Raw or Raw + L

I have these 2 options for using Raw with my Rebel XS ...

I am confused on the difference. Which one should I be using for best pictures?

RAW will only save the RAW data to the card while RAW+L will save the RAW data as well as a jpeg to the card. There won't be a difference other than the RAW+L will use more space

ah ok ... so Raw is good enough then

copenhagen69 wrote in post #10711005
ah ok ... so Raw is good enough then

Yeah, there two main reasons that I know of were you might use a Raw+jpeg routine. One is if you are doing a high volume shoot and want/need immediate access to jpegs for something like downloading to an editor or client -- the speed/convenience of the jpegs can pay off, and you can have the Raw files for processing to get better results than the jpeg.

The second is if you are new to Raw processing and not yet comfortable with your results and want jpegs as a "reference". This is a reasonable thing to try, but typically is short-lived as your skills get up to speed and you find that all those jpegs end up just cluttering up your hard drive and library.

Also, DPP can play a major role for Raw shooters because the initial Raw preview uses the in-camera Picture Style to similate what the jpeg would come out like, although I suspect that sharpening may not be part of that. And, with other Raw processors you can use and create presets to quickly apply settings that are common scenarios, similar to Picture Styles.

ah ok I see ...

i dont have DPP though. I do have lightroom 3 ... will that be good enough to do the same thing?

copenhagen69 wrote in post #10714443
ah ok I see ...

i dont have DPP though. I do have lightroom 3 ... will that be good enough to do the same thing?

Well, with LR3 alone, you have to do some work to have your Raw preview "look like a jpeg". Out-of-camera jpegs have processing done to them that, according to your in-camera settings, involve a "curve" (related to Picture Style) and some contrast, saturation, White Balance, sharpening, noise reduction, and special settings such as lighting optimizing which go on top of the Picture Style curve.

Bearing all that in mind, the LR3 approach is to choose a Camera Profile (in the Calibration panel) which applies a "curve" meant to be similar to what you see in the camera Picture Styles, and then apply your own adjustments to meet or hopefully exceed the quality that of an out-of-camera jpeg would give. Since Raw files have more latitude in their adjustments, theoretically you can beat a jpeg every time, especially when it comes to things like highlight and shadow recovery as well as making broad shifts in things like exposure/brightness and white balance.

Once you have worked over some Raw images and are happy with your results, you can create a LR Preset in the Presets panel for certain types of photos that will give you a more accurate "simulation" of an out-of-camera jpeg than just the Calibration Profiles because it will apply all your basic settings for, say, a Landscape photo or a Sports photo or whatever. You can apply that preset to a batch of photos in LR or even when you import a batch of photos that have similar characteristics.

But, of course, DPP is still nice to have for a quick review of what the jpeg would look like, or like I said earlier you can, for a time, shoot Raw+jpeg as a reference in LR until you are comfortable with winging it alone with Raw.