Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

RAW or Jpeg

  • Total voters
    18
A

aroy

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

FastGlass said:
If shooting RAW then why choose to also save a copy of J-PEG? I see some of you choose to save both while shooting. Never understood why. If choosing to have a RAW copy so manipulation and adjustments are necessary if needed then why waste card space having a J-PEG copy? I never had an image that didn't need something. If only choosing J-PEG, well that makes sense. Smaller files, not having the software to work on RAW files. But both?
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JPEG is like shooting film and sending it to a Quick Processing Lab. You just shoot and the rest is taken care of by the processing house. Many sports and journalists shoot jpeg. Some of the reasons are
. Fast turn around. You shoot, check and send it. I think that is where a fast burst rate a good buffer and fast accurate AF helps. You just bracket and/or shoot a burst and one shot is going to be at least reasonably good.
. No post processing, hence a huge saving of time. Imagine you are shooting upwards of 2,000 shots a day (normal for wedding and sports photographers). Now calculate the time saved.
. If your images are going to be used either on the web or in a small print size, there is no need to shoot at 24MP and then down size it. If you have the basics right and the foreground is all that matters, the jpeg image out of camera is good enough.

If you want to extract the maximum out of your images (landscape, advertising, reprography etc), balance colours, highlight shadows and carry out further post processing then you shoot RAW, as that has much more information than a jpeg image. A lot of photographers shoot RAW+jpeg. JPEG for run of the mill images, and if any image required further post processing then they use the RAW.

I shoot RAW, as I have plenty of time to post process the few images I shoot per day. Another reason is that with RAW I can take liberties with exposure and composition and tweak them in post processing.

For those who use jpeg as they do not want to be bothered with post processing, there is a simple work around. Shoot RAW, then use the supplied free View NX-II to batch process the RAW to jpeg. The jpeg so generated will have all the camera settings applied! In case you want to tweak any shot, you can then do post processing.
 
K

Krs_2007

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

^ That is correct, most of the Pro Sports photographers shoot jpeg because they dont have time to edit several hundred photos to make a timeline. It does have a purpose and if you have the settings correct and you do your job the jpeg will be all you need.

If you are shooting for more controlled shots then of course, shoot RAW.
 
hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

With my dual card slots, I choose both. That way if quick turn-around is needed to supply a small amount of photos from a big shoot, I can quickly process those jpegs within minutes and still have the RAW files for the rest. If I had to shoot just one type of file, it would depend upon the situation. If photos are needed quickly, then jpegs. With the theater photos I take for the student dramas, quite often I need the latitude that RAW offers so my highlights aren't blown.
 
B

Blacktop

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

I shoot Raw. Also, I do it because it makes the most sense to me, not so to be on any team or because some dude from Philly with a giant afro tells me I should.
 
W

WayneF

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

Woodyg3 said:
RAW is the way to go. That said, JPEG is great for a photo journalist or someone who just doesn't want to take a bunch of time with post processing.
Click to expand...

For anyone who really doesn't care about getting the best result.

We could say, compacts and smartphones take JPG. DSLR takes Raw. :)
 
Thumper_6119

Thumper_6119

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

Raw most of the time. Like Blacktop stated, it makes sense to me and works for what I pursue, and not because I want to belong to any group or groups of opposing philosophies.
 
AC016

AC016

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

WayneF said:
For anyone who really doesn't care about getting the best result.

We could say, compacts and smartphones take JPG. DSLR takes Raw. :)
Click to expand...


LMAO... whatever dude. My "compact" X10 takes RAW. Many compacts do these days.
 
AC016

AC016

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

Yeah, because none of the photos from the recent Olympics are any good. I mean, after all, all the photogs from Getty and AP shoot in JPEG; therefore, must not care about "getting the best result". Yawn....

"The second a photographer fires the shutter on a camera, the resulting image—a high quality JPEG, not an uncompressed RAW file—is transported by ethernet to Getty's central editing office in about 1.5 seconds."

http://gizmodo.com/the-inside-story-of-how-olympic-photographers-capture-s-1521746623
 
K

Krs_2007

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

Blacktop said:
I like fro ,and get email notifications when he posts a new video and stuff. I disagree with his "I don't ever crop" way of thinking though.
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Actually its easy to do when you have the right lens, well in his case a 300 2.8. I can see points of it but its not something I think of all the time. I would rather get the shot and crop later. Is this proper, couldn't tell you but it does work for me.
 
AC016

AC016

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

Krs_2007 said:
Actually its easy to do when you have the right lens, well in his case a 300 2.8. I can see points of it but its not something I think of all the time. I would rather get the shot and crop later. Is this proper, couldn't tell you but it does work for me.
Click to expand...

