Hello, my fellow steemians! Hope all of you are having a good day.
So, let's jump to the topic I want to talk about today. I have been asked a couple of times by some friends with DSLRs and mirrorless systems which format to shoot; jpeg or raw. I usually laugh before answering as I'm wondering why they are asking me. Me? I'm a noob at this also. The same or worst than you and you're asking me? Lol.
Anyway, so what is the difference between jpeg and raw and why should you use one than the other or I think the more appropriate question to ask is when you should one than the other.
Well, first of I ask back the person asking me if he/she knows how to post-process and if they have the patience to do post-processing. This question usually settles their question of which format immediately because if you shoot in raw then you need to do post-processing on all the images you shot. You cannot just convert a raw file to jpeg and then present it to others because it will look bland. Most people usually think that shooting raw will automatically make their shots better but it will not. Not automatically anyway. You need to do post-processing to harness the capabilities given to you by capturing raw. So, it also goes without saying that you need to have the patience to do the post-processing of all your raw shots. This has become a problem even for me as sometimes I just don't have the patience to go over again an image I had already captured. Point? Shoot raw if you know and have the patience to do post-processing and shoot jpeg if otherwise.
This is a JPEG format picture taken with my Nikon D3300
I also ask what kind of photography they want to do, I believe that if you're doing anything for the news then it is better to shoot jpeg as shooting in raw may result in a more sensational photo but will not be objective. Any other type of photography which needs to be objective then I feel that you should shoot raw. Otherwise, feel free to shoot raw and sensationalize/ dramatize all your photos.
The same shot as above but in RAW format and then post-processed.
Raw files take a lot more space on your memory card than jpeg files. So, if you have only one memory card and you don't have any way to transfer it then you might want to consider shooting jpeg to not run out of space.
And that my fellow steemians, is my take on the jpeg vs raw question. There are a lot of other points to consider but it all boils down to these for me. What format do you usually shoot with?
PS. Nowadays, I usually shoot JPEG+Raw... Lol.
