# Sharing Digital Photos



## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Okay, being new to the whole digital photography thing out side of cheap point and shoot and cell phone images, I have some questions.

On RAW:
I know enough to know that RAW is better than JPG. So I'm filling up my SD card with both for every photo. Now what? What do I do with the RAW files? What's the best way to store and handle them? My hard drive is full on my MacBook, so I haven't copied anything over, but I'm planning on upgrading it or getting a new Mac. Once I do, should I put everything in iPhoto? Are there better programs then that for handling RAW? My camera came with SILKYPIX Developer Studio 3.1 SE (for Macintosh), does anyone know anything about it? Should I be saving up for Apple's Aperture, or Adobe Lightroom? Or am I okay with The Gimp and Graphic Converter?

On Displaying:
Once I have the images I like, what's the best online photo album/sharing site? I'm pretty sure I have a Photobucket account, and I have a Google account, iCloud account, MSN account, Dropbox and a couple other online storage sites. I'd have to look into it, but I'm pretty sure I have web space with my ISP if it's better to set up your own site, with like iWeb or something. Also, I'd like to print and make a physical album for my shelf, and a portfolio.


So basically, I'm asking for a sticky tutorial on "From Raw to Web" so that I can best share my photos with family, friends, you all, and others.


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## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

Here's my workflow - take it for what its worth.

All shots taken in RAW
Upload everything to my computer via Adobe Bridge using the dates as the file names. So all shots from Feb 28 go into one folder and those from Mar 1 go into another, etc. (I'm rethinking this file structure)
Bridge can view RAW files so I look through the folder for one I want to work on.
I open the RAW file in Abobe Camera RAW
Make some basic adjustments in ACR then open it in Photoshop
Make whatever modification I want and save.
Now I have a .psd file that's separate from the original RAW file.
But not everyone can open a RAW or .psd file so for those I want to publish I save it as a high quality .jpg - so now I have three file of the same shot: original RAW, .psd, .jpg
I upload the .jpg to photobucket and distribute as I wish or upload here.


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

Not having a Mac, I can't really help on the software bits, but .RAW-files are completely lossless (no loss of detail), the down-side is that not all photo-editing software can read them. .JPGs do lose some detail, depending on how much compression you use to reduce file-size etc.

I can heartily recommend 'PhotoBucket', I've been using them for years without problem - I think you get 6Gb storage with a free account, then up to 28Gb with the paid (advert-free and unlimited bandwidth) version. You can set-up albums etc. that are either private or public, the public photos can also be set to share or not-share.


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## MartyF81 (Jan 23, 2013)

Great questions.

There are some big differences between RAW and JPG. I will try and explain them as best as I can.

*RAW*
RAW is basically the "RAW" data that comes directly of the sensor and is unprocessed, just dumped into a file. I like to refer to it as a "digital negative". The pictures will come out looking dull and "undeveloped". They will also be really large files (mine are 30mb per image). However the great benefit of these pictures is that you have EVERY pixel captured in the file and can thus really make detailed adjustments to exposure, white balance and other things. With a RAW file in post processing I can adjust by multiple stops of exposure without damaging the file. I can also completely adjust white balance throughout the entire range, contrast, sharpness etc….

RAW file format is basically different for each camera, and camera manufacturers release the specs for their RAW files. Then image processors like Adobe, or iPhoto etc… push out updates to make their software accept their files for processing.

*JPG*
JPG is basically what the camera produces by "processing" or "developing" and then compressing the photo inside the camera and just giving you the results. The camera will automatically decide things like exposure adjustments, color style, sharpness, contrast, white balance, etc.. all "instantly" in the camera, and then compress them down to a smaller JPG file that is usually 3-7mb. It usually does a pretty good job, but sometimes it doesn't make the right choice and your image comes out terrible looking. Since it is already a JPG, and already compressed… there is not much you can do to fix it in post processing. You are stuck with the "leftovers" from processing the file, and whatever detail was cut.

JPG file format is a standard and can be read by most image programs by "Default".

*Editing*
As far as what program to use to edit them, I use Lightroom 4, and Photoshop CS6. Most of it I do in Lightroom though because I like the editor (which is basically an easy to use version of Adobe Camera RAW) and also has a lot of other features that I like such as organization and key wording, searching libraries, making virtual copies etc…. I use CS6 for the heavy duty editing.

*Sharing*
For sharing, I prefer 500px.com as they usually have a better population of pictures that are higher quality, were other sites usually have a lot of garbage. Another popular place is FLICKR. I also use my own website, and Facebook.

*Storage*
Prepare yourself to have some hefty storage use. I have 60GB of photos from past 6 years or so. The first 3 years I was shooting JPG, and really for the past 3 have been shooting RAW. Pretty much every time I go shooting now, I end up with at least 1GB of pictures I keep per shoot. Also have a really strong backup regimen.


*Shameless Plug*, here is an article I wrote that combines discusses a little but about RAW and JPG files and using Lightroom: Lightroom - Why you need it. |


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

I have previously posted my workflow - but in answer to your more specific questions:

the way I work with all my images now is, as yustr does with a few differences:

* shoot in RAW + jpeg
* import images to pre-setup folder structure, named by location or subject matter rather than by date
* browse RAW files in Bridge, tagging and selecting images to further process
* open selected images in Camera RAW from Bridge and make adjustments
* open the images in Photoshop CS6 from Camera RAW
* make any further adjustments needed
* save as full res jpeg to a subfolder named "edits" of the original folder the RAW images were imported to - these images can be anything up to 12-15MB in size
* use Irfanview to batch process (resize) and rename (_file name__small) making a second set of images at 1600pixels on the longest side - these are then suitable to email, upload to photo sharing sites - Photobucket and my public photography Facebook page. This way hi res files are not there for people to download and use but files still look OK on the net. These files are stored in another subfolder, named "smalls" of the original folder.

This allows me to keep the original RAW files with their attendant sidecar XMP files, have a hi res jpeg for use where required and have a smaller lower res version for distribution.

As far as I know GIMP has a plugin available for working with RAW files - canon cameras come with RAW file software too.

Lightroom seems to be the choice for many photographers for the reasons marty has outlined - I just find that my current system works fine for me so don't want to outlay further $$$ for something I don't really need.

As marty pointed out - you will need to invest in some external storage solution. I have a 500GB (used for backup of my finished videos and all of my photographs, a 1TB (used for backup of all data on comp) and an older 120GB external drive - used for projects in progress for portability between my desktop and laptop. My computer has 3 HDs - 2 x 1TB (one for OS, programs, one for data) and one 80GB used for some internal backup and for a destination for exported video.
My laptop has a duplicate copy of all my photographs and finished videos too - sounds like overkill but has its uses :smile:


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