@bennett-family NEF+JPEG is what it sounds like. Your camera will shoot a RAW file and process it for you (using it’s own internal “Lightroom”) as a JPEG, but will still preserve the RAW image as a separate file.
When your shoot JPEG, your camera actually shoots a RAW file, and then applies some enhancements to make it look nice, gives you what it came up with, and then throws away the RAW file. The enhancements applied to it depend on which Picture Control setting you selected before you started shooting. (On a Canon, it’s called Picture style; in Portrait mode, for example, it’ll bring some pink into the skin tones, whereas in landscape mode, it applies a good bit of saturation and contrast).
When you shoot RAW+JPEG, your camera will still process for the JPEG (just like you’re used to), but when you put your card in the computer, you’ll find the significantly larger RAW file next to it—untouched by the camera. Note that the RAW file will look a bit ugly straight out of camera, much like undeveloped film looks terrible.
When you shoot RAW (only), your camera won’t even try to process the JPEG. It will just give you the RAW file for you to edit how you please.
@jamesstaddon only shoots RAW (I think, if I remember right). I used to shoot only JPEG, because I didn’t have any software to edit a RAW file. Once I got software, I still didn’t want to burn any bridges on JPEGs, because I don’t always have time to edit, and I don’t always need an amazing edit job, so I shot RAW+JPEG. This way, if I decide to go deeper than what the camera processed, I still keep that option open. But if my mom wants a shot of my little brother to put on her smartphone, I can give her the JPEG seconds after I’d shot it.
One huge plus with RAW images is they can save a horribly underexposed image. I was photographing my little brother once, and the he looked at me with the most adorable expression. I took the shot, brought it inside, and realized I underexposed by about 3-4 stops (it was a mostly black image). I brought my RAW file into my processor, cranked the exposure knob over, and I saved my image.
I’d heartily encourage shooting RAW+JPEG for a while to get used to processing RAW files.
Hope this helps!
—Logan