How many of you shoot .raw .jpeg or both ??

Do you shoot most of the time) .raw .jpeg or always both ?

  • .RAW

    Votes: 72 55.4%
  • .JPEG

    Votes: 14 10.8%
  • BOTH

    Votes: 44 33.8%

  • Total voters
    130
If I'm out shooting for myself (e.g. wildlife, trains, aircraft, etc.) then it's just RAW.

On holidays or family days out, however, its RAW for me and JPG for the wife - she doesn't like waiting for me to edit and export to JPG :(
 
But with the jpeg it's all baked in when you take the picture and changing things like WB are nowhere near as easy if possible at all plus you have to apply changes in an order whereas with raw you can apply the changes all at once.

I do really struggle to understand why anyone would shoot jpeg unless for the simplest things as raw processing can take just seconds or can be done with batch applied presets. TBH I only shoot jpeg when checking the sensor for contamination. I suppose another use for jpegs is machine gunners who don't have time to process pictures at all before they're zapped off somewhere.
that's why i try to get it right in the camera and most times i do you can still adjust wb tint etc to a lesser degree anyway .
I could say people shoot raw because they can't get it right in camera but i won't say that ;) as it causes argument's lol
People should shoot what there happy with Raw or jpeg or both it really doesn't matter to me just enjoy your photography.
Rob
 
Both. Sometimes I need to get pictures online in a great hurry, so I can use the jpgs. On other occasions I have time to process RAW files.

If you are going to do any processing at all it's worth remembering that the modifications made on a RAW image are saved in another file. The image file itself is never modified. If you process jpgs the file itself is modified, so you really need to get it right first time - every time you revisit it artefacts and noise build up.

If you really have to process a jpg, save a copy of the master file and modifiy that. However, you can fiddle with, and revisit, a RAW file forever, with no worries about degrading the image. It's easy to save both and have options, so that's what I do.
 
you have to apply changes in an order
Not necessarily - with something like Photoshop you can use adjustment layers, whose effects are combined into one hit at the time of saving ...?

However - it depends on how you are trying to communicate through your photography. Even in colour how we 'read' a photograph depends on how the tones in it are disposed. Relying on an in-camera preset, or one in software, removes a significant element of control in this regard and others.

RAW all the way for me.
 
One thing I've found is that pictures I took years ago and processed using the free Canon software or some other years old processing package look much better when processed with newer software. I think this is one good advantage of shooting raw... you can revisit the pictures and reprocess them as processing software improves.

I guess some of that Alan could be your own processing skills might have also improved.
 
Always RAW. But yesterday while photographing small birds in a bush, I knew I was going to end up with literally hundreds of files to process. I did begin to wonder if there was a case for shooting jpegs in that situation.

I wonder if it's more that our culling skills need to improve.

Friday night I went to a friend's retirement do. The first venue was a crazy golf place indoors with constantly changing spot lighting, the second was a dimly lit bar. I ended up putting the camera in continuous focus and drive mode, shooting bursts of 5 to 10 frames. After a first cull I'm down to 438 images.

FWIW there is no 'getting it right in camera' particularly for the golf place, and without raw and a decent dynamic range, I might as well have used my phone in HDR mode.
 
No mention of shooting in 4K or 1080p which I do both at the same time with my Sony FDR AX53 camcorder. Then I can grab a frame from either. Even my lumix compact takes photos in 4K
 
Last edited:
Yes, culling can be a mind-bending task! Hundreds of almost identical images to go through with minute differences in exposure, sharpness and composition to discriminate between.........

I came back from a three day trip to Norfolk with about 1700 images to go through. Many were almost identical........ I'm sure I'm not unique amongst bird photographers either.
 
Last edited:
Nearly always raw, except on an old camera that didn't support raw. I may have used jpeg occasionally on cameras where shooting raw filled the buffer too quickly and I needed the speed, or I was running low on media card space. I've occasionally shot jpeg accidentally on a camera that made it too easy to switch modes! For me, raw + jpeg is redundant, because I have the camera manufacturer's own raw processor installed, which will give me something very close to the in-camera jpeg rendering if that's what I need. Storage is cheap, so I don't see raw file size as an issue, and as I'm culling raw images before processing, it doesn't take much extra time. Obviously it's different for professionals in fields where getting the picture out as quickly as possible is crucial.
 
