Which format should you use? RAW vs. JPEG
When shooting with your digital camera, you have a choice of image formats that your camera will use to store the pictures on the memory card. JPEG is probably the most familiar format to anyone who has been using a digital camera. This is the way it will be set from the factory.
There is nothing wrong with JPEG if you are taking casual shots. JPEG files are ready to use, right out of the camera. Why go through the process of adjusting RAW images of the kids playing when you are just going to post them online or e-mail them? Also, for journalists and sports photographers who are shooting ten frames per second and need to transmit their images across the wire—again, JPEG is just fine. So what is wrong with JPEG? Absolutely nothing—unless you care about having complete creative control over all of your image data (as opposed to what a compression algorithm thinks is important).
A JPEG is not actually an image format. It is a compression standard, and compression is where things can go bad. When you have your camera set to JPEG—whether it is set to Fine or Standard compression—you are letting the camera process the image however it sees fit and then throw away enough image data to make it shrink into a smaller space. In doing so, you give up subtle image details that you will never get back in post-processing. That is an awfully simplified statement, but it’s still fairly accurate. I feel discarding useable data is going in the opposite direction in image quality. Camera manufactures are making cameras with more and more pixels ( or digital data ) why not use all that data you are capturing? You will have a higher quality image.
So what do you get with RAW?
First and foremost, RAW images are not compressed. (Some cameras offer a compressed RAW format, but it is lossless compression, which means there is no loss of actual image data.) Note that RAW image files will require you to perform post-processing on your photographs. This is not only necessary—it is the reason that most photographers use it. Think of a RAW image as a film negative that yet needs to be developed.
RAW images have a greater dynamic range than JPEG-processed images. This means that you can recover image detail in the highlights and shadows that just aren’t available in JPEG-processed images.
There is more color information in a RAW image because it is a 14-bit image, which means it contains more color information than a JPEG, which is almost always an 8-bit image. More color information means more to work with and smoother changes between tones. With a Raw image you have all the digital information to work with to achieve better image quality while not damaging or discarding information your camera created.
Regarding sharpening, a RAW image offers more control because you are the one who is applying the sharpening according to the effect you want to achieve. Once again, JPEG processing applies a standard amount of sharpening that you cannot change after the fact. Once it is done, it’s done.
Finally, and most importantly, a RAW file is your negative. No matter what you do to it, you won’t change it unless you save your file in a different format. This means that you can come back to that RAW file later and try different processing settings to achieve differing results and never harm the original image. By comparison, if you make a change to your JPEG and accidentally save the file, guess what? You have a new original file, and you will never get back to that first image. That alone should make you sit up and take notice.
If you are new to shooting RAW
Don’t give up on shooting RAW just because it means more work. If it takes up more space on your card, buy bigger size memory cards. Memory is coming down in price almost daily. Will it take more time to download your images? Yes, but good things come to those who wait. Don’t worry about needing to purchase expensive software to work with your RAW files; Nikon, Canon, and most other manufactures supply software when you buy your camera that will do this for you.
My recommendation is that you shoot in JPEG mode while you are learning your camera and its settings. This will allow you to quickly review your images and study the effects of setting changes. Once you have become comfortable with all of the camera features, you should switch to shooting in RAW mode so that you can start gaining more creative control over your image processing. After all, you took the photograph—shouldn’t you be the one to decide how it looks in the end?
Image resolution
When discussing digital cameras, image resolution is often used to describe pixel resolution, or the number of pixels used to make an image. This can be displayed as a dimension, such as 4912 x 3264. This is the physical number of pixels in width and height of the image sensor. Resolution can also be referred to in megapixels (MP), such as 16 MP. This number represents the number of total pixels on the sensor and is commonly used to describe the amount of image data that a digital camera can capture. The highier the pixel count of the sensor the highier the image resolution will be. Always remember the highier the pixel count the more memory your image will occupy. The pixel count is another whole area of discussion within the photographic community, which I will discuss on another post.
Conclusion
If you are serious about your photography and want the very best image quality, shoot RAW. Your images will look better and the creative control alone is a very compelling reason to shoot RAW. There is certainly a learning curve to shooting in the RAW format, but in the end the image will be how YOU envisioned it. I hope this piece gives you a better understanding of RAW vs. JPEG and helps you on your photography journey. May the best light follow you.
