Hi Nick and Pilar!

I'm a newbie in photography, just a few months old. I've been asked (with 2 more friends) by my friend to shoot their wedding this June 3rd. I recently found out that we will be the only photographers in their wedding. So ofcourse I did the necessary research on the net and stuff... my question is, and it really got me thinking since I know i probably will miss some WB adjustments or get mis-exposed shots -- should I shoot in RAW all the time? or only in circumstances that I think it's hard to gauge the WB setting (if I notice at all)?

And does post processing using RAW take a lot of time? A little-more-time isn't that bad, but a lot -- whew! since i've got my day job, i probably couldn't spend too much time in front of my pc editing the pics.

So what's your take on shooting and post-processing in RAW :D

Thanks -- Dex

Hi Dex,

Thanks for the post. Its a good question. I wouldn't recommend shooting an entire wedding in RAW. The post processing will kill you. Pilar does not shoot an entire wedding in RAW. She only reserves that for the portrait of the bride and groom. I recommend you do the same unless you want to spend the entire day infront of the computer.

I believe some of the new workflow software such as Apple's Aperture or the soon to be released Adobe Lightroom will make post processing much easier. But until I uprgrade my Mac, and not in the near future, I am stuck to my usual workflow.

A tip I can give you is to make a custom curve to correct a color cast. For example, if you were to photograph is Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes, you will quickly notice that they use very yellow lights. All your pictures will be very yellow. I already have a premade curve that I load whenever I post process Pilar's Santuario weddings. Most of the time the curve works great, sometimes it just needs a minor tweak. A simple move like this can save tons of time.

like yourself jon i'm only a few months old into photography... i've shot a few weddings already and let me tell you, if you have lots of memory / cf cards in your arsenal then better to play it safe... with your day job and all, you might find shooting in RAW to be quite practical, depending on your personal circumstances... i know how pressure feels like for a newbie bec i am one and considering 3 kayong photogs doon and i'm presuming newbie rin yung 2.. sa akin lang mabuti nang matagalan sa post processing kesa sira lahat kuha mo of course i'm thinking worst case scenario

edit: oh.. and if u can have another friend help you out with handling the laptop so u have better cf / memory card circulation, in case limited memory cards mo, then by all means ask for help so u can focus on taking photos...

Thanks Nick and Martin on your inputs. Much appreciated! Then maybe I will reserve shooting in RAW for the good parts of the wedding lang (as per Nick's) and the circumstances that I want to have safe-good pics (as per Martin's) :D I do carry a Digimate II w/ 30GB for refreshing my CF cards :D Having custom made curves ready for each location/situation is a very good idea Nick. thanks again!

Dex

Thanks Nick and Martin on your inputs. Much appreciated! Then maybe I will reserve shooting in RAW for the good parts of the wedding lang (as per Nick's) and the circumstances that I want to have safe-good pics (as per Martin's) :D I do carry a Digimate II w/ 30GB for refreshing my CF cards :D Having custom made curves ready for each location/situation is a very good idea Nick. thanks again!

Dex

hi jon... what's a digimate II? got a site i could view for this? :) there's so much to know... hahaha i need to catch up

Hi Dex,

Good question. When I first started my career as a wedding photographer, the IBM Microdrive was P14,000 for 1 gig :Shock: . I would shoot an entire wedding with 1 gig (it gave me almost 1,000 shots) Everything was shot in jpeg. Back then, I was happy with that. I would have been absolutely nuts to shoot in RAW...even for the portrait. Nowadays, cheaper memory cards, faster computers, DVD burners and easier clean up...(thanks to iview, adobe bridge and other software ..Aperture, Lightroom), I have more leeway to shoot in RAW. When I shoot a wedding now, I use 2 bodies. The 5d- main camera (13megapixels) and the 20D (8 megapixels) With the 5d, I ONLY shoot the portrait in RAW or if the lighting is really tricky..ex, spotlights going on and off:Angry: The JPG of the 5D is beautiful as is. With my 20d, I shoot RAW all the way except for table hopping shots and the party scene. My answer to your question then is this....it really depends if you want to take the extra steps in post process and how much memory cards you have. I bring 10 gigs with me and shoot a min of 5-6 gigs per wedding. Its an extra step in post process but for me its worth my while. ( about 30- 50%RAW of whole coverage)

Does this sound too complicated? Most wedding photographers would cringe at the thought of having to shoot RAW but it really is totally up to you. 1 Tip I could share with you when shooting JPG is try to take test shots before you take a picture ( if possible without making it too obvious). Also before you take the plunge in shooting RAW, practice the work flow first. shoot 1 gig tom in RAW and do the work flow. See how you feel about it.
Good Luck!!
Pilar

Thanks Pilar! I would defenitely take your advice on this. I want ofcourse to take the best possible pictures that I can for my friend's wedding, considering we will be the ONLY photographers around that day. I am using an Olympus E-1. I might -- if allowed -- bring my fiancee's E-500 with me so I can shoot with 2 cameras, but i've to consider first if I can be able to use both without confusing myself :D whew! learned a lot today! thanks again! :)

-- Dex

hello everybody . . . . i shoot RAW all the time! gives me more options to make adjustments long before the shots have been taken . . . post-processing blues? am soooo comfortable with Nikon Capture 4.0 that came with by D70 two years ago!

