Raw VS Jpg Photographs
By oiixdaii
@oiixdaii (1059)
Philippines
September 11, 2008 9:35am CST
Jpg, jpg is the standard file format for digital cameras. Jpg comes from the raw images sensor data from your camera based on the settings like sharpness, white balance, and exposure. This file type is used by most of us.
Raw, raw is the unprocessed photo from your camera. It is not picture until it is processed by the camera itself or a third party software like Adobe Photoshop, Capture NX, or Adobe Lightroom. This file type is used by most professional photographers because of its flexibility.
Could you share the reasons why you have chosen either jpg or raw.
Me, I always shoot in Raw format because of the flexibility. It is very easy to adjust the brightness and the colors of the photo in raw compared to jpg. 
2 people like this
2 responses
@trickiwoo (2702)
• United States
12 Sep 08
I use both. I use RAW if I'm going to be printing the photos. I use RAW if I'm not sure about the white balance, so that I can adjust it later.
I use JPG if I'm going to be taking a lot of photos, because the file sizes are smaller and I can take more pictures. I use JPG if I don't plan on doing a lot of post-processing to save time.
Both have their advantages and disadvantages. There are times it's better to shoot RAW, and there are times its better to shoot JPG.
@oiixdaii (1059)
• Philippines
13 Sep 08
I think the only benefit of shooting in jpg format is the file size. If you are out of town and has no way to backup the pictures that you have taken, I think shooting in jpg is the best option. But if you have a way to backup the pictures that you have taken, for me, the best way is to shoot in raw so that you can always do minor adjustments without loosing the quality of the photo. The problem with shooting in Raw is the file size and you cannot immediately view the pictures that you have taken in the computer. You still need to convert it to be recognized by the computer. To compensate with these, I set my camera to shoot Raw and jpg at the same time. I know it consume a lot of memory card space but it saves me a lot of effort. I could view my files immediately after transferring it to my computer and still have the flexibility to adjust the settings of my photographs.
@lilaclady (28206)
• Australia
12 Sep 08
I have just bought a DSLR camera and I have been picking up tips from a friend, I take photos for a band so he wants top quality so he likes the phots RAW but for me I like jpg as the programs I work with do not recognise RAW, so luckily my nre camera can be set to store in both at the same time...as my friend says to me jpg loses quality when you save it, apparntly it compresses but RAW keeps its quality, is that right???...anyway i have a lot to learn yet and I like to pick up tips here as well...
@oiixdaii (1059)
• Philippines
12 Sep 08
You sure love photography, I could see you are ranked 15 out of 2,000++ members of photography. Your friend is correct, once you save a jpg to another jpg it loses quality. While a Raw file is not really an image file, it's a collection of information captured by your camera sensors. It is only converted to an image once processed by a software either from your camera or to any that could open Raw files.
I always shoot in Raw so that I will always have the flexibility of enhancing my images.
