RAW or J-PEG????

~Live-InTheMoment Jan 26, 2013 Hobbyist Photographer

I want to know from the community out there on what file format you shoot with and why. I myself shoot in RAW. I find it gives me more control over everything.

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~The009 Mar 8, 2013

I shoot RAW+JPG at all times. You never know when it might come in handy to have two different versions of the image. But when I am working on photos I do work with the RAW image.

~ChristopherinMexico Mar 8, 2013 Professional General Artist

my cameras have only saved in jpg, but I really don't feel limited.

*beyondimpression Mar 8, 2013 Professional Photographer

Hmm.

Well when I was starting out I used JPEG because I did not know what RAW was.

Then I met a professional photographer who I volunteered with for weddings over the summers and she told me: "NEVER, EVER SHOOT JPEG!"

and I was like WHY!?!?!? =O

And she said that JPEG produces a bad quailty.

See, when you used JPEG, you have no control over your white balance, exposure and contrast, or colour. So if you mess up on your colour balance or exposure while using JPEG you cannot even fix it.

With RAW, you can adjust your white balance, fix you colours and exposure with the help of a histogram. Also the colours are much better in RAW files.

ALSO I should mention this:

The best thing about RAW is that you will ALWAYS have your editing history. On JPEG files, once you edit a picture, there is NO going back. But with RAW, you can always go back!

Hope this helps!

*beyondimpression Mar 8, 2013 Professional Photographer

Like JPEG is good for starters, first starting out with how to work the camera.

But once you learn how to properly expose your images, RAW is the the greatest thing!

~Mgsblade Mar 7, 2013 Photographer

Ive been shooting raw for years, last year I bought myself a 5D mark 3, and after a year of shooting I'm convinced that the Iso noise on Jpeg is lower than that of the Raw setting so what i usually do is use raw when there is light and, jpeg when im shooting at darker conditions.

also with the new megapixel count, I found that I needed about 64 gigs in memory space for every single time i had a big shoot, which is incredible for both the memory card and my archives at home.

as for the compression, it is true that when you convert from raw to things like tiff it looses a bit of detail, but that only when your printing billboard size shots otherwise it makes no difference when it comes to printing smaller pictures, also in most cases when post processing is involved you don't stick to raw after you edit things.

*LDFranklin Mar 5, 2013 Hobbyist Photographer

I pretty much only shoot RAW. RAW captures more data giving you more control options on your photos.

The only time I really shoot JPG is when I'm just going out with friends and just want snapshots to share on Facebook!