RAW vs. DNG

[mntmom]

I was just curious to see how you save your files? I just started shooting in RAW and love it although I still have a lot to learn.

Do you convert everything to DNG? Do you convert to DNG but also save the RAW files? Do you keep the DNGs or RAW files and then convert to JPEG for Photoshop? But if you do this last option, do you have a separate folder for finished JPEGs as well as the RAW or DNG files? Or are the RAW/DNGs deleted after the final JPEG is made? I am so confused as to how I will organize all these files. I currently save everything by date which was fine when I was just saving JPEGs.

Thanks in advance.

[dugarner]

Originally Posted by mntmom

I was just curious to see how you save your files? I just started shooting in RAW and love it although I still have a lot to learn.

Do you convert everything to DNG? Do you convert to DNG but also save the RAW files? Do you keep the DNGs or RAW files and then convert to JPEG for Photoshop? But if you do this last option, do you have a separate folder for finished JPEGs as well as the RAW or DNG files? Or are the RAW/DNGs deleted after the final JPEG is made? I am so confused as to how I will organize all these files. I currently save everything by date which was fine when I was just saving JPEGs.

Thanks in advance.

From what I understand, DNG is the same as a RAW file, but not proprietary. However, if you use Photoshop, it can process just about every RAW file out there.

I fix the RAW files if need be, then process them (or just process them if they're okay SOOC) to JPEG. My RAW files stay on my computer until I back them up, then I move them off. But I always keep the original RAW file. I never know when I'm going to need it, or why I'll need it. Sometimes I might realize I mess up in processing and need to start over.

I save everything by date/event, RAW and JPEG together in the same folder. My Sony software has a Lightroom-esque application that came with my camera that makes previewing RAW files and presets very easy.

I would say, no matter what organizational system you use, don't delete your RAW files. You never know!

[LauraBean]

The right software can make all this much easier. I am on a Mac and love Aperture (Mac only), but Lightroom is good for this as well. When I went to shooting all in RAW, I was confused, too until I moved to Aperture. Just a thought!

[hguenthe]

My Pentax saves directly as DNG so don't have to make a decision about RAW vs DNG.

However, something I read recently told of one advantage of DNG over RAW which might be of interest - it can save metadata directly to the file where it said that RAW files can't the same and you end up with additional file that needs to stay with it. I have photoshop write a history of everything I do to a file directly to the metadata so I find that helpful if I want to look back at how I processed a file.

[Jacqueline]

I always save the original RAW files. I convert the RAW files to TIFF, they are quite large, but since I tend to edit the converted files in PS a lot, I would not go for JPG.
The edited files are saved as PSD files (so I can make any change I want later on) and the files that I upload to my blog or websites are converted to JPG.
Yeah, not such a great system... But it does work the best for me.

[mommydawn]

I import off my flash cards in lightroom and lightroom automatically converts the proprietary raw files from canon to dngs and saves them to my hard drive.