Shoot in raw or jpeg?

[sin77]

most of the time i shoot jpeg for company events.

but suddenly i felt that i must go a level up by learning the capability of raw.

Can anyone enlighten me how much better is raw to justify the extra work (of conversion) and storage space?
Maybe sample pics of 1 raw vs 1 jpeg would be good.

[flashbug]

for my DSLR, RAW is about 3-4 times bigger.
If storage is a problem, I will suggest jpeg.

Do you have a habit of doing post photography for all/most of your photos?
If not, stick with jpeg.

The sensor does not actually recognises colours, so the advantage of RAW is that you take in all the information on the sensor without and processing, then you may use softwares like Camera RAW to adjust white balance later on your computer, without introducing unnecessary noise.

Also, jpeg is 8-bit, so some of the colours is 'lost' the moment you take a photo in jpeg, whereas you can take a photo in RAW and retain most of its 'colour' information. This is why most people recommend working with RAW as you can convert to 14-bit TIFF (another monster file size)

Personally, I will use RAW only if the event is important (wedding, event coverage) or doing HDR images, when I bother to do post photography.

[rainwhisper]

Originally Posted by sin77 most of the time i shoot jpeg for company events. but suddenly i felt that i must go a level up by learning the capability of raw. Can anyone enlighten me how much better is raw to justify the extra work (of conversion) and storage space? Maybe sample pics of 1 raw vs 1 jpeg would be good.

RAW files can be used to adjust white balance better. And you can treat RAW files like film negatives. So far i don't know any computer program can convert jpeg to raw file. Will be useful for copyrights issue since you are doing company events.

[Reportage]

Originally Posted by sin77 most of the time i shoot jpeg for company events. but suddenly i felt that i must go a level up by learning the capability of raw. Can anyone enlighten me how much better is raw to justify the extra work (of conversion) and storage space? Maybe sample pics of 1 raw vs 1 jpeg would be good.

Raw is great when conditions are very dark or too bright. i use Raw mainly when i need to use Exposure Bracketing. when the lighting is reasonable, jpeg is alright just remember to convert to .tif before editing as jpeg loses quality every time it is saved. the buffer also clears the photos faster compared to using Raw.

[zac08]

Please do a search... this has been DISCUSSED plenty of times.

You can also do your own check.

Shoot a picture in RAW + Large fine jpeg

compare them and see which you prefer.

[RayTravis]

SHOOT RAW = Still can be repaired if picture turn out under exposed.

SHOOT JPEG = Can be repaired but not easy compared to RAW

[jlpk007]

Originally Posted by RayTravis SHOOT RAW = Still can be repaired if picture turn out under exposed. SHOOT JPEG = Can be repaired but not easy compared to RAW

i shoot raw..used to shoot in jpeg...then i tried raw and never went back to jpeg..
RAW has a lot of room for editing(repair my pictures)

[netimpact]

Other that the image size, does raw requires high speed SDHC and CF card?

[zac08]

Originally Posted by netimpact Other that the image size, does raw requires high speed SDHC and CF card?

Not really... unless you shoot in bursts all the time, machine gunning the pics... and even then if the camera does not have a fast writing speed, having a fast card is no point either...

[tkbonz]

i shoot ONLY jpeg when hanging out with friends and taking those fun casual shoots.

But on assignment, whether paid or not, and for photography trips, its RAW+Jpeg Fine for me all the way. Then if i dun like some pictures, i del away the raw, if not i keep both.

[catchlights]

what is the final output for the company event you usually took?

try processing same images from RAW and from jpg, make a comparison yourself.

only you can answer is it justify the extra work (of conversion) and storage space?

[ortega]

if you know what you are doing shoot jpeg
if you don't then shoot raw

if kiasu and have lots of time for PP then shoot raw
for important shots which is worth the money/time, i shoot raw+jpeg fine, if the jpeg is OK, i delete the raw file