Aperture 3 / raw for dummies like me....

[hana]

I have some questions that probably qualify under dummies....please be merciful:

given: going from canon xt to t2i & I shoot raw (lots of no flash, low light situations)

1. How, in shooting, do I prevent myself from having to correct for exposure & black point sliders in post processing? (I told you I was a dummy... Be merciful.)

2. Anything above iso 800 too grainy?

3. How big of a raw file do I need to keep? 10mb?

 

[OreoCookie]

1. How, in shooting, do I prevent myself from having to correct for exposure & black point sliders in post processing? (I told you I was a dummy... Be merciful.)

If you shoot in RAW, you will have to do more stuff manually. The only thing that prevents you from having to use these sliders (or at least minimizes the need) is to expose properly.

2. Anything above iso 800 too grainy?

That has nothing to do with Aperture. Looking at your cameras and the fact that they are crop sensor cameras, it's not surprising you see an increase in noise from ISO 800 on.

3. How big of a raw file do I need to keep? 10mb?

There is no way to compress RAW files (some cameras do compress their RAW files, but once they are written on a memory card, the RAW file is what it is). The size is whatever they are when they come out of the camera. My D80 produces RAWs that are 8~10 MB in size per photo.

Quite honestly, I get the impression you don't really know what RAW files are and how things work. I would suggest you experiment a little with your cameras (shoot photos in RAW/jpg deliberately, compare the results, do blind tests, etc.). You'll learn a lot what you can and cannot do with RAW files.

 

[HBOC]

correct, you cannot choose how large a RAW file will be. Now, the T2i may have sRAW or whatnot (I think my 40D may, but not sure). My RAW files are like 10-14MB each, depending on exposure, ISO, etc.

 

[jampat]

Don't shoot sRAW unless you have a REALLY good reason too. There are compatibility issues.

As the other posters have said

1. Expose properly (may be hard/impossible in terrible lighting situations).

2. If you want better high ISO performance, buy a camera with a bigger sensor (ie. 5D, 1Ds). Something like the 40D may get you one stop better performance, but not enough to justify switching. You may be better served by buying faster glass to get allow you to get the ISO down.

3. You can't change the size of RAW files. If space is a big issue for you, keep the JPEG's and ditch the RAWs when you are done processing the pictures for a job. Personally, I'd invest in more storage as it's cheap these days.

 

[toxic]

before you start getting worked up about "grain" at ISO800+, view the images at the actual size you will present them. staring at 100% views tells you nothing about how it will look at 800 pixels.