I also asked this same question. since mostly Im just a back up. I shoot jpeg. Once in ahwile I shoot raw if i think the shot is very important and might be picked to be printed i large size.

Maybe for studio shots and posing shots of the couple its btter to shoot raw. Who knows they might choose it to be printed lifeszie? hehheh :)

Ms Pilar Sir Nick,
is it possible to observe or VA in one of your wedding shoots? would love to see how you do it :)

Hi Pilar -- this is a shot I took in last Friday's wedding in St. James Parish in Ayala, Alabang -- in RAW. I tried your advice in shooting RAW for 'must take moments' and JPEG for normal shots -- found myself uploading about 3 times to my digimate coz I almost took them all in RAW. hahaha! control control! :D anyways -- wanted to show you this shot coz not being the official photographer has it's cons, like this photog butting in your picture! haha! sayang! anyways, didn't want to invade the official photog's space.

http://www.photobucket.com/albums/v660/jondextan/P5260450.jpg

just used picasa to resize it from RAW.
used my E-1 w/ Zuiko OM 50mm f1.4 manual lens that day w/o flash (and demmit la akong lens hood) -- wanted to keep my cam low profile... as much as I could :)

can't wait for this Saturday's wedding!

Hi Jon,

Congratulations on your first wedding!!! Yay!:Grin: You must have been really excited! If you want my opinion on the photo.... since you were a second photographer and sometimes being second means you dont get a chance to pose the couple when the portrait time comes, with this particular image, i would have either 1. used a longer lens and eliminate the photog by taking a different angle or 2. I would have made the photographer part of the "story". I would have included him taking a picture of them. I would have also included the car as a whole instead of "chopping off" the front of the car.

Good luck on your next wedding. :)
Pilar

oo nga no? hmmm... thanks! :D sige update kita again!

Hi Dex,
A tip I can give you is to make a custom curve to correct a color cast. For example, if you were to photograph is Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes, you will quickly notice that they use very yellow lights. All your pictures will be very yellow. I already have a premade curve that I load whenever I post process Pilar's Santuario weddings. Most of the time the curve works great, sometimes it just needs a minor tweak. A simple move like this can save tons of time.

Hi Nick,

Dex's E-1 has a very good and very easy to use White Balance feature. Would it be better to just set WB for the site and place it in 1 of the 4 WB user settings of the E-1? It there an advantage to using a premade curve that you describe?

Bert

I agree Bert -- setting custom WB with a single button press (not like my old D70s' assign image steps) and being able to save it in 4 WB profiles is a plus on the E-1. Didn't even bother using custom WB on the D70s coz the only way I know how to do it is dig in the menu.

I agree with Nick too -- if you often shoot at the usual places, might as well create a custom curve for each location :D smart!

Dex

Newbie here... :)

In line with creating custom curves (sounds like a Nikon?) to correct certain color casts, does this mean shooting a grey card under the said lighting conditions and saving it under custom white balance for a 350D user?

Newbie here... :)

In line with creating custom curves (sounds like a Nikon?) to correct certain color casts, does this mean shooting a grey card under the said lighting conditions and saving it under custom white balance for a 350D user?

The nikon custom curve is like a custom setting of it's Saturation, Sharpness, etc. (i think)... I don't know if it's the same with custom WB for the 350D.

But I think Nick was refering to custom curves in photoshop for post processing. :D

Dex

Oh okay, the 350D has these custom settings as well, I get it. Will look into photoshop for these curves...

Thanks Dex.

Yes, I am referring to using a Photoshop curve. I feel that curves is the single most important Photoshop tool. I can almost get rid of any color cast using curves. Sometimes you wonder whether its necessary to even have lens filters these days. Of course the best solution is to shoot everything in RAW, but as we've seen in some of these posts, it is not feasible for an entire wedding. For those images shot in JPEG, nothing beats a curve to get rid of a color cast. Since I have edited so many Santuario de San Antonio images, I have found it effective and time saving to just load a premade curve to get rid of the yellow cast from the tungsten lights. I overcompensate the blue curve and just tweak layer opacity to taste.

Toyed around with the Photoshop curves a bit earlier, seems to be working okay, just have to develop an eye for it. Thanks for this valubale tip Sir Nick and Dex. :)

arrrgh... trying to process all the info here....

i've never had the itch to shoot wedding photos in RAW, knowing that it'll eat lots of precious memory, and i only had 2x512 SD cards then.

what intrigues me are the curves. i can't really relate to the curves that you guys are talking about (the only curves that i really like now are the ones you can see on well proportioned women - but that's going way off topic already)

is that the one you have to press ctrl+m for?