..that title sounds harsh!

here's the deal- i work in a studio where shooting in raw is the norm. many other studios i associate with use raw as needed, for backup. their .jpg files are suitable for print in 99% of all cases.

because .raw files are being used, the photog (and owner) shoots haphazardly.. not setting white balances or performing exposure checks. which on a typical wedding leaves me with 800 images or so to individually, or batch, color correct. even with a dual G5 this takes some effort.

im of the opinion that .raw should be used, but at best held in backup just in case an image needs to be rescued- not as the primary source for each file to be printed.

anyone else experience this?

how could i tell me boss, without introducing any drama into the studio, that things would go better if he would take a little time to setup the shoots oinstead fo flying blind and depending on .raw?

by the way, i am a salary employee.. which means that i spend a lot of time fixing problem images.. if i were hourly i imagine things woud be different, but who knows?

what i do know is that this isnt the work experience i need!

thanks for any input.

I have a canon 20D and I always shoot in RAW + Small JPG. I always ensure that exposure is correct at the time of shooting. You can use the in camera histogram to check that highlights are not blown out and that you have shadow detail. Sometimes I may under expose slightly knowing that I can tweek it in Camera Raw afterwards. The actual photography should be done in the same way it was when we were using film - not try to rescue a shot afterwards.

With regards to your boss, it depends on what kind of relationship you have. I understand that it could be a bit of a touchy subject.

My opinion is that digital is making lazy photographers these days. I have done numerous retouch jobs where the composition is awful, the exposure is way off, etc etc, and these are all in studio situations.

While in college i assisted a commercial photog who shot film, none of these things happened every shot was perfectly set before ready to go to film (from polaroid)

So again, I say that digital is making lazy photographers

I can't speak for all Photographers, but at the higher end there are some who are not to blame.
The capture team that they hire is often to blame, talking some Photographers from using proper lighting and such. The ones that end up in my retouching studio get a quick reminder as to why they need to stick with the knowledge they accumulated over so many years.
They are wrongly convinced by some capture teams that things are better off being done in post production instead of wasting time and money doing at the time of the shoot, when it should be done. Sometimes I think that the capture team is trying to create work for their post production specialists, which is often MUCH more expensive than a properly set up capture.

Chris


My opinion is that digital is making lazy photographers these days. I have done numerous retouch jobs where the composition is awful, the exposure is way off, etc etc, and these are all in studio situations.

While in college i assisted a commercial photog who shot film, none of these things happened every shot was perfectly set before ready to go to film (from polaroid)

So again, I say that digital is making lazy photographers

You may want to start a log of man hours spent per image detailing the corrections and manipulations needed to correct the photo. Then, compare that to the man hours needed to do the shoot correctly in the first place. Hard data is difficult to argue with :wink: It's also impersonal.
Cinthia

Find a photographer who cares about the work, and you'll have a better experience. I used to work with a wedding photography studio, and almost all of the photographers were there for the paycheck only. They put out the worst photography I ever had to touch up, and the clients could tell. I work with a digital still life photographer now. He will take painstaking, nitpicking time with each shot, and it shows. It is a lot less painful to touch up his work, since most of the time it will be for a scratch on the product, or taking out fishing line. Never for exposure, lighting, or white balance issues.