I shoot jpeg fine and Raw.

Mr Fuji and I have an agreement that if I tell him exactly what I want, he'll give me exactly what I want, and this agreement usually works well. The raws exist to cover the occasional miscommunication between us.;)
 
used to use RAW with dslr but jpeg most of the time with mirrorless because its easier to get the exposure near correct and i dont need the highest quality since im not that good anyways lol
 
I shoot jpeg fine and Raw.

Mr Fuji and I have an agreement that if I tell him exactly what I want, he'll give me exactly what I want, and this agreement usually works well. The raws exist to cover the occasional miscommunication between us.;)


I have a similar agreement with Fuji-San. However, since my photos are purely for me (occasional sharings here excepted), I don't bother with any raw files. 99% of the time, the Fujis get it how I like it and on the rare occasions they don't, it doesn't matter anyway. IF I shot for a living and in difficult situations, I might shoot in raw but having used slide film, I am happy using JPEGs.
 
I could say people shoot raw because they can't get it right in camera but i won't say that ;) as it causes argument's lol

Too late you did ! But to some degree I agree with your statement like with most things doing it right first time is much easier/less time consuming than trying to add extra bodges to make it right later. what ever it maybe. I generally know how my camera shoots and know what will work for me and what won't, if the image is that far out in the first place then it will be knocked out in the cull. That said I appreciate that some people do enjoy the editing side of Digital photography and of course for most of us it's a hobby and all about the enjoyment it gives us.
 
Technically film is RAW it needs processing before it can be shared.
I've in the past shot film as a Hybrid process which I really enjoy but have always had an internal fight with the thought of shooting analogue and then still ending up with a digital image and costing me much more to do it when I could have just shot with Digital to start with . With the cost of Film rising regularly shooting digital only has finally won the war.
 
If it's landscapes then it's RAW, if it's photos of the family the JPEG.
 
No mention of shooting in 4K or 1080p which I do both at the same time with my Sony FDR AX53 camcorder. Then I can grab a frame from either. Even my lumix compact takes photos in 4K


That is because both '4K' and '1080i/p' are resolutions, not file formats, so mentioning them is largely irrelevant.
 
Too late you did ! But to some degree I agree with your statement like with most things doing it right first time is much easier/less time consuming than trying to add extra bodges to make it right later. what ever it maybe. I generally know how my camera shoots and know what will work for me and what won't, if the image is that far out in the first place then it will be knocked out in the cull. That said I appreciate that some people do enjoy the editing side of Digital photography and of course for most of us it's a hobby and all about the enjoyment it gives us.

You need to shoot raw to get it right in camera.
The camera processing of the raw to a JPEG makes use of manufacturers presets.
It is rarely the best possible option. But is usually a good compromise.
It can almost always be improved upon.
 
I've in the past shot film as a Hybrid process which I really enjoy but have always had an internal fight with the thought of shooting analogue and then still ending up with a digital image and costing me much more to do it when I could have just shot with Digital to start with . With the cost of Film rising regularly shooting digital only has finally won the war.
What I meant was with film you need to develop it before anyone can see the image even with slide just as with RAW you need to put it through a RAW converter of some kind before most can see the image. In the film days the printing process was something like the PP on digital files in somuchas you started with the neg and created a pring the way you wanted it to look, hence my likening film to RAW shooting.
 
I only ever shoot in RAW, always have done. There is a reason for this, and it's not particularly rational, I've always dreamed of getting a photograph of something so extraordinarily rare that someone would pay a small fortune for it. If I took it but there was something so wrong with the lighting because it was taken so quickly that a JPEG just wouldn't cut the mustard in bringing out the subject I would be devastated, but shooting in RAW gives me a chance to make my fortune by bringing out the relevant details.

I told you it was irrational.

In addition, I have paid a small fortune for my cameras and lenses so I want to use all they provide; it's like hobbling a racehorse otherwise.
 
