RAW vs JPG

Let’s get the great debate over right away shall we?

Is it better to shoot in RAW or JPG format (or both)?

Well first of all let’s understand what these formats do. RAW images are like cakes where all you have are the ingredients. Nothing has been mixed and nothing has been baked or frosted. It’s just a bunch of megapixels waiting to be throw into your RAW editing software to be turned into JPGs or TIFFs or other formats.

JPGs on the other hand are what your camera baked for you based on your settings. It’s the finished cake that’s been mixed and bake and frosted and there’s very little else you can do to it in your software editor aside from minor changes in things like brightness or contrast and a few other minor adjustments.

So isn’t shooting in RAW format better? Yes and no. RAW images are big images and they will fill up your memory cards faster. As the camera is digesting them often the camera itself can slow down and it may take a second or two before it’s ready to shoot the next frame.

But once shot a RAW image imported into a RAW editor like Photoshop or Lightroom (and there’s a bunch more some of which are free) can be manipulated in an almost infinite number of ways. Skillful editors can change skies, remove unwanted objects – even people, and totally transform the image into something very different from the original.

JPG images are much smaller and all of the major adjustments are locked in at the time of shooting. However properly exposed and composed images will emerge as perfect and needing no more adjustments. Photo editing software can make minor changes as I said but mostly “it is what it is” and there’s not much else you can do to it.

So why shoot JPGs? The smaller file size means photojournalists and sports photographers can now file their images from the field via WiFi back to their photo editors for almost immediate publishing on social media or in their respective newspapers and magazines.

If you’re shooting snaps of the family or the vacation there’s nothing wrong with shooting JPGs and for a lot of reasons that might be preferrable as you can immediate post to social media (sometimes right out of the camera). However if you’re planning on making large prints of your images or entering them into photo contests at your local club you might want to shoot RAW format and edit the images to more closely align with your original vision.

There is no right answer but there is a safe way to go about your photography and that’s shoot both formats at once. Newer digital cameras have fast enough processors that can handle filing away both a JPG and a RAW image on your memory cards as you shoot. Yes the cards fill up faster and yes the camera may run a little slower but now you have a choice. You can immediately display or post your selected JPG images and you can take days to edit your RAW images in your RAW editor.