POLL: RAW vs. Jpeg

I'm an intermediate hobbyist and mainly do nature stuff, but I switched to raw nearly a year ago and am so glad I did! I even shoot "snapshot" type moments of my 10 month old grandson in raw because sometimes you get the perfect moment with the priceless expression but the exposure is wrong. With raw you can fix the exposure, and redeem what would be a throwaway jpeg.

hollis_f wrote in post #7990136
I'll be shooting 100% raw until I'm a good enough photographer to get everything 100% correct in the camera every time. At the same time I'll pop down to Hell for a snowball fight.

+1 Absolutely.

BTW YankeeMom, I hafta ask, are you on Frugal Village? lol There's someone with that name on there, too.

mickee311 wrote in post #7993473
+1 Absolutely.

BTW YankeeMom, I hafta ask, are you on Frugal Village? lol There's someone with that name on there, too.

No, I'm not -- And I can't believe someone else took my name! (I would probably benefit from a frugal board, though.)

RAW is like having an untouched negative to work with, & I'll always recommend RAW for beginners because, as they learn more, they can go back & reprocess & possibly salvage a once in a lifetime shot. I was in a hurry & screwed up the exposure in this one. RAW saved me from my mistake:
Why I love RAW - '53 Ford Sunliner

When to begin shooting in RAW?

I will second Frank's recommendation here. I only switched to digital back in 2006. I did some pretty decent post processing back then, but as I revisit some of those shots with my increased understanding of photoshop, I seen that I can do better with the old original "negatives" (the RAW files). Unfortunately I had already deleted some of those, figuring I had perfectly acceptable JPG's....NOT!

Back then I was just dodging, burning, adjusting exposure, WB, brightness, etc. But as I learned more, I got in levels, layers... more advanced PS techniques. All of these will certainly work on JPG's. But when you have the original with which to work, there is always the potential for a greater image . - Stu

PhotosGuy wrote in post #7997336
RAW is like having an untouched negative to work with, & I'll always recommend RAW for beginners because, as they learn more, they can go back & reprocess & possibly salvage a once in a lifetime shot. I was in a hurry & screwed up the exposure in this one. RAW saved me from my mistake:
Why I love RAW - '53 Ford Sunliner

When to begin shooting in RAW?

It depends on the intended end-use of the image.

On average I tend to shoot between 200 and 400 images a day for commercial (internet) use. These shots are all taken as Fine Small Jpeg and are then downsized to 1200 x 800 with filesize 200K-250K each before uploading them to the client.

If I'm shooting something that needs it - Wedding / Portrait etc. then I will always shoot RAW.

Most of my income comes from small, downsized Jpeg images though.

I shoot RAW all the time, even for sports. Memory is an insignificant cost these days, both in the camera and on the computer.

Dan Martin wrote in post #8000737
I shoot RAW all the time, even for sports. Memory is an insignificant cost these days, both in the camera and on the computer.

Sports Illustrated photographers shoot the Super Bowl in raw+jpeg, make their selections at light speed with the jpeg, and process the selections from the raw.