How do you shoot at Disney

[DVC Jen]

DH and I were just discussing if I had enough cds to store my photos on when we go to Disney in June.

Then I started thinking about how time consuming it would be to shoot in raw mode and have to process each and every photo. I am seriously thinking of saving some of my precious vacation time and changing over to shoot in jpeg while we are there.

What do you do? Do you shoot in raw and process each night? Do you have enough cards that you can shoot in raw and not worry about processing until you are home? Or - do you shoot in jpeg and save some time?

 

[YEKCIM]

Do you shoot in raw and process each night?

Surely you jest . After a day in the parks, it is just about all I can do to drag my sorry carcass back to the room, much less process photos till the wee hours.

On our last trip, July 07, I shot everything in JPEG-Fine, with my Finepix, even though the camera will shoot RAW. I typically filled one 512MB card and some days had a few on a second card, as well. Usually the next morning, while my family was getting ready for another assault on the parks, I would dump my previous day's shots to our laptop, and reformat the card(s). I was very pleased with the JPEG's I got, and will shoot JPEG on our next visit (July again) even though with the D50, it would be much easier to shoot RAW than with the Fuji. I dislike the time it takes to do a lot of PP, and I'm happy with the quality of the JPEG's I get, plus the RAW files are so much bigger. I typically just do a little tweaking in Picasa (crop, straighten, if needed, auto-contrast...) and find the results to be fine for my purposes.

My WDW 06 pics are here, if you want to check them out and judge for yourself. They were all JPEG shots: http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/fasteddiew/DisneyWorld 2006/

Have fun!

~YEKCIM

 

[handicap18]

Our last trip in June '06 I shot just under 1400 pics in 4 days with my Nikon D50. I shot them all in JPEG-Fine. I haven't converted over to raw yet. I'm not really into PP at this time. I do very little now with my JPEG files. I'll crop the pics that need it and then do some light enhancing (brightness, contrast, some sharpening, but not much more).

The D50 takes great JPEG's right out of the camera and more often than not I'm more than happy with the original shot. If I'm unsure of the settings and I have time I'll bracket up and/or down a stop or 2 then take the best one.

 

[Master Mason]

I shoot Jpeg+Raw all the time.

Most of the time I do not even process the RAW files, I just burn them to DVD. But I love the idea that I have them if I want to tweek a photo.

I shoot all day, then download to the laptop, burn a disk with the jpegs and raw shots of the day as back up... and off to the races for another day.

I would never spend time processing at WDW, you can do that when you get home if you want.

 

[gruZ]

I've shot literally thousands of pictures at Disney. Almost all were done in JPG - the only exceptions are tripod night pictures where I might want more flexibility with exposure in PP. I haven't had a time where I wished I would have shot in RAW when I didn't.

I simply don't have the time upon return from a trip to PP the raw files - the slight tweaks to JPG take me long enough.

My routine at the end of each day is to dump the pictures from my CF card to a laptop, then burn the files to a CD. This way I have two backups (hard drive and CD) for each days files. I sort, delete, edit etc. after I come home.

 

[DVC Jen]

Thanks everyone. That is what I thought. It just seemed a bit much even for photography buffs.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I only shoot jpg, copy to laptop, dated folder, each night, and copy to a CD for the day. If I am there 10 days, 10 folders, 10 CD's. I format the memory card each day also.

 

[AndrewWG]

Ok, this is a bit off topic but could just one person (yes, just one) tell me what a RAW photo is? I understand that it is a file format of some sort that pertains mainly to DSLR's, but what processing needs to be done to them, and how are they superior in some ways to JPEG? At some point I will be in the DSLR world and will need this answered so I figured I would ask.

In order to not hijack the thread, I ask that only one person give me an answer to this please. If it takes too much to answer it in this thread, I will start a new one. Actually, I will start one anyways.

My RAW photo thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=17991259#post17991259 http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=17991259#post17991259

Andy

 

[MarkBarbieri]

During my last trip, I shot in RAW the entire time. When I got home at night, I dumped the cards onto my laptop, burned the RAW files on 1 or 2 DVDs as a backup.

I did a quick RAW to JPG conversion of the photos each night. The entire process was done automatically using default settings. It allowed me to review the files and didn't take any of my time. I could have shot RAW+jpg just as easily, but I still hadn't gotten used to how cheap memory cards are.

I would not trust keeping my pictures on memory cards, regardless of how many I brought. Stuff happens. I liked the idea of having two copies - one on the laptop and one on the DVD. Now that memory has gotten so darn cheap, I usually stick in two 4 gig cards and have the camera mirror the images onto both cards.

 

[0bli0]

i shoot raw for everything but team sports. at Disney parks, i shoot raw and then in the evening at my hotel, i offload all of the images into Apple Aperture. Aperture (and Adobe Lightroom) allows for rapid processing of raw image files, including keywording, bad image culling, ranking, basic post processing, and even web gallery generation. i found it took less than an hour to process all of my photos to a point ready for printing and public display. you can see all of my images that were processed in this fashion in my Disney gallery.

