To RAW or not to RAW???

[darkmongoose]

hi,
still new to digital photography and hope this isnt a stupid question.
Why would i want to use RAW over JPEG??
I dont know what the difference is apart from i can fit a lot less photos on my cf cards if i use RAW or worse RAW + JPEG.
can someone point out the obvious differences please.

Cheers
Adrian:confused:

[tim]

RAW vs JPEG on google (http://www.google.com/search?q=raw+vs+jpeg&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official).

[darkmongoose]

If i wanted a crap answer i would have googled it!!

[peterdoomen]

These sites explain it very well:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/pix/rawvsjpg/

http://nikondigital.org/dps/dps-v-2-7.htm

Indeed, the first three results from Google. :-)

Tip to our junior member: show a bit of respect for people willing to take the time to answer your question, even if the answer is just a link to a few webpages. People like Tim actually know what they are talking about and where to find info. This way, people will help you out again and again. Especially here at POTN.

P.
PS. I'm very sorry the third result is to a nikon site. But it DOES explain RAW well, even with an example.

[tim]

And also be careful not to be banned for calling an answer crap when it answers your question quite well. A search on google or the POTN search will both give you thousands of useful articles or discussions.

[darkmongoose]

Thanks for the answer Peter it was very helpful.
sorry to Tim i didnt mean to offend you in any way.

Adrian

[sdommin]

You must understand that the "RAW vs. JPG" question comes up at least once a week. That's why lots of people here will tell you to do a search.

[SuzyView]

Welcome to the forum. When I started out, I didn't have this forum to ask questions. Actually, I didn't know what questions to ask 3 years ago. I didn't ask the JPEG VS RAW question, but read a lot of threads here before deciding to try RAW. I've had a 10D since it came out, but didn't go anywhere beyond JPEG. Why shoot in RAW, if you read those links or searched, you'd find that RAW is pure data that can be easily manipulated with good software. I would have saved myself a great deal of pp time if I had just started out doing RAW & small JPEG. After meeting a few members who did just that, I bought myself 4 1 gb CF cards and started my adventure shooting RAW. Now I can't imagine my life without it. I look at some of my past work and want to slap myself for not shooting RAW sooner. I use PS Elements 4 and it is compatible with my 20D RAW and it's wonderful. Yes, I can only get 100 shots on my 1 gb card, but it's worth it.

If you have a computer with a lot of memory and good RAM, RAW will be a breeze. If you don't, get more RAM and an external hard drive. That makes the editing a lot easier. I hope I answered your question. And Tim is awesome. :) Listen to him.

[sm1rf]

well this saved me asking the question, just out of interest has anyone tried RAW and gone back to JPEG? If so why? Forgive my ignorance if the answer was obvious.

[peterdoomen]

Once you start shooting RAW, there's only one (real) reason why you could return to JPG... and that's post processing time.

I fore one won't return to JPG. RAW is just too amazing and useful.

P.

[Ephemeral]

If i wanted a crap answer i would have googled it!!

LOL, he could have just asked you to do a search. Instead he even entered it into Google for you. Sheesh, newbies are soo hard to please. ¬_¬

And before you ask about recommending a lens, read the sticky! :P


well this saved me asking the question, just out of interest has anyone tried RAW and gone back to JPEG? If so why? Forgive my ignorance if the answer was obvious.


I started out shooting JPEG, like most people who are new to digital photography, then through reading here and Googling I discovered that shooting in Raw gives you lots more options to tweak an image. I shoot mostly in Raw now, but I do switch to JPEG when I use my camera for those "taking non-serious pictures of friends with" as I'm unlikely to want to post process those.

[J Rabin]

If you just have fun "taking" pictures, but not "making" pictures, shoot JPEG.
If you are a busy Photo Journalist and need to transmit a photo, and move on to the next event, shoot JPEG.
If you have a studio set up where everything is held constant and only the faces change (like Easter photos at the local Mall), shoot JPEG.

If you value capturing and retaining the MOST potential detail and quality from your images, the most photographic information, then shoot RAW. It's that simple. Learn to live in the digital darkroom.

If you make photographs, and make them 8x10 or above, not just take them, shoot RAW.
If you shoot a lot of difficult scenes, where there is high contrast (excess subject brightness range), changing light, low light, etc., then shoot RAW to recover white-balance, noise, etc.

[tim]

RAW is like a negative, JPG is like a polaroid.

[belmondo]

Actually, I've been shooting both lately (RAW + Large JPEG). Large capacity cards are now cheap enough that I can afford to do that, even at 16.7 megapixels. This gives me the option of quick results with JPEG, and/or the ability to go back and fine tune the inages using RAW. The vast majority of shots are perfectly adequate in JPEG, but the power and flexibity of RAW will occasionally make it possible to salvage a marginal shot, or turn a good shot into a masterpiece.

[SuzyView]

Oh, I wouldn't go that far, Tim. I shot fine JPEG for 2 years before discovering RAW. My pictures were pretty good, but I PP them like crazy for white balance. Now I just slide that little tint adjustment and it's all good. Love RAW. I'm going to get CS this fall because Elements 4 doesn't have curves.

If you are new to the forum and you are reading this thread about RAW and you haven't tried it yet, download RAW SHOOTER (I think it's free still) and try it out. That's what I did.

[darkmongoose]

I like your analogy Tim seems to make more sense.

Adrian

[corinto]

If you don't, get [...] an external hard drive.

Suzie

This threw me off. Why external? Won't a internal second drive achieve the same?

[Curtis N]

has anyone tried RAW and gone back to JPEG?I haven't shot a JPEG since the Clinton Administration.

But for those trying to learn about RAW and searching through recent threads on the topic, one bit of recent news is important to note. You will see many references to RAW conversion software. Two such applications that are often recommended are Raw Shooter Essentials (free) and Raw Shooter Premium. Pixmantec, the company that developed these products, has been bought by Adobe and these applications are essentially going away. RSP is no longer available. RSE is still available but will not be supported henceforth.

Here is a recent thread on that news. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=185070&highlight=pixmantec)

There are still several very good RAW converters available, including Canon's Digital Photo Professional (free), Adobe Camera Raw, Apple's Aperture, and Adobe Lightroom, a new product still in beta.

[tim]

Oh, I wouldn't go that far, Tim. I shot fine JPEG for 2 years before discovering RAW. My pictures were pretty good, but I PP them like crazy for white balance. Now I just slide that little tint adjustment and it's all good. Love RAW. I'm going to get CS this fall because Elements 4 doesn't have curves.

If you are new to the forum and you are reading this thread about RAW and you haven't tried it yet, download RAW SHOOTER (I think it's free still) and try it out. That's what I did.

My explaination was a quick, easy was to explain RAW vs JPEG, maybe not 100% accurate but good enough I think :)

[queenbee288]

When I first tried raw, I didnt like it and went back to jpeg. It was because I wasnt doing it properly. It took a lot of practice to get good at it. Now that I have gotten better at it, there is no comparison. I got some large cf cards and I shoot everything raw, I especially like that little shadows slider in Adobe Camera Raw.