Scott S Stuckey. National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Travel Photography. 2010

Manage and Share Your Photos

Previous pages: o far, this book has focused on shooting tech-
Thanks to the digital niques and strategies. Now we look at how to
revolution, there are manage all the great images that result from
more ways than ever your new expertise.
to share your images,
including via websites JPEG VERSUS RAW
and smart phones.
Nowadays, almost all professional photographers shoot
in the raw format. Traveler and National Geographic
magazines require it of assignment photographers.
Raw files preserve all the data gathered by the camera's
light sensor. Any adjustments made to the image data-
whether in color, contrast, or exposure-are segregated
as instructions in the file; they don't alter the original
picture. In contrast, a JPEG file applies the adjustments
permanently and also compresses the file, resulting in
a loss of picture quality. ''A JPEG has all your settings
baked in;' says Traveler's Senior Photo Editor Dan
Westergren. "With a raw file, you can always alter the
recipe later and bake the picture a different way:'

Raw files have to be converted in the computer for
viewing, however, which is an extra chore. Westergren
recommends you set the camera to shoot raw files and
JPEGs simultaneously. "The JPEGs will be fine 80 per-
cent of the time;' he says. "For that other 20 percent
of images, where the shooting settings may be wrong,
having the raw files will allow you to go back later and
tweak the pictures:'

TRANSFER, RENAME, AND CAPTION

Traveler photographers are photojournalists. To them,

gathering information about the subject and location is

important. That includes getting names and

contact information for anybody whose face

TIP is clearly shown in the picture. Collecting

You may need to use the raw con- supporting information is a good practice

version software that came with for anyone hoping to get images published.

your camera to handle certain dif- It used to be that caption information was

ficult exposures. submitted on paper. These days, it can be

embedded as metadata in the picture files

150 Ultimate Field Guide to Travel Photography