Shooting raw

I do not often make significant changes to the way I work at a game: I have had the same kit for some time, and know most of the features I need. However, I have always saved my pictures on the camera as jpeg files, and have been generally satisfied with the results. Think of a jpeg file as like a print, but one you can edit. The camera adjusts things like white (or colour) balance, brightness and noise, then compresses the file. The alternative is to save as a raw file, a bit like a film negative. You get all the information from the sensor, which gives much more control over exposure and lighting, and changes are saved to a separate file, so you always keep the original without having to make multiple backups.

Last week, I was feeling curious, and wondered how much extra work was involved processing from raw, and realised the answer is - not much. Photoshop Elements can open files from most cameras, so it is just a couple of extra steps. I then went to take some pictures of general subjects for test files, and quickly decided the extra control for non sports work is well worth it.

For sports the equation is more balanced: as I process about 100 - 120 images from a game, even a minute or so per image can add an hour or two to the job. I decided it was worth a try at Prescot Cables' game at home to Ossett Albion.

My SD card was a bit old and slow, and I was only going to get a new one if the test was successful. When shooting frames in raw in quick succession, a fast card avoids having to stop for the buffer to empty. I was doing just that, and missed the first goal, from Lloyd Dean.

Lloyd Dean

Once I got the images on the computer, adjusting the white balance required some practice to avoid making the players look puce, or, failing that, green. After a short while, I started to get usable images, and as there was even cloud cover throughout the game, once I had got it right, I could stick to the same settings.

James McCulloch

I continued my experiment from the previous week, and spent some time behind the goal, before going to the gasworks side, ending up at the half way line.

George Mannion

In a couple of pictures, the players seemed particularly sharp - you can judge for yourselves whether this survives the conversion on the computer and upload to Google+.

Joe Evans

We went a second goal ahead just before half time through the good offices of Rob Doran.

In the second half I went to the half way line again, which was probably a good position, as the half was quite evenly matched until the balance fell decisively in our favour 10 minutes from the end with a second goal from Rob Doran. There were some good saves from Marcus Burgess, never easy to capture, even standing closer to our goal than I am accustomed.

Marcus Burgess

With only moments to go, Rob Doran completed his hat trick, and I got a decent sequence. It is all very well knowing the technology, but you still have to capture the action.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score Prescot Cables 4 (Dean, Doran 3) Ossett Albion 0