When shooting with your digital camera, you have a choice of image formats that your camera will use to store the pictures on the memory card. JPEG is probably the most familiar format to anyone who has been using a digital camera. This is the way it will be set from the factory.
There is nothing wrong with JPEG if you are taking casual shots. JPEG files are ready to use, right out of the camera. Why go through the process of adjusting RAW images of the kids playing when you are just going to post them online or e-mail them? Also, for journalists and sports photographers who are shooting ten frames per second and need to transmit their images across the wire—again, JPEG is just fine. So what is wrong with JPEG? Absolutely nothing—unless you care about having complete creative control over all of your image data (as opposed to what a compression algorithm thinks is important).
A JPEG is not actually an image format. It is a compression standard, and compression is where things can go bad. When you have your camera set to JPEG—whether it is set to Fine or Standard compression—you are letting the camera process the image however it sees fit and then throw away enough image data to make it shrink into a smaller space. In doing so, you give up subtle image details that you will never get back in post-processing. That is an awfully simplified statement, but it’s still fairly accurate. I feel discarding useable data is going in the opposite direction in image quality. Camera manufactures are making cameras with more and more pixels ( or digital data ) why not use all that data you are capturing? You will have a higher quality image.
So what do you get with RAW?
First and foremost, RAW images are not compressed. (Some cameras offer a compressed RAW format, but it is lossless compression, which means there is no loss of actual image data.) Note that RAW image files will require you to perform post-processing on your photographs. This is not only necessary—it is the reason that most photographers use it. Think of a RAW image as a film negative that yet needs to be developed.
RAW images have a greater dynamic range than JPEG-processed images. This means that you can recover image detail in the highlights and shadows that just aren’t available in JPEG-processed images.
There is more color information in a RAW image because it is a 14-bit image, which means it contains more color information than a JPEG, which is almost always an 8-bit image. More color information means more to work with and smoother changes between tones. With a Raw image you have all the digital information to work with to achieve better image quality while not damaging or discarding information your camera created.
Regarding sharpening, a RAW image offers more control because you are the one who is applying the sharpening according to the effect you want to achieve. Once again, JPEG processing applies a standard amount of sharpening that you cannot change after the fact. Once it is done, it’s done.
Finally, and most importantly, a RAW file is your negative. No matter what you do to it, you won’t change it unless you save your file in a different format. This means that you can come back to that RAW file later and try different processing settings to achieve differing results and never harm the original image. By comparison, if you make a change to your JPEG and accidentally save the file, guess what? You have a new original file, and you will never get back to that first image. That alone should make you sit up and take notice.
If you are new to shooting RAW
Don’t give up on shooting RAW just because it means more work. If it takes up more space on your card, buy bigger size memory cards. Memory is coming down in price almost daily. Will it take more time to download your images? Yes, but good things come to those who wait. Don’t worry about needing to purchase expensive software to work with your RAW files; Nikon, Canon, and most other manufactures supply software when you buy your camera that will do this for you.
My recommendation is that you shoot in JPEG mode while you are learning your camera and its settings. This will allow you to quickly review your images and study the effects of setting changes. Once you have become comfortable with all of the camera features, you should switch to shooting in RAW mode so that you can start gaining more creative control over your image processing. After all, you took the photograph—shouldn’t you be the one to decide how it looks in the end?
Image resolution
When discussing digital cameras, image resolution is often used to describe pixel resolution, or the number of pixels used to make an image. This can be displayed as a dimension, such as 4912 x 3264. This is the physical number of pixels in width and height of the image sensor. Resolution can also be referred to in megapixels (MP), such as 16 MP. This number represents the number of total pixels on the sensor and is commonly used to describe the amount of image data that a digital camera can capture. The highier the pixel count of the sensor the highier the image resolution will be. Always remember the highier the pixel count the more memory your image will occupy. The pixel count is another whole area of discussion within the photographic community, which I will discuss on another post.
Conclusion
If you are serious about your photography and want the very best image quality, shoot RAW. Your images will look better and the creative control alone is a very compelling reason to shoot RAW. There is certainly a learning curve to shooting in the RAW format, but in the end the image will be how YOU envisioned it. I hope this piece gives you a better understanding of RAW vs. JPEG and helps you on your photography journey. May the best light follow you.
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