5 Steps to Better Understanding When to Shoot RAW vs JPEG | Mastering Your Craft

In this episode, Pye is talking all about shooting in RAW vs. JPEG. He will teach you the differences in quality and flexibility when working with one vs the other as well as when you should use one over the other.

Products Used:

Canon 5D Mark IV:

Production Equipment Used:

Benro S8 Tripod:

Adobe Premiere Pro:

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[deltaplanespotter]

Nobody realize how good the microphone sounds.

[alphabeta]

Finally a serious RAW vs JPEG video, unbiased and with right example images. Well done

[joshuaperez]

As someone who is starting a hobby out of photography, this video helped out a lot in understanding raw & jpeg scenarios.

[rogerwalton]

Excellent, clear and well-balanced discussion of the issues involved.

[aklivn]

I never really thought about it. I hear people say, "I ONLY SHOOT RAW". I get stuck in that mind set of only shooting Raw. But you're right, Raw isn't always needed. Family picnic (or family gathering) is a perfect example. Other EXCELLENT video.

[william-uk]

Definitely one of the better videos on this subject and also at least three Lightroom features I didn't know about before. This is enough to make me want to look at all your other work.

My current process (non 'professional' photography): shoot JPEG + RAW, do a first pass of deleting unnecessary images on camera itself (which gets rid of each pair), then import JPEGs only into Lightroom, look at the JPEGs full screen - identify any that are challenging and if necessary import RAW for those too, discard rest of RAW. With the exception that if the photos are for something especially important, or someone else may need to process them one day, I might as well retain the RAW files.  

Also 'processing' means different things to different people - wherever possible I like to get the histogram right on the camera (and the Fuji cameras do an amazing job with white balance), but I still might make subtle tweaks to the overall exposure or highlights or saturation in Lightroom - and I'd argue you can do that absolutely fine with a correctly exposed JPEG. The other things I enjoy doing don't have much to do with levels, but still make a big difference to the image: cropping, levelling, fixing perspective, post-crop vignette, spot removal, maybe slight tweaks to parts of the image with the Color panel (and of course, assigning keywords). To the best of my knowledge, lack of RAW makes no difference to any of that (I guess the obvious exception is performance of masks).

The other workflow comment I'd make: if you're (and anyone reading this probably is) someone who takes time to get the exposure etc. right in camera, it's a bit frustrating / hard on yourself to have to do all that again every single time in Lightroom (whether by setting all the sliders manually, or using Auto then inevitably having to fix everything Lightroom did that you don't like). I'm trying to avoid that and maybe have a slightly fast import experience / less anxiety about disk space at the same time.

[MrRensan]

Very good video to explain when shooting raw is needed and when jpeg is sufficient. I like your decision tree method.

[XLIImusic]

When he said "it's got nothing to do with RAW files, but I have to fix it fix it fix it", I felt that

[grandrapids]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS! It hits my stage of photography perfectly!

[WhoCutTheCheese]

Great video. Love the decision tree on choosing between RAW and JPG.

[scurbelo]

Thank you Pye, for clarifying this subject. It was quite helpful for an old analog/film photographer like myself. Your tutorials are well thought out and not confusing or

convoluted like others I've viewed.

[WilliamTrostelPhotography]

I shoot in jpeg simply when I know I’m not going to edit 🤷‍♂️

[Anemonepdl]

Funny thing is that I actually used RAW for the first time yesterday... and it was for a family BBQ. :') Then I ended up watching this video. In the end, the BBQ was a great exercice to experiment more with semi-manual mode + and RAW editing, so don't hesitate to use any opportunities to practice your photography skills, hehe.

Great video sir ! :) Liked the soothing voice and the use of the comparisons.

[OliBaitsMedia]

Great video thanks. Also, got to say, I've watched a load of YouTube the last two days and your microphone sounds the best hands down!

[phoenix_wi]

You make a it all make sense! I'm going to watch more of your videos

[zavoina]

Excellent topic. I shoot sports for a newspaper and a college. They want fast delivery. I shoot portraits and families, they need processing. I've shot RAW for years because I was taught it was the way to go - period. But so many events are in dark school gyms, I went to JPG recently as the camera does a better job than LR presets. I don't see that much of a speed improvement between the two as my laptop is pretty quick, but JPG saves a few seconds per image on any enhancements and those seconds add up. It's also less stress.

[AbbasBinYounas]

Pye your videos are worth watching for your voice alone. 😎

It also helps that your videos have very, VERY valuable content.

[ThePhotographyHobbyist]

3:34 Glad to see a Canon user acknowledge that (5D IV for example has around 13.6 stops of DR compared to 14.6 on a Nikon Z7). Usually people get angry and all worked up if you just state the fact that Canon for whatever reason has lagged in the DR for several years now. Sony has been doing very well in that area and since some other brands use Sony sensors they get the benefit of that too. DR is not the only thing that matters, but it matters to me mostly because I like smooth transitions between highlights and shadows and how that makes the image look. I'm not one to beat an image to death in post with raising shadows 4-5 stops (I'd rather delete the file before I do that in most cases)...so that's not the reason I mention DR. Overall I just like the look of an image that has more DR because the highlights and shadows are more evened out, for lack of a better way to say it. And regarding JPG vs RAW, yeah I don't think I really need a ton of raw files for a little family gathering. Who needs to edit all that? ;-)

[keithshenkin]

So helpful and informative. Thank you!

[filetdelumiere]

Very good, usefull and well done video ! There are so many urban legends saying that today shooting raw is useless ! I always shoot raw+jpeg exactly for the reasons you explained.
I would say that the software has improved a lot today. I have done new raw processing of old pictures taken with my old D200 and the result is quite better today with new software (noise reduction).