Converting RAW to jpeg for archive

[mjsanders5uk]

Here's the thing. I'm a cameraman by trade and take a load of photos as relaxation (although most seem to be of the kids at the moment).

I usually shoot in JPEG on a Nikon D50 but sometimes switch to RAW if I think I'm going make some changes in post or make HQ prints. When I take a set of saw pics in RAW, I usually find there's only 1 or 2 I want to to keep in RAW.

What I really want in some utility that replaces the other RAW pics in the set with JPEGS.

At the moment I use iPhoto8.

Many thanks

Michael

 

[spice weasel]

RAW is your archive copy, since you can go back and change it however you like whenever you like without degrading the original. It's like the negative.

However, if you are sure you're never going to go back and tweak that shot, and you want to save space, the easiest way is to just export as a full-sized JPEG and then re-import it into iPhoto and delete the RAW.

 

[compuwar]

Here's the thing. I'm a cameraman by trade and take a load of photos as relaxation (although most seem to be of the kids at the moment).

I usually shoot in JPEG on a Nikon D50 but sometimes switch to RAW if I think I'm going make some changes in post or make HQ prints. When I take a set of saw pics in RAW, I usually find there's only 1 or 2 I want to to keep in RAW.

What I really want in some utility that replaces the other RAW pics in the set with JPEGS.

At the moment I use iPhoto8.

Many thanks

Michael

Batch convert everything to JPEG, delete the raw files you don't want and optionally, the couple of JPEGs you dont' want. Though storage is cheap enough these days that on a D50, I'd probably just keep all the NEFs, they're not that big.

Paul

 

[emorydunn]

As has been said, I would archive the RAW files. But then again I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to my photos and I keep everything under the sun. But as for an edited archive I would use a 16-bit TIFF file.

 

[mjsanders5uk]

Thanks everyone,

Basically the ones I want to convert come under the category of "snaps" that I know I won't need to edit but don't want to delete.

The big problem is one of metadata, I want to keep the photos in order.

I'll try it with one picture and see what happens.

 

[spice weasel]

Is it an issue of space? Because, as Compuwar said, the D50's NEF files aren't that big. It's only a 6.1 megapixel camera. And if you only have a few of these images that you want to "archive," then that's even less space to worry about.

If you want to keep these photos but don't want them in your iPhoto browser, just use the hide feature and hide those photos.

 

[Ruahrc]

I'm not familiar with iPhoto8 but with LR if you export the RAWs to JPEGs you can set the option to preserve the EXIF data, thus it should all carry over.

I'm going with the crowd here though in saying that there is little point in doing this unless you're really, really starved for storage space. Storage has become very economical these days, and it will only get cheaper with time. This archiving mentality probably originated back in the early days when storage was expensive, and it was not easy to get enough storage to simply keep everything. Now that storage is plentiful and relatively cheap, the arguments for doing "archive copies" have been largely invalidated.

Ruahrc

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

If you have Photoshop, you can go to File: Scripts: Image Processor and export entire folders and subfolders of RAW files into JPGS. Or you can do it through Bridge, under Tools: Photoshop: Image Processor. Same tool. It will save them with the same filename, except in .jpg rather than .nef. Also the metadata will carry over.

Now, would you want to? I'd lean towards no... might as well keep them in their RAW format. JPG is more of a presentation format, but not the best archiving method.