Photography, like any other "art" medium, is highly subjective. Just because some guy with a fro says something, it does not mean that it is THE way to do it. Like his ridiculous t-shirts that say, "I shoot RAW", it is but his opinion.
 
W

WayneF

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

AC016 said:
Yeah, because none of the photos from the recent Olympics are any good. I mean, after all, all the photogs from Getty and AP shoot in JPEG; therefore, must not care about "getting the best result". Yawn....
Click to expand...


No one says good results are impossible with JPG. But certainly it is not nearly as likely as Raw. :) (Raw, and a little attention). JPG seems the hard way. Been there, done that. :) No going back now.

It seems a good bet that the Olympic photogs are likely better and more experienced than most of us (for sure those of us asking this question). At the Olympics or other sports venues, they have fixed locations, shooting fixed scenes. They likely bring some WB gear (white cards, etc) with them, and have ample early time to take many test shots and get everything adjusted in a professional way. Then they can just repeat it for the duration of that event. Their lab can work on mistakes if they don't have alternate shots.

But not everyone does it that way. :)

I do some of that when in fixed locations (at least exposure), but for walk-around snapshots, they only get one frame. Which is normally halfway close, but exposure and WB can always be improved in Raw (not to mention in extremes, also distortion, noise, vignetting, etc, etc - some of it is like magic).

Setting the one Daylight WB value does not cover clouds and shade and sunsets, etc. Flash tubes vary color with power level, so there is no one correct value. Incandescent varies with bulb, and power of bulb, and type of bulb. Instead of spending much time trying to get WB correct (the camera has very crude tools for this), it is tremendously easier, faster, and better to ignore it, and just correct it after we can actually see it. Then we know what we are doing, and can see what we will get. :)

If we don't care, then we can use Auto WB. :)
 
Last edited:
F

FastGlass

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

aroy said:
JPEG is like shooting film and sending it to a Quick Processing Lab. You just shoot and the rest is taken care of by the processing house. Many sports and journalists shoot jpeg. Some of the reasons are
. Fast turn around. You shoot, check and send it. I think that is where a fast burst rate a good buffer and fast accurate AF helps. You just bracket and/or shoot a burst and one shot is going to be at least reasonably good.
. No post processing, hence a huge saving of time. Imagine you are shooting upwards of 2,000 shots a day (normal for wedding and sports photographers). Now calculate the time saved.
. If your images are going to be used either on the web or in a small print size, there is no need to shoot at 24MP and then down size it. If you have the basics right and the foreground is all that matters, the jpeg image out of camera is good enough.

If you want to extract the maximum out of your images (landscape, advertising, reprography etc), balance colours, highlight shadows and carry out further post processing then you shoot RAW, as that has much more information than a jpeg image. A lot of photographers shoot RAW+jpeg. JPEG for run of the mill images, and if any image required further post processing then they use the RAW.

I shoot RAW, as I have plenty of time to post process the few images I shoot per day. Another reason is that with RAW I can take liberties with exposure and composition and tweak them in post processing.

For those who use jpeg as they do not want to be bothered with post processing, there is a simple work around. Shoot RAW, then use the supplied free View NX-II to batch process the RAW to jpeg. The jpeg so generated will have all the camera settings applied! In case you want to tweak any shot, you can then do post processing.
Click to expand...
I never thought that sports photographers shoot exclusively in J-PEG. Makes perfect sense givin the reasons. My comment was aimed for the folks that shoot and then do some PP on the images.
 
K

Krs_2007

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

AC016 said:
Photography, like any other "art" medium, is highly subjective. Just because some guy with a fro says something, it does not mean that it is THE way to do it. Like his ridiculous t-shirts that say, "I shoot RAW", it is but his opinion.
Click to expand...


Its not the fact that he says it, its the fact that you preserve all pixels in an image if you crop in camera instead of at the computer. This is how it makes perfect sense.
 
P

pk63015

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

Since I started this thread, I guess I should also make my choice known.. I have chosen to shot........


Raw. :)
 
C

carguy

Senior Member
re: Do you shoot "Raw" or "Jpeg"

FastGlass said:
If shooting RAW then why choose to also save a copy of J-PEG? I see some of you choose to save both while shooting. Never understood why. If choosing to have a RAW copy so manipulation and adjustments are necessary if needed then why waste card space having a J-PEG copy? I never had an image that didn't need something. If only choosing J-PEG, well that makes sense. Smaller files, not having the software to work on RAW files. But both?
Click to expand...
I shoot RAW + RAW on my D7100.
 
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