 Dale Ann Cubbage |
RAW vs. RA W+JPEG? What's the difference between Raw and Raw+Jpeg? Is there a benefit to shooting Raw+Jpeg over Raw? And would Raw+Jpeg be better than or worse than Jpeg Fine? I just realized I have that option and want to make the best choice. I don't like using RAW because of the time it takes to download and open up an image. But I also want to use the best mode for creating beautiful portraits. Thank you in advance for your answers. da
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Andrew Laverghetta |
RAW+JPEG is pretty much what is says. It gives you a RAW image file with the additions of a standard compresses JPEG. Some cameras imbed a JPEG within the RAW file so you would have to do something with the RAW file to extract the JPEG, but some cameras just save them as two seperate files. The JPEG would be as good of an image as the RAW because it has been compressed in a way that will cause it to lose information while the RAW image is lossless compression of the 'raw' data that comes from the sensor. Once more, if you shoot Raw+Jpeg, that's like taking two pictures of the same thing but saving it on a different quality setting but you're still only taking one picture. Does this make sense? It's just saving the file two different ways. Saving it in the combined format will make it so you can have a "proof" or quick pic of the image and do your processing on the Raw image later when you may have more time. The bottom line is, JPEG is not as high quality as RAW. If you want the most material to work with to creat beautiful portraits, shoot RAW. Even though it will be more time consuming, it will give you the most to work with and will probably lead to better pictures. Don't forget, using RAW+JPEG is just giving you the RAW file and a JPEG of a lower quality. I'm not sure if you can set the compression quality of the JPEG or not so it may or may not be as good as "Fine". If you want to check out your pictures before you process them yourself, use RAW+JPEG because it will give you the easily opened JPEG, but you will want to put up with the slower loading of the RAW file to get the best pictures possible. Use RAW
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Dale Ann Cubbage |
Andrew, thank you. Yes that makes sense. That's what I thought was going on, that it was creating two versions one raw, and one jpeg. I appreciate you mentioning that I can use the jpegs for a quick "proof" type shot. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for getting back with me!
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x |
Dale Ann, Raw vs. JPEG debate, huh? Shoot whatever makes you happy. There is no rule. If you shoot RAW + JPEG, you get both a RAW file and a JPEG file. This can be useful. Some people use that mode to shoot small JEPG's and use those for web galleries and slide shows, then they use the RAW files for any prints they have to make. I shoot JPEG. Don't let anyone tell you that RAW is better, it's not. All cameras shoot and record RAW. When you shoot JPEG, you are asking your camera to take that RAW data and compress it into a JPEG format. The main thing about RAW is highlight recovery. But, if you watch you histogram and nail your exposures and WB, shooting JPEg is as good as RAW. There is no difference in image quality and I wish people would stop saying there is. RAW provides more latitude to make errors. That's all. Jerry
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Dale Ann Cubbage |
Jerry, thank you for your answer. It was very helpful to know, and hear that someone does think Jpeg can be as good as raw. That's a relief! da
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Andrew Laverghetta |
can't raw give you an advantage when you're taking pictures with slightly harsher light (like outside) so you can lighten up some shadows? I won't drag on this on but I still will know that raw would be the best for most situations. I think it's one sided to say that it provides more latitude to make errors when it should be said that it allows the photographer to include more shadow information in a photograph. I've checked out www.dpreview.com and they run image quality tests magnifying an image many times down to where you can see each pixel. It's clear that their is more detail in the raw images than the jpeg images. It's not as easy to see on this site: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos20d/page13.php But it is for other cameras. Data is lost in jpeg while none is lost in canon's .cr2 fomat. Of course all cameras shoot raw, but when you're telling the camera to make it jpeg, it loses information. If you shoot for th highlights, you may still lose detail in the shadows. It's not as easy to bring it back from a jpeg as it is raw. Sometimes, you don't get a chance to change your white balance so you might choose to use AUTO. Or maybe you had it set to flourescent and you forget to change it to daylight. Do you ever forget? I do. Check out some of those dpreview.com reviews showing the difference in raw, find jpeg and so on. There is a difference.
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