A while back I switch from shooting Raw instead of JPG. It was a bit of a leap of faith. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to use my photos when they weren’t JPGs.
Why?
Check out this photo. If I was shooting JPG what you see on the left is all I would have. No way of saving anything. That photo is a gonner, throw it out.
But since I was shooting RAW, all the data is there. It just needs to be brought out. Heck, look at the sky right at the bottom on the line of the before/after. There’s a cloud!
It’s photos like this that have sold me on shooting RAW.
JPG Pros / Cons
Pros:
- Ready to be posted or shared
- No need to do further processing in another application
Cons
- Already processed in camera
- Considered Final
- (8bit)
Raw Pros / Cons
Pros:
- More data
- More color data (12 or 14bit)
- Higher detail in shadows / highlights
- You determine how the data interpreted
- Can recover from over / under exposed images
- Color temperature easily corrected
- Non-destructive editing
- Better sharpening / noise reduction
Cons:
- Larger file size
- Need software on the computer like Lightroom
- Cannot use images on social sites
- Takes longer to write a photo the your camera chip
- Photographers with Time
- “Flat” / Low contrast – Not developed yet