Shooting Raw instead of JPG

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!

Left image is over exposed with blown out sky, right image has recovered sky and can even see 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