Raw vs. Large/Fine

[trevclem]

In lieu of experimenting, I thought I'd ask for some opinions.......
What situations would I want to shoot in RAW versus Large/Fine mode? I am using a Canon Digital Rebel.

Also, any tips on getting a SUPER fine focus? Is it more the lens or just manually focusing rather than auto focusing? I shoot a lot of macro and night photos. I have two lenses:
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
and a
Tamron AF28-300mm F/3,5-6,3 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) MACRO

Opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Trevor

[another view]

Welcome! There have been discussions here about RAW vs. jpeg so you might want to search this forum and also Digital Imaging. Opinions differ, but I'm shooting more RAW lately for the control after the fact.

First off, one of the big benefits is setting the white balance after the shot is taken. A custom white balance is a good thing to do sometimes, but if you're outside the light is always changing. This way you can get the results you want versus what the camera thinks you want. Having a calibrated monitor is very important here so that you know that what you are seeing is accurate. I use Monaco Optix XR but there are other good ones out there too.

RAW is also good for the extra bit depth. In the case of my camera (Fuji S2) that means 12 bit color vs. 8 bit color which jpegs always are (by definition of a jpeg file). What this means is that in areas with subtle variations of color you'll have less of a chance of seeing a defined line where one color turns into the next. IOW, it's a lot closer to continuous tone, which film is. Extra bit depth also helps a lot if you use the curves and/or level tools in Photoshop (where you'll get this problem quickly with 8 bit images). I always make my final files for printing as jpegs (8-bit) with the least compression possible, and haven't had any problems.

The super-sharp images you see are probably a result of sharpening in Photoshop. Images from a digital camera taken with a very sharp lens with accurate focusing are a little soft. A book like Photoshop (whatever version you have) by Scott Kelby will give you guidelines for how to get really sharp images like the ones you see in magazine ads.