Shooting RAW With Your Digital Camera.

Are you looking to get the best quality from your digital SLR? If the answer is yes you need to forget about the auto modes and set your digital camera to RAW.

Setting your digital camera to raw will open up a whole new world of photography. Correctly processed raw images are sharper and contain more accurate colours. The extra information stored when shooting raw will give your image more detail - leaving you more room to experiment in your digital darkroom.

Raw explained: Raw files are a doorway to top-class image quality, which will also allow you maximum control. A raw image contains all the unprocessed data that reads directly from the camera’s sensor. A raw image file does not contain the finished product and you will have more work to do with the digital file but your final image quality should be first class.

For great results you will need to invest in a RAW converter that will enable you to maximise quality and control. A RAW converter is a piece of software that allows you to make all the changes that your image needs. Once you have made all the changes you can save your image to JPEG or to whichever format you need.

Shooting RAW will open amazing new avenues for an amateur photographer or a professional starting to use digital technology for the first time. Pictures with poor colour can be transformed into reasonable images, but this should not be a licence to get sloppy.

The standards of photography are still the same. Your RAW image needs to be exposed correctly; the RAW converter is not capable of making a blurred image sharp; and it can’t change the depth-of-field.

The only frustration when shooting RAW is the extra time spent on the computer, but once you get used to all the new tools with your software, you will soon realise that the changes were worth it.

The true benefits of shooting RAW are quality, control, image flexibility and easy image correction. But be careful - you should always aim for the best results using your camera first.

About the Author

TJ Tierney is an award winning Irish Landscape photographer. For more tips you can visit his photography directory. To view his images visit his on-line gallery of flower pictures or see his travel site.

[techtags: San Antonio Photography, San Antonio Photographers, Senior Portraits, Family Portraits]

One thing that both newcomers to digital photography and even more experienced photographers find most challenging is getting the correct exposure for their digital photos. One of the great things about digital photography is that we can use PhotoShop and other photo editing software to make corrections after the digital photo has already been taken, but it’s certainly better to get the exposure right to begin with.

Most people take their digital camera out of the box, make sure the exposure setting is on automatic and never change it. However, using all the settings on your camera is not really that complicated. It just takes a little information and some practice. Here are some tips for taking more control over your digital photos.

First, decide what you want to emphasize in your photo. That’s the object or area of the photo where you want the exposure most correct. Are you taking a digital photo of a child against a dark background? Do you want to be sure the child’s face or clothing is correctly exposed, or do you want to emphasize what’s in the background?

Second, choose whether you want the camera to decide on the exposure, or whether you want to make some or all of the decisions about exposure yourself. Most modern digital cameras give you a choice of exposure modes, including so-called programs. For example, there might be a stylized symbol of a mountain for landscape photographs or a profile of a runner for action photos.

If you select one of these modes, the camera can then use one of its internal programs to make decisions about shutter speed and camera lens aperture. The camera will select the settings the manufacturer has decided is best, on average, for these kinds of photos. The problem is, you may not be in an average situation for your landscape or action photo. If so, it’s time to get into a more lands-on mode, and take more control over how your digital photos will look.

In addition to auto exposure, nearly all digital cameras come with settings for aperture priority, shutter priority and manual modes. The aperture setting determines how large the opening is in the lens that lets the light through. The shutter speed is how long the lens stays open. The larger the aperture, the more light comes through, so if the aperture increases (more light), the shutter speed must also decrease (open a shorter period of time) to make a correct exposure. If you select the aperture priority mode and set the aperture you want, the camera will select the correct shutter speed. If you select the shutter priority mode and set the shutter speed you want, the camera will select the aperture to compensate.

Manual mode gives you total creative control. How to use manual mode is covered in another article in this series. Just remember the best part of digital photography is, if the photo didn’t come out like you wanted, you can always try again.

[techtags: San Antonio Photography, San Antonio Photographers, Senior Portraits, Family Portraits]

Photography is digital SLR photography, at least to any self-respecting photographer. Suggest otherwise, and he is sure to give you a piece of his mind and proceed to praise the virtues of digital SLR photography.

Digital SLR photography uses a digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera that uses a movable mirror placed between the lens and the film to project the image on to a focusing screen.

Digital SLR photography churns out the most amazingly realistic photographs, in fact much better than the ones turned out by the conventional fixed lens cameras. But its prime appeal to photographers, both amateur and professional, is in the fact that he can work out a large amount of control over how his pictures end up as.

Digital SLR photography is all about customized photographs that are stunning to look at, to say the least. This is because the cameras come with extremely good lenses. This is why the discerning photographers are not miserly about getting a lens, frightfully expensive they may be.

However, digital SLR photography enthusiasts should never think that a swanky Nikon or a Canon is the passport to great photography. The apparatus notwithstanding, good photography depends a lot on the skills of the person brandishing the camera. The basics of digital SLR photography are not hard to pick up.

The first and foremost tip about digital SLR photography is to equip yourself with the nitty-gritty of lighting. If you are shooting outdoors during the day it is best to have the sun directly behind you. It is also essential that your subject also does not have to face the sun so that he has to squint. You should know that the best time to film landscapes, buildings and outdoor portraits is either dawn or the twilight hours.

If you want to impart the warmth of the rising or setting sun to your midday photo shoot, then a skylight or a warm filter is your key.

Tips to great digital SLR photography insist on maintaining control over the camera’s flash property. To be precise, don’t have your camera have the last word about where the flash should come on. Take the reins yourself and ensure that your photograph subjects are not lost in a maze of bright light.

Good photography, digital or analog, SLR or otherwise, is all about being able to use the filters right. You never know when that polarizer or the gradual filter or the skylight/UV filter might come to your rescue at times when the light situations are tricky.

The Macro Mode atop the camera just happens to be the most underrated and under-used feature. But unknown to many, this mode is great for taking enchanting close-ups of tiny objects. Realistic and stunning digital photography is actually the norm with plethora of controls that come with modern day digital SLR cameras. And photography tips harp on tinkering with the controls to get a hang of the controls and the outcomes they produce.

Experimenting for instance, with really slow (30 seconds) extremely fast (1000th-8000th/second) shutter speeds can produce dramatic results. The ISO setting is another area for experimentation. In fact, high ISO values come in quite handy when you cannot use a flash in low light situations.

Get well up on your digital SLR photography tips and tricks and shoot at sight willingly.

[techtags: San Antonio Photography, San Antonio Photographers, Senior Portraits, Family Portraits]