Either or both depending on the job. Events and sports my aim is to get it right in camera with jpg for the fastest workflow. Canon and Fuji have great picture profile and adjustment possibilities for that. For portraits and landscapes that will need processing, then raw makes more sense.
 
In addition, I have paid a small fortune for my cameras and lenses so I want to use all they provide; it's like hobbling a racehorse otherwise.

I look at it as not using the jpg processing possibilities in camera is not using the camera to its full potential. Getty press photographers work only with jpgs.
 
Getty press photographers work only with jpgs.


Um, Getty photographers (sport excepted) work almost exclusively in RAW.

You might be thinking of Reuters, which went through a period of forcing all its contributors to only shoot in Jpeg back in 2015 for ethical reasons.
Which was somewhat counter-intuitive.
 
I look at it as not using the jpg processing possibilities in camera is not using the camera to its full potential. Getty press photographers work only with jpgs.

Good point about the usage. I have probably never used eye-tracking focussing for example, but it's there nevertheless.

On the Getty photographer front, I suppose they are professional and unlike me, are much less likely to get the taking of the photograph wrong in the first place.
 
Curious, what would they think was unethical about a method of image storage.


It followed a news image manipulation scandal (can't remember which one) and the agency wanted to emphasise the purity of news capture
whilst avoiding image manipulation. Which, of course, is complete bollux.
They also stressed the speed advantage of straight from camera to transmission capture.


Ironically, in the same year, the World Press Photo organisation swung in the opposite direction requiring RAW only capture for submission.
 
The professions have been manipulating images since the Daguerreotype. I expect even Roman painters used a bit of artistic license and old cave paintings were hardly accurate (I assume) :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
old cave paintings were hardly accurate
Perhaps oddly, the cave paintings I've seen images of were more accurate than most people's photographs today. The perpetrators weren't trying to output half-baked replicas as most of us do - they were spot-on. It was great art, with feeling distilled into an essence, and grounded enough to be spiritual, if that makes sense to anybody. These days, we go shopping a lot for cameras, then just waste time p***ing about with them, by comparison.
 
Last edited:
The professions have been manipulating images since the Daguerreotype. I expect even Roman painters used a bit of artistic license and old cave paintings were hardly accurate (I assume) :)


That isn't a problem if you are producing photographic or digital art.

If you are producing news or documentary images, it is.
 
What I find odd is that some people think that there is a mythical thing called "correct exposure."
There is only the exposure that enables you to arrive at the final image that you want to achieve.
This can be miles from the one that a camera firmware might choose.
 
Last edited:
Um, Getty photographers (sport excepted) work almost exclusively in RAW.

You might be thinking of Reuters, which went through a period of forcing all its contributors to only shoot in Jpeg back in 2015 for ethical reasons.
Which was somewhat counter-intuitive.
I've been working with the Getty entertainment team from Germany for a few years and they are jpg only (red carpet events, fashion etc). The whole workflow is jpg and they put a lot of effort into setting up the camera precisely for that - white balance and tint adjustments, etc. As a result, it's extremely fast, if you're set up correctly, you can send the finished pictures directly from the camera over the network with a voice note detailing the talent in the shot.
 
What I find odd is that some people think that there is a mythical thing called "correct exposure."
There is only the exposure that enables you to arrive at the final image that you want to achieve.
This can be miles from the one that a camera firmware much choose.
You can choose how your camera firmware functions for exposure metering to get the exposure you want, no?
 
You need to shoot raw to get it right in camera.
The camera processing of the raw to a JPEG makes use of manufacturers presets.
It is rarely the best possible option. But is usually a good compromise.
It can almost always be improved upon.
With Canon, they provide in-camera adjustment possibilities and a "Picture Style Editor" app that you can use to create your own presets. The app gives more control including tone curve and HSL controls for RYGCBM and HSL and tone curve for specific colors if you need that too.
 
I've been working with the Getty entertainment team from Germany for a few years and they are jpg only (red carpet events, fashion etc). The whole workflow is jpg and they put a lot of effort into setting up the camera precisely for that - white balance and tint adjustments, etc. As a result, it's extremely fast, if you're set up correctly, you can send the finished pictures directly from the camera over the network with a voice note detailing the talent in the shot.


We are not in Germany!
 
Back
Top