I was clearing my memory card recently, and I came across some RAW photos I shot while fire spinning in a drain. I heard great things about shooting in RAW, so I guess my camera was just set on that mode from advice from a friend.

I've never actually edited a RAW photo, so I opened it up in Photoshop and started playing around for a little while. I was rather surprised by the results.
Here's what I came up with. The colors are a bit funny (among other things), but the details are much better in my opinion. I think I'll have to look into this a bit more.

original edited JPG:




RAW:




You're probably all going to laugh at me for not doing this earlier...


do you all shoot in RAW when Light painting?

Also, tips on the photo are appreciated. It's my first time editing RAW, and a lot of things are awkward.



P.S. Spinning steel wool in small pipes is NOT recommended.

Posted by -insertnamehere- Here's what I came up with. The colors are a bit funny (among other things), but the details are much better in my opinion. I think I'll have to look into this a bit more. You're probably all going to laugh at me for not doing this earlier... do you all shoot in RAW when Light painting? Also, tips on the photo are appreciated. It's my first time editing RAW, and a lot of things are awkward. P.S. Spinning steel wool in small pipes is NOT recommended.

I think most of us regret not starting on RAW sooner once we start. Use the color temperature setting - it's one of the biggest advantages of RAW, messing with color temp later. And pinning steel wool in small pipes is highly recommended, but I suggest a hat to keep it out of your hair.

You can curve a RAW pretty hard, but you'll still want some fill light while spinning. LEDs will come out blue, so you should use more fire.

I lit my hair on fire last time I spun steel wool!

Anyway, the RAW photo looks much better. You can pull so much more detail from a RAW file that would have been forever lost had it been taken as a JPEG. I shoot raw 100% of the time, no matter what I'm doing, even if all I do is load up the photos and export them immediately to TIFF after doing only basic levels/color/contrast adjustments, which is what happens 99% of the time anyway.

In my opinion, given the current technology, available memory capacity and the speed of computers and associated editing software, there really isn't any reason not to shoot RAW if you really care about getting the best possible results when you go out shooting.

Definitely RAW! Apart from anything else, it gives you a little more latitude to handle under- and over-exposure, and to generally adjust the relative levels of dark and light areas. That, and the white balance thing.

I shoot snapshots in RAW from my point and shoot Canon. Just sayin'.