Ah see that's possibly where my first mistake is. I just plug the card in and then look through the pictures using the windows photo viewer or whatever it's called! I have elements 11 to actually do editing
Well, if you are viewing an image in some photo viewing software and delete it, you are actually deleting what you're looking at. It does not automatically delete any other files to the left or to the right, even if they have same filename but with a different file format. It only deletes what you see. For example...
- Pictureofcat.JPG
- Pictureofcat.TIFF
- Pictureofcat.RAW
Assuming they're all the same image and use the same filename, but saved into different formats. If you delete say Pictureofcat.JPG, it won't delete the others (ie Pictureofcat.TIFF) just because they're same images with different formats. Thus Pictureofcat.RAW is not going to get deleted either. They're separate files, they're not linked together.
Most RAW files will have a smaller low-res JPEG file built-in or as a sidecar, but the JPEG is mainly used as thumbnail in the camera's LED screen or for Windows to show it as a thumbnail.
So if you shoot in "RAW
+ JPEG", you imply you set your camera to save the images as both a RAW
and a JPEG. It does not imply a single "RAW
with JPEG" image. It is actually two images, one is in RAW, the other is in JPEG. Your RAW files will still have its own small low-res JPEG images which will only be for display as thumbnails, but there will be a separate JPEG file on its own. It's more like...
- Pictureofcat.JPG
- Pictureofcat.RAW (with its own small built-in or sidecar low-res JPEG image used mostly as a thumbnail)
So when you view and delete a JPEG, you are deleting the JPEG
itself. It have nothing to do with the RAW file. Depending on camera system, software system, and all that, if you select a RAW file, and can see a thumbnail, you are actually viewing the small JPEG image inside the RAW file, so if you delete the RAW file, it will also delete its own small JPEG thumbnail, but it won't delete the other separate JPEG file.
To delete the same image in the RAW format and the JPEG format, you would have to select both files in the files folder. That means you click on JPEG file, then hold down
Ctrl and click on the RAW file, once both are selected, then you delete them.