6 useless camera settings when you shoot in Raw

Monday 29 September 2025, 16:32 by Nando Harmsen | 7,082 views | 7 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

A camera has a huge number of settings. Are you a Raw photographer? Then there are quite a few that are of no use to you. These are six useless camera settings for a Raw photographer.

A camera is, of course, not intended exclusively for photographers who shoot in Raw format. Many photographers prefer to leave the processing to the camera. They are happy with the Jpeg photo from the camera.

Are you a Jpeg photographer? Or a Raw photographer? Some settings are specifically for the Jpeg photographer. They are pointless for the Raw photographer.
To make the Jpeg photo from the camera look as good as possible, there are specific settings available. If you shoot in Raw, they are of no use to you. You can ignore them or switch them off. The latter may be more important than you think.

I have listed six camera settings that are virtually useless for the Raw photographer. They are not in any particular order.

1. White balance

White balance provides the desired colour balance in the photo. You can set this automatically or manually. For the Raw photographer, it is easy to adjust later, meaning the selected value has no effect on the photo.

Regardless of which white balance you have set, you can always adjust it later.
Even so, having the correct white balance can be useful. Incorrect colours make it difficult to check a photo on the camera's LCD screen. So the correct or almost correct setting is handy.

2. Colour space

The colour space can usually be set to sRGB or AdobeRGB. This colour space is linked to the photo file. For Jpeg, sRGB is the only good choice. But for a Raw file, it makes no difference what you set.

The colour space is not important on a camera. You set it, automatically, when you open the photo in your photo-editing software.
The colour space is assigned by the photo-editing programme you use. This is completely separate from the settings made on the camera.

3. Highlight priority / Active D-Lighting

With highlight priority, the camera deliberately underexposes the photo. The shadows are then lightened to achieve a greater dynamic range.

This uses the available brightness levels in the Raw file. If you shoot in Raw, you do this in your photo-editing programme. The setting then has no effect. This is exclusively for the Jpeg photographer.

Highlight priority is only for the Jpeg photographer. The Raw photographer has no use for it.
If you shoot with Nikon, be careful. Active D-Lighting, as it is called, can result in an underexposed Raw file. That is not what you want. So always switch this function off.

4. HDR

High Dynamic Range (HDR) creates a greater dynamic range by combining several photos with different exposures. If you have this function in the menu, do not use it when shooting in Raw.

Every HDR setting in the camera is intended for a Jpeg photo.
The result of the HDR function is always a Jpeg file. As a Raw photographer, you would rather have the option of doing this yourself. So choose exposure bracketing instead of HDR.

5. Picture style / Picture control

The picture style, also known as picture control or film simulation, gives the photo a particular appearance. It is essentially a preset in the camera. This is exclusively for photographers who shoot in Jpeg.

Picture control is applied to a Jpeg photo. Not to the Raw photo.
Although the picture style does not apply to a Raw file, information about the picture style is included. You can often call this up in the photo-editing programme you use.

Sometimes a picture style can be useful, for example black and white. You can then better judge what the photo will look like in black and white. However, the Raw file will never have that setting.

6. High ISO noise reduction

When you often shoot at high ISO values, noise can occur. The camera can partly remove that noise. But the result is only useful for a Jpeg photo. In Raw, the setting is saved but not applied.

Pay attention to the difference. High ISO noise reduction is not the same as long exposure noise reduction. The latter is useful when you shoot in Raw.
Many cameras offer two noise reduction functions. Long exposure noise reduction can be useful for the Raw photographer. It is high ISO noise reduction that is pointless for the Raw photographer.

Do you know of any more functions that are pointless when you shoot in Raw? Let us know in a comment below this post.

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About the author

Nando Harmsen has been photographing for more than 40 years. He specialises in wedding photography and landscape photography. Nando also gives talks, workshops, masterclasses and photo trips, and regularly reviews new and interesting equipment.

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7 comments

Jan Kleinjan wrote on Tuesday 30 September 2025 at 10:42 | reply
Dank Nando voor je RAW-tips.
Ik kiek uitsluitend in RAW met Nikon Z8 en vind mijn kiekjes aan de donkere kant. Wat dacht je wat? De Active D-lighting stond aan!
Meteen uitgezet. Morgen ga ik op paddenstoeljacht, 's kijken of jouw tip gaat werken. Dank nogmaals.
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.

Rob wrote on Tuesday 30 September 2025 at 14:28 | reply
Wat zijn de beste instellingen bij een Canon R5 waarbij de foto's in RAW opgeslagen worden op de CF Express card en ook gelijktijdig (als backup) in JPG op de tweede SD card?
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.

Donald Willemsen wrote on Tuesday 30 September 2025 at 15:28 | reply
Nando, ik dank je voor het schrijven van dit artikel. Toch heb ik er nog een vraag over dat aansluit bij de vraag van Rob.
Bij het fotograferen in jpg is het van belang de juiste beeldstijl te gebruiken. Ik vraag me dan af of je in dat geval niet voortdurend bezig bent met het aanpassen van een beeldstijl. De ene keer fotografeer je een landschap met de beeldstijl 'landschap' en op een volgend moment fotografeer je een portret. Verander je de beeldstijl niet, dan krijg je mogelijk niet de correcte huidtinten. Zo kan ik nog wel voorbeelden noemen, maar je snapt wat ik bedoel. Eerlijk gezegd lijkt me dat een beetje ondoenlijk en ik denk ook dat de meeste jpg fotografen niet voortdurend bezig zijn met het aanpassen van beeldstijlen. Hoe zou jij er mee omgaan?
In RAW fotograferen zul je zeggen. Inderdaad dat doe ik dus al jaren??
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Eddy wrote on Tuesday 30 September 2025 at 16:02 | reply
Wat met de Vignetteringscorrectie ? Vermoedelijk alleen nuttig voor jpeg ?
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.

Donald Willemsen wrote on Tuesday 30 September 2025 at 18:26 | reply
Eddy, vignetteringscorrectie is een lenscorrectie en lenscorrectie geldt voor zowel jpg als raw
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.

Peter Heins wrote on Wednesday 1 October 2025 at 15:39 | reply
Waarom maak je een back-up in jpeg als je standaard in RAW fotografeerd? Het nut daarvan ontgaat mij. Stel al zou er al wat met je RAW kaartje fout gaan , dan heb je dus jpeg als back-up , maar die zijn al bewerkt. Dus zoveel speling zit er niet in de jpegs dat je die nog kan bewerken. Een jpeg heeft geen 5-stops speling in de belichting , die je nog zou kunnen redden. Dan zou ik op beide kaarten RAW zetten. Ikzelf maak nooit back-ups , ik heb 2 sd-kaarten in de camera en nog 10 in een doosje bij me , ik wissel veel. Op ijsland had ik voor elke dag een andere sd-kaart en maakte in het hotel gelijk een back-up op mijn La Cie externe schijf met sd-sleuf. Daarna ging het kaartje in de doos en gebruikte ik zo elke dag een ander kaartje.
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.

Mac wrote on Thursday 2 October 2025 at 08:13 | reply
@Donald,

lens correctie geldt ook alleen voor jpg, en niet voor raw.
Want vignetting en vervorming zijn wel eigenschappen van een lens, maar de correctie gebeurt wel op het beeld, dus wordt er een jpg van gemaakt. Een raw zal nooit een lenscorrectie hebben, het enige wat hij wel bevat is de lens informatie, zodat er in een raw converter automatisch de correctie gedaan kan worden.
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