Camera RAW vs. JPG: A Photographer’s Perspective Roundup

If you own a DSLR camera, it is likely because you are either a professional photographer or a photography enthusiast. Either way, you want great digital photos and a DSLR is the only way to get them. You might already be shooting in RAW, because of all the post-processing options you have. But is RAW really the right choice for your workflow? This is a heated debate amongst even very professional photographers. Here are some different opinions on the subject.

Ken Rockwell: JPG vs Raw: Get it Right the First Time

Which should you shoot?
If you have to ask then just shoot JPG.

George Ornbo: Camera RAW or JPEG?

If your camera can shoot in RAW format should you be using it? Here’s a quick overview of the difference and what you can do with the RAW format in Photoshop.

Bob Atkins: RAW, JPEG and TIFF

There seems to be a lot of confusion among some new digital camera owners about exactly what the difference is between RAW, JPEG and TIFF files. This article is intended to be a very basic guide to these file types and how they are related in a typical digital camera.

David Eppstein: RAW vs JPEG Experiment

It is widely believed that digital cameras’ raw image modes offer a significant advantage in overall image quality compared to JPEG modes, at least for photos requiring significant amounts of post-processing. Brad Templeton posted as a challenge a request for a single image where such advantages are visible; if no advantage could be found even on heavily manipulated images, use of raw mode would constitute an unnecessary waste of camera memory and post-processing time.

Dave Shea: Raw

Let’s say you have a digital camera that shoots in Raw format. However, you’ve been using JPG files ever since you got it, due to a sense of familiarity, simply not having the time to figure out Raw, or because you don’t like the larger file sizes. Sound familiar?

Todd Walker: The Big Debate — RAW or JPG?

For me, it comes down to a very simple answer — the end results from RAW aren’t worth the hassle. If I could see an obvious quality difference in the resulting photo, it would be worth it but I just can’t.

John Roling: A RAW deal: Using the RAW image format

If you own a mid to high-end digital camera, or pretty much any digital SLR, you can shoot in a format other than JPEG. This format is called RAW and offers some significant advantages (as well as a couple of shortcomings) when compared to standard JPEG.

Jim Goldstein: RAW vs JPEG: Is Shooting RAW Format For Me?

If you happen to have an eye to the future, then RAW may be the way to go as it will afford you the greatest long-term flexibility. I would anticipate that, as digital photography and photo editing software mature, greater editing options will become available to those shooting RAW.

Richard & Rebecca Finn: RAW vs. JPEG

It’s all you can do to understand ISO, shutter speed, and how less is more when it comes to aperture. This beast of a camera can produce files in a Raw format, whatever that means, but it also has the nice comfortable JPEG format that we all know and love. Like me you probably happily shoot in JPEG for quite awhile – getting used to the myriad of options available to you. One day you look at that Raw setting and ask, “should I be using Raw for the best quality? What is Raw, exactly?”

Mike McHugh: Camera Raw Basics [VIDEO]

Journey to the center of the camera. This week Mike explanes in simple terms why Camera raw is the way to go with digital photography. Convert to DNG Vibrance, fill light and more, oh much, much more.

RAW Editing Software

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Aperture
Bibble
Capture One
dcRAW-x

More Information

Wikipedia: Raw Image Format
Microsoft: 10 little known Photoshop Camera Raw Tips

Please let us know if we missed any important perspectives on this issue or you have software suggestions for helping with RAW.