help w? fog rising shot

[Mack V]

I am not sure if this is the correct spot to ask this. I have a Canon Rebel XT camera /w the stock lens. I am looking at taking a quality picture of fog rising off a river, lake or pond. Should I try shooting in RAW format. I haven't shot in RAW before. What setting should I use? Any help, tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Also any links to these types of photos would be great>
i plan to make it into a large picture so sharpness would be a great benefit>

[famjad21]

I don't know if this will help but:

RAW gives you the ability to do better post processing. It can improve a shot but not create miracles.

Try using a tripod.

Vary shutter speed and aperture.

Take a lot of shots.

[gtrgeorge]

At the risk of posting an unpopular opinion (unpopular mostly with people who want you to buy a fabulous new camera and bigger memory cards and hard drives), I will venture the following:

I have not found anything in the way of post processing using RAW files that could not be done using JPGs. The vast majority of processing (color balance, white balance, dodging/burning, sharpening, etc.) can be done just as well on a JPG as on a RAW file.

I have also found no benefit from using RAW files that would justify the extra time and enormously larger file size.

About 4 months after I got my first digital SLR (Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D) I took a couple of days to try RAW and see what all the noise was about. Here are some observations:

The camera took much longer to write the files to the memory card.

The memory card's capacity was vastly reduced due to the huge file sizes.

Downloading to the computer took much longer.

Before doing a long internet search for the correct RAW import plugin for Photoshop and/or Elements, I could not even view these photos. (On the other side of that coin, I would be very surprised if Canon did not include the correct software with your camera to view and process RAW files.)

Finally, in the course of attempting to process these photos, I did not arrive at results that were significantly different from what I would have gotten by letting the camera simply process the RAW data into JPGs itself. RAW processing is for people who think they can do a better job of this than the camera's built-in hardware and software, and who have all the time in the world to do so. I'm sure that there are some out there, but I'm not one of them.

In my humble personal opinion, the last 3 suggestions made by famjad21 (tripod, vary shutter speed & aperture, take a lot of shots) will be far, Far, FAR more beneficial to you in getting a great shot than shooting in RAW. I would also add the following to famjad21's excellent suggestions:

Use the finest guality JPG setting you have.

Experiment with the white balance setting.

Good Luck! I look forward to seeing your shots!!!

George

[gtrgeorge]

Apologies for cluttering up this forum, but I just noticed that you requested links to photos. Here are a couple of mine:

http://www.musicbygeorge.com/LSV_07/.../pict5492.html

http://www.musicbygeorge.com/LSV_07/.../pict5430.html

http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/d...25PICT5600.JPG

George

[Mack V]

George, those are awesome pictures. Thanks for the advice and time. Now if I can get up early enough I will get some shots tomm. morning if nature lets me.