In-Camera RAW Processing With LUTs
This year (2025) I was asked by the team at LUMIX Australia to create a video talking about a time where I used the ‘RAW Processing’ feature found inside my LUMIX camera. Check out the final video below to see the results or read on in this post to find out more about this super useful setting…
When Shooting For Fun
Although I am a full-time professional photographer, photography is also like my biggest hobby. Literally every single day in life I have a camera slung around my shoulder ready to capture whatever I’m up to that day. When I’m not out on a “professional” shoot, and I’m just out shooting for fun (taking photographs of my friends or family or whatever) you can pretty much guarantee that I’ll be shooting JPEGs with LUTs that I’ve loaded into my LUMIX camera.
I’ve been super happy with the results I’ve been getting with this way of shooting, but there has been the very odd occasion where I’ve wanted to tweak a photograph after I’ve taken it. Luckily LUMIX have provided a sneaky little way of doing this, in-camera. I haven’t heard that many people talking about it and it’s pretty new to me, but recently I’ve found it super useful.
Camera Set-Up
The first step in this process is to make sure you have your camera set to shoot JPEGs AND RAW files. At the very top of the menu, go down to Picture Quality and select RAW & FINE.
Think of the RAW file like creating a backup of each JPEG you take. If you aren’t 100% happy with the look of your captured JPEG, the LUMIX RAW Processing feature allows you to make your tweaks to this RAW ‘backup’ and save whole new JPEG. Tweaking the RAW file is infinitely a better option than making tweaks to the compressed JPEG file.
A Time I Used RAW Processing
A few months ago I travelled to Malin Head in County Donegal for a few days with my family. The only camera equipment I had with me on this trip was my LUMIX S9 with ‘Ontario’, ‘Neagh’ & ‘Kitaura’, my three ‘Lake’ LUTs loaded and ready to shoot with. Check out the video from this shoot below…
At the end of each day on this trip I picked up my LUMIX S9 to review the photographs from the day. Mostly I was happy with the results, but there were a few photographs that needed a little tweak. Luckily on this trip I had chosen to shoot JPEGs & RAW, and thanks to the LUMIX RAW Processing feature I was able to open up those RAW files, make the tweaks in-camera, save it as a new JPEG, and be 100% happy with every photograph from the trip!
Conclusion
If you’re nervous to make the jump to shooting JPEGs with your camera… now you don’t have to be. LUMIX has provided this simple and effective back-up/safety feature that allows you to get the exact look you were going for, even if you don’t nail it the first time.
With this method, gone are the days of transferring your photographs from your camera to your device, into your editing software to edit, back to your device, then across for posting to your sharing platform. For some people that way is just one too many steps.
If you’re looking to get awesome looking images, quick… then shooting RAW & JPEGs and utilising LUMIX RAW Processing feature I think is the best way to go!
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