Camera Corner: RAW vs JPEG - Is It Best to Shoot in RAW or JPG?

Shoot RAW!!!!

I was walking down the street here in Paris, thinking about writing a Camera Corner post on shooting RAW vs JPEG (JPG)  when I saw this painted on a industrial wall. Strange. It's almost as if the artist knew that this would be the perfect picture for me and illustrate my point: Shoot RAW!

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, here is a quick lesson (if you want the technical stuff, just Google it, this is just my own interpretation): RAW is an image file format (the type of file your camera makes when you capture an image) that keeps the most amount of data, while JPEG is a compressed file format that throws away bits and pieces of the image in order to make the file smaller. Think of RAW files being similar to music CDs while JPEGs are similar to MP3s. The information that is thrown out when making a JPEG or converting a file from a CD into an MP3 is minimal, and the compressed file saves space on your hard drive.

However, in photography we don't just look at our images, we edit them, crop them, adjust colors, try to remove noise, etc., and to do this, it is best to have the original file with all the information. Think of it this way: does a music producer sit down and edit and mix MP3's? No way! When editing music or images you want to work with the highest quality master possible.  You can also think of RAW images as multitrack recordings:  there are more "channels" of information in a RAW image which allows you to more finely tune your photograph.

If you are among those people who are saving up to buy a really nice camera, yet you are still shooting in JPEG, please save your money and try shooting in RAW for a while. Would you go out and buy an expensive CD player and then play MP3's on it?

People complain about the file size of RAW images, yet a portable, $80 hard drive can hold tens of thousands of RAW images. People also worry about not understanding how to work with raw images, but it really does not take long and there are plenty of online tutorials on the subject matter if you get stuck—that was how I learned to work with RAW.

JPEG is amazing technology and it produces very nice results, but if you want more out of your images, want to be able to have more freedom when editing and you would like to get the most out of the equipment you already have, then make the switch to RAW—you will never go back!

I will write about converting to DNG, archiving, file naming, organization and many other related subjects in future posts. Stay tuned and dont forget to sign up for the RSS feed or for email delivery ...it's free!

Comments

[John Santiago]

It seems more photographers—pros, amateurs, and everyone in between—are making the switch to RAW, especially now that higher capacity compact flash cards make it more convenient to do so.

[Matt]

One thing to mention about shooting with RAW files is that you will need editing software (such as Photoshop or Lightroom) and, depending on the editing software), possibly a RAW conversion plug-in/application to read the RAW files.

[Bob R]

Professionals always use RAW simply because JPEG will degrade too much and you have more control over exposure with RAW. As Zoriah said, hard drives are dirt cheap these days. You can get a good USB 500GB hard drive for around $150. Storage shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for another great post. I really enjoy these and am looking forward to others. Maybe one day you can cover the lenses you use and post-processing (especially BW conversion, sharpening, and exposure adjustment).

[Alex]

I began shooting RAW last year and haven't looked back since. It just makes sense. It gives me so much more flexibility. It's hard to use the file size argument these days with the cost of storage going down.

[sharon]

I made the switch a year ago and the only regret I have is not doing it sooner.

[Mikasi]

1) never overwrite your RAW files or change them. Any changes you make save under another filename.

2) Can't speak for other cameras, but Canon gives you software with your camera. Installing that gives you access to Digital Photo Professional - a download from Canon that both edits RAW files really well and is FREE.

[Canon 5d]

Some Canon Cameras will actually shoot both at the same time JPEG and RAW you can decide later if raw is better. The Canon 5D MarkII does this.

[dvd rohlinge]

As all the advantages/disadvantages are listed above I'll leave that out.
If you don't like spending much time on the computer playing with photo's or only ever make small adjustments- RAW may not be for you.For some JPEG will suit just fine, but if you'd like a little extra control of your photo's, as well as the extra detail that RAW offers. Use it and find out.

[huile]

I have bought Canon EOS 7D camera. First of all for anyone who is expecting a 1.6 crop camera's image quality to be better than the 5d mark ii you can forget it. The 5D mark ii is a full frame sensor camera and the 7D is a crop, different cameras for different purposes.

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it seems to be good for photographer. They can easily put their cameras in this camera corner even i am using this for my samsung camera.

[Mike C.]

Shoot FILM!

[Chris McKee]

Quite crazy reading this post and the comments; people were discussing this back in 2001, CF Card size hasnt been an issue in years.
The main issue with JPEG isn't that its a compressed format; its that its a LOSSY compressed format, so every time you save your JPEG the image is repassed through the algorithm and most information is lost.
A good way to illustrate this is to simple open an image in paint, save as jpeg. close, reopen add a dot, save as jpeg (rinse and repeat); you'll see the image degrade bit by bit loosing definition and gaining artifacts.
Another issue is whitebalance, and although you can re-adjust the whitebalance via alot of faffing in photoshop on a jpeg, why bother when you can just as simply remove all the whitebalance information, alter, or keep in a RAW file.

And finally to the person saying you need lightroom to edit RAW photos; actually free tools such as PICASA will allow you to do the basics; Windows XP up will happily convert your raw files for you and thats if we ignore that no camera is ever sold without software; SLR's come with great software such as Digital Professional on the Canon range.

You'd have to be an idiot to run around shooting JPEG on anything less than a compact.

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Thanks for the explanation, I'm one of many who are savin to buya good camera and didn't have idea the difference were so easy t understand.. When I'll get my camera I'm gonna try raw first.

In that way I won't get cranky or disappointed when editing my pics... thanks

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