Should You Choose RAW or JPEG for Photography? (Quick Chat)

Today I want to share my thoughts and experience about using RAW vs JPEG for photography, which one is better for which situation. I don't think one is better than the other, each has its own purposes, but I personally use RAW, not because it is more "professional" but RAW photographs have enough tolerance for any mistakes that I might make.

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Hopefully you guys find this video to be useful.
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Gary Wiryawan

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[edmwesten]

Most any editing software will allow you to adjust exposure, dynamic range, saturation and sharpness in any jpeg. White balance cannot be easily adjusted. Try this experiment: set your camera to produce a jpeg that pleases you by choosing standard or vivid, extra saturation or not, extra sharpening or not, etc. Take a picture of a scene and save both raw and jpeg images of it. Edit the raw image to your taste and see how you like it compared to the jpeg that the camera produced. If you like yours better then tweak your camera’s jpeg instructions and try again. Relying on the camera to produce jpegs is a huge editing time saver and you can always save both formats for the few times the camera gets it wrong. Keep up the good work! Ed

[edmwesten]

Also, remember that the image that you see on the LCD or EVF is the jpeg version of the final image not the raw one. A raw data file has to be converted to a jpeg image to be shown on a screen.

[davidmccarthy]

We've always gone with JPEG because we just don't ever go back and spend countless hours adjusting photos. The camera can do 98% and even JPEG can be adjusted a little bit. I would switch to raw for huge scenic trips and places we'll never be again.

[TheNaught]

Too funny you posting this right now: I was literally about to turn off my jpeg capture, because I haven't been using them, for exactly the same reasons- I need to fix the shot afterwards! Love watching you wave that GX850 around like it's stuck to your hand.

[gransha]

It's very simple, you don't have to make a choice. Most cameras allow you to shoot in both RAW and JPEG. As you go through your JPEG photos and you come to one not quite to your pleasing then adjust the RAW image.

[drb_kd]

my personal experience; have been shooting jpeg only but found myself editing them in post to add a little personal touch more often than not; so decided to shoot RAW
:: some downsides though as it takes time to deal with RAW
:: import, edit, export, post

with JPEGs; as mentioned by the vid; you really have to pay attention to the settings you are shooting at
:: have been doing street and my mind is always on edge; to make sure that I am using the right settings etc

[greenstrat]

It depends. I mostly shoot JPEG but for certain things, I'll shoot RAW because you can recover more information if things get a little tricky with the exposure or if it's a special occasion.

[joestrahl]

Like another person who posted: my interest and joy comes from usingthe camera, not spending hours editing with a computer. I mostly shoot jpeg and think I am getting it right or at least good enough with my shots. Also as has been written elsewhere, you can havecthe camera shoot jpeg and raw. Several years ago I watched a video where the photographer said he did both jpeg and raw and recommended it. The jpeg can act as a "reference" for your editing of the raw image. Also when you first start photography and editing you can learn how the editing program works by challenging yourself to edited the raw to make it like the jpeg. Then when you csn do that you can edit the raw in another direction...and this improves your learning process. Or so he said....

[davewood]

Big memory cards are cheap, shoot both. jpeg is fine but raw has a lot more room to mess with

[gordonbrown]

I don't see why you can't do both. I always do both.

[jarihuikari]

I always shoot RAW when I use my Olympus E-PL8, E-PL6 or E-PL3. Best quality Jpeg-files have file size which is almost as big as that of Raw file's, and Raw is more flexible. If I need to share my photos soon to others, I shoot Raw+Jpeg.

But I also own a Canon EOS 1000D and with it I shoot Jpeg. I save space because Jpeg-files of 1000D require much less memory than Raw files, and I try to do settings and everything right in that camera. Other reason is that I don't currently have any Canon's software in my computer, and my Olympus software doesn't open Canon Raw-files.

[stefanletzow]

I tested and loaded a few film simulation recipes into my fuji camera and will use jpegs only from now on and cancel my LR subscription. Raw+jpeg in case I want to tweak something that can be done in camera also, including post capture conversion to different film simulation. But most of the time the RAW files will just me archived as backups.

