JPG or RAW?

So today on FaceBook Deborah who is going on safari (lucky her) asked that since RAW images get render back as JPGs is there any reason to actually shoot RAW and then edit the images in an expensive editor like Lightroom or Photoshop?

Here’s my answer:

Deborah you’re going to get a lot of interesting comments from FaceBook experts.

So here’s the deal: You can shoot in RAW or JPG or RAW & JPG in some cameras. When I was teaching for a national retailer I told new students shooting in JPG is like baking a cake where the camera does all the baking, decorating and icing and gives you a beautiful cake in the form of a JPG. In PS or LR yes you can crop it and make the image a little brighter or darker but basically it’s baked.

When shooting in RAW the camera does not bake the cake but only makes a list of the ingredients which it puts into a RAW file. When you load that RAW file into PS or LR those RAW editors can manipulate the file in many, many ways before you save the image as a JPG or TIFF or DNG (you often save to TIFF or DNG if you’re going to move the manipulated RAW file into another external editor for more work).

So when I am shooting something for a client I normally shoot in RAW and then produce a JPG edited in LR & PS for them to use. Tonight I am attending our camera club’s end of season meeting at a pub and I’ll be shooting JPGs because I know how to expose and frame and this eliminates a lot of editing work tomorrow. Also the actual file size as a JPG is smaller and that can affect how fast some cameras can run. RAW files are significantly larger.

The only great danger in shooting in a dark pub is a RAW file that’s greatly underexposed can often be saved in the RAW editor where if I miss the exposure shooting JPGs there’s not much I can do. My solution is tonight I’m shooting with the OM-1 with the PRO 17mm f/1.2 lens and I’m drinking water and I’ll shoot a lot 🙂

If I was shooting a safari I’d be shooting RAW and carrying several big fast SD cards. I never edit in the field and I’d be tempted to bring a laptop to download the files to a SSD and then store the used card in a safe place so now you have a backup. I’m doing a trip to Europe in the fall and will be carrying enough SD cards to handle the amount of shooting and I won’t be brining a laptop. Hope that helps.