will catch up on that so long as we dont move onto 25mb plus cameras! The DCS520 files were 2mb BTW. 6MB when open, on a 650mhz 170 mb ram 10gig HD lap top. Yes that long ago!
I only shoot NEF (RAW) in every situation using a D200. Converted to TIFF in Capture NX without any intermediate processing (or via PP) produces images of 50MB+ files. That leaves a lot of room for cropping and so on in PS and still be left with reasonably sized TIFF files for reproduction.
I only use 1 or 2 GB CF cards (in case one goes wrong, I don't lose too many images) and take a number of cards with me all the time.
Ok here's my example from last night and why i use JPG for events.
arrived, setup and tested for 6:00 first guest throught at 6.50 last guest through by 9.15 pm kit packed away and back home by 10.30pm
60 images taken 75 prints printed and put into mounts.
all shot in JPG and printed 6" x 9", there just isn't time to process in raw and then print. If you got a day or 2 to sort and put onto a web site and wait for orders yes use NEF (RAW).
If you take your time and set up your lighting etc and test print before hand you should not need to adjust the images much.
D200 tethered to the IT5000 I shoot the images the Wife shows the images to the customer then crops and adjusts if required. all on the touch screen and prints out, customer walks away happy with print
while I shoot the next one.
Andrew
Yes so does the D200 but if i recall the jpg is basic not has high a quality as fine, then I have to wait for both to load across to the IT5000 then the wife as twice as many files to sort through, in the above example jpg works just fine, the pictures sell, so keep it simple and everybody his happy.
Andrew
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