Aperture has a built in archival process, so all of my photos are backed up and stored in my library. both programs apply real-time image manipulation 'on top of' the raw files in a non-destructive fashion. this means you still have access to the raw files if desired. more importantly, you have easy round-trip file access to external programs, such as Photoshop, for more comprehensive image manipulation if desired.

 

[ukcatfan]

I am with Mark and ObliO on this one. Shoot RAW and do the default processing. That way, you can go back and fix the ones that need it later. Most will be fine for you, but you can end up saving ones that otherwise would have been trash in JPG. I also know that Groucho did this same thing for his last trip.

Kevin

 

[Groucho]

The other thing I'd add is that CDs are just too small to work well as RAW file backup. With 2g memory cards being common, you're looking at three CDs per memory card - a big pain!

I assume you're using a laptop that only has a CD burner? If so, you have two option. The first is to see if your laptop's manufacturer has an internal DVD burner that can replace the CD burner. If so, this will probably be fairly expensive.

The other option is to get an external DVD burner. You probably probably pick one up fairly cheap, or just buy something like a ByteCC BT-200 cable and an internal DVD burner - total cost, probably under $50. Internal DVD burners are fairly "closed" and are perfectly safe to run as is without an enclosure, as long as you don't beat up on it too badly.

DVDs are also a quite a bit cheaper per meg nowadays, too, so it's really a much more sensible way to go, and easier to pack - two DVDs will hold as much as 14 CDs.

 

[fitzperry]

On our last trip (Nov. 06) I shot everything in RAW. However, I don't shoot as many pictures as some of the regulars around here and I still haven't converted all (or even many) of them. I had 3 gig of memory, and IIRC I came home with around 700 images.

Before that (Oct. 05 and Sept. 02) I shot jpeg. My primary reason for the switch was that I like to use RAW for stuff that I can't easily go back and reshoot. RAW increases my ability to repair the shots I screw up.

 

[foto202]

I shoot in JPEG for the most part. I do bring 2-2 gig and 2- 1 gig cards. I put them on the laptop everynight and that covers it. I probably shoot RAW+JPEG this trip though since I am doing more PP now.

 

[Gdad]

I always shoot in RAW but may be the odd one here because I never feel the need to convert all the files to jpg before or after I get home.

I usually just download the days raw files into a folder on my laptop and then transfer to my desktop when I get home. I have an external hard drive I use as backup for my desktop that I suppose I could drag along to backup my laptop but have not yet been so inclined.

Once home I just process the shots I really like (maybe 10%?) delete the complete trash and archive the rest as raw files.

 

[foto202]

I dump everything to my external hard drive when I get home. I only process a very small amount of what I take. Usually less than 10%.

 

[photo_chick]

Well, once I learned how to process RAW files about a week after I got my DSLR, I stopped shooting jpg files. Since I got Lightroom last month I print straight from there at home now. The only time I convert to jpg now is when I want to upload it, email it, or if I were to send out a batch to the lab when I have a bunch to print. Viewing RAW is sooooo easy with Lightroom, processing and converting to anoher format is very easy too.

If it were me, I would burn the RAW files to cd or dvd each night (something you can start and then let do it's thing, just be sure to verify the data when done) and worry about processing later unless it was one you just had to upload and share right then. But then I am still not as proficent with my DSLR as I am with my 35mm so I also like the security RAW gives me if I screw up, which I do often!

 

[DVC Jen]

I just had my husband check the laptop and it does have a DVD writer. So we are going to check it out and make sure it is working the way it is supposed to. If it is - then I am ready to go shooting in raw format which is really what I want to do.

Then when I get home I can process the ones I want - either that or I can do it on the trip home since we are driving - a 21 hour trip.

The thought of processing all that each night while there does not appeal to me at all - but not having the flexibility of a raw file appeals to me even less.

Burning to DVD is the perfect answer.

 

[DueyDooDah]

I too shoot in RAW+JPG while at WDW. Digic II processing is so good, I am usually pleased with the results for Disney photos. But, having the RAW files allows me to process those special images, such as fireworks, etc. when I want.

 

[pyrxtc]

I rarely touch RAW on my camera. Only when the situation calls for high speed or the lighting is very low. I shoot in Jpeg every other time. never foudna great reason to shoot in RAW as long as I ahve my camera settings right. When on vacation (and most of the other times) I use the different auto modes in my camera to get the shots that I want. I don't always use the one that is made for that condition to get the effect I want in the picture but it comes out to what I want it to look like most of the time. I ahte the RAW conversion process and find it much easier to play with my Jpegs.

I was just at PhotoshopWorld this past week, and the amount of photographers and retailers/designers I talked with was amazing. very few on them shoot in RAW. A lot of the people I hang out with on my photography boards and in person in my home town that are photographers rarely if ever shoot in RAW. It can eb a wonderful feature but not useful at most times to me.

Also, I just dump my pics to my DH's laptop every night so I have a copy saved in case I need to dump my memory.