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What is RAW and why do people use it? I know how to get to it on my camera but don’t know the advantages or disadvantages to shooting in it. A lady I took a class from one time always shoots in RAW but suggested that we don’t. So I don’t know what to think! Thanks.
Raw is a file format just as JPEG is. The difference is that jpeg is compressed and RAW isn’t.
For example. If you took a picture that had a lot of very dark in one area, jpeg would compress it all and call it black. Same with whites. Raw saves every pixel just as it is taken. This allows much more flexibility in editing.
The disadvantage of RAW is that it takes much more memory space (4x), and many programs and photo viewers will not open it.
I shoot jpeg 95% of the time, I only go to RAW if the situation has a lot of contrast(bright whites and dark blacks).
If you are shooting jpeg you will need to get your exposure spot on, as it allows much less flexibility in editing.
If you have a program that lets you work with RAW, I would advise trying it and see what you think.
Hope this helps, let me know if you have more questions.
Austin
I always shoot in RAW. It enables me to get exactly what I want from processing. When your camera makes a JPEG file, it makes all the decisions for you. You can pull much better highlights and shadows from RAW files, as well as get the exact white balance, sharpening, and exposure that you want for your photograph.
RAW files do take much more memory space, as well as take time to process. Having an efficient workflow helps speed things up. 🙂 I have a couple presets setup in my editor for photographs that I don’t care too much about (snapshots just for memories).
Here are some links with some related info that exists on the forums already. If you have more questions, feel free to ask them!
https://www.lenspiration.com/forums/topic/raw-or-jpg/
https://www.lenspiration.com/forums/topic/exporting-format/
https://www.lenspiration.com/forums/topic/problems-with-seeing-pics-on-computer/I always shoot in JPEG—so I’m pretty much clueless with shooting in RAW. However, from what I understand, RAW is like shooting undeveloped film. You have to take it into your “darkroom” (photo editor w/ RAW processor) if you want to get a good result. If you don’t want to do that, don’t shoot RAW! I’ve found my camera does a fairly decent job with processing JPEGs automatically (and I take thousands of pictures and don’t have time to process each one).
I actually spoke with our professional portrait photographer and she said that she never shoots in RAW—anything that she wants to do with a RAW image (e.g. white balance, curves) she can do with a high quality JPEG; I would think though that you might lose a little quality, and your abilities in the darkroom might be limited.I tend to be like Logan where I really don’t have time to process each one I take as I do take quiet a few. I think though that I shoot in low quality JPEG , I’m not sure though. Thanks for all the feedback. 🙂
@sarahanne, if you do shoot in JPG, you’ll want to move up to a higher quality than “low” if you’re shooting anything that would require printing. Also, for vacations or mission trips, it seems like you’d want something better than “low” if those pictures are going to be used for a slideshow or anything. If you take a ton of pictures just for fun, practice, or personal enjoyment, I see where JPG has it’s place.
If you do shoot in jpeg, I also advise turning off all in camera editing. This saves as close to the original as possible. I shoot for publishers, and rarely use RAW. I know of another full time professional wildlife photographer who shoots jpeg all the time.
RAW is great if you want to do a lot of editing to your pictures, as for me, I keep editing to a minimum, so jpeg works great. Realize though if you have a hard time nailing the exposure every time, RAW is probably your best bet.
Okay, I can make my JPG higher quality but I’m still not sure if I understand RAW yet. Sorry! 🙁 I do enjoy editing but I don’t edit every pic I take. So I don’t know what to think!? I don’t print my pics too much so I guess no worries there. 🙂
If you do shoot in jpeg, I also advise turning off all in camera editing.
That’s interesting. I had always thought that if I used JPG, I would want to turn onall in-camera editing settings so that my pictures would look as good as possible coming out of the camera, since I really wouldn’t be spending much time editing them.
@jamesstaddon, I edit my jpeg just as I would RAW.
How do you turn off the in camera editing? I don’t think that mine is smart enough to edit my pics 😀 😀 .
“In-camera editing” is a very broad term, encompassing many different specific settings or features on a camera. If you’re shooting in JPG, most in-camera adjustments are already being applied.
Hey @sarahanne,
You’d be surpised at how much your camera does with editing pics!If you are using a Canon camera, you can turn off some of the in-camera editing.
To turn it off, you need to be using one of the Manual modes (You know, one of these: B, M, Av, Tv, P—but NOT C: change anything in C, and it will only be applied to C—none of the other modes [from my understanding]).After you do that, you browse through the menus until you see a setting called “Picture Style.” This applies a four settings that will be burned into the JPEG image: sharpness, contrast, saturation, and color tone. For minimal in-camera editing, use either “Neutral” or “faithful” Personally, I use Faithful—I think it applies the least amount of editing.
You could also turn off the “Auto Lighting Optimizer.” When this is on, the camera plays with an adjustment called “curves” to brighten certain parts of the image it thinks should be brighter (like faces). (source: http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/education/infobank/digital_camera_features/auto_lighting_optimizer.do)
You could also turn off High ISO noise reduction (under the C. Fun II submenu), and the Peripheral illumin. correct. (this takes care of lens vignetting)—I wouldn’t though.
I think that about does it. I leave most of these on—but the only thing I’d turn to “Faithful” would be the picture style.
If you are using a Nikon…. you’re going to have to do your own research. 🙂
–Logan
Actually, I just found this out:
If you want to see for yourself the different in-camera editing functions in action, shoot a RAW file, and then, from the playback menu, choose “RAW image processing”, select your image you just shot, and you can see and compare what all the different in-camera editing functions do. I just found that Faithful brightens the shadowy parts of a portrait I just shot a tad (I like it) whereas Neutral doesn’t do that.–Logan
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