[RoderickJMacdonald]

Thanks Gary!
I would add:
My joy in photography is spending time with my camera, not with my computer.
My 75-300 is sharp, but can lack saturation and micro contrast for distant shots. I use raw when shooting with this lens to correct this weakness.
In -camera computational photography produces JPEGs.

[houghwhite]

My Fuji is jpeg,

I use raw on loomix because it gave me more room to change the color

[darrenbrown]

I shoot JPEG because it’s easier for me. Post processing seems very intimidating, moving raw files that I can’t see to a program on my computer seems challenging, and then how to edit and what program to use etc etc, I would love to shoot RAW but the added steps keep it at arms reach.

[bigrobotnewstoday]

If your in good light auto white balance works funny l fine for me.

I can't remember this YouTubers name but he switches systems a lot. He's Asian he shots a new model in every video. Anyway I remember he reviewed the Olympus OMD E-M1ii and Panasonic Lumix G9 and it was golden hour and the Olympus and Panasonic picked different white balances. So this would be wacky lighting when the sun is going down.

Most of the time sunny or cloudy the camera will do a good job with auto white balance.

[tiitulitii]

I use JPEG because Canon colors are most of the times so good and natural. (I recently got a GX880 in my pocket that is the reason your videos are so interesting to me. I am, however, not yet quite comfortable with it outside my pocket. ...☺) You could try saving both formats and process only those images, which are not good enough as JPEG. Maybe it could be a subject for a video study, of automated Canon/Panasonic JPEG images against corresponding RAW images? How many % of both camera images are good enough as JPEG etc.?

[EJej-zg]

It is better to use JPEG especially if you're unsure.
Think about this: camera takes RAW data and before storing it as JPEG, does the same edits you usually do manually in editors. So why wasting your time? You think you are smarter than your camera?
Yes, camera does even "shadows/highlights" (you control that with ADL/ALO/DRO modes, they have different naming depending on brand but do essentially same thing - highlight preservation, shadow pullling). Enable and forget about editing obsession. 99% percent of the RAW shooters do not even know about it. When you picture a landscape with bright skies, you do what? RAW, shadow/highlights... Or maybe gradient filter in editor. Try a REAL gradient lens filter instead. You will expose the ground properly (that's always better than pulling it from underexposed pixels even if it's RAW) and the sky won't be blown up.
Sharpness, saturation, contrast, warmth, denoising - camera does too and lets you control that. You can see result on screen, you can zoom, so you can adjust if you don't like something, you can prepare different profiles, you can see the final result right away (the most empowering thing), it's not film days anymore and there's no need to bring back those limited time-delayed workflows into digital photography.
Auto HDR (combination from multiple shots) feature built into many cameras is awesome too if you want to deal with complex lighting conditions. Available only for JPEG of course. By bracketing RAWs and later combining on PC (to save as JPEG eventually!) you are only losing your time.
Many people compare RAWs to camera's Standard or Neutral JPEG picture profile. And they notice lack of sharpness or lost details in shadows or something else. But even some old DSLRs have at least the Contrast setting. Use lowest contrast plus slight underexposure and your JPEG will magically display more dynamic range. If you really need that dynamic range of course. Because it's not always bad to have contrast. But to have a flat image or image with typical "HDR look" is often annoying.

You need some more edits? Any editor supports JPEG editing, not only specialized RAW development software. And yes, JPEGs withstand many kinds of editing maybe not so flexibly as RAWs but since you downscale before printing or sharing anyway that difference is not obvious at all. Again, if you need some severe edits, you're likely doing something wrong. Yes, JPEG cannot restore WB that is completely off. But to screw things up like that so that only RAW could save you while having a screen with preview and ability to spot the mistake on spot is not normal, it is not professionalism. You will get better in photography if you stick with JPEGs and learn how to use the light, the shooting parameters and the camera settings. If you ignore everything and just shoot RAW in hope to "fix everything in editor" later, then you are preventing yourself from progressing.
Camera does only small part of the job. Most of the job is done by the light and the photographer. Price of camera, sensor size, megapixels, formats (RAW or not) - all secondary.

[gransha]

JPEG is like buying a cake at the store, RAW is buying the ingredients and making your own cake