Raw vs JPEG files?

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Gothika

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My camera (Nikon D40) is set on JPEG (fine). I've heard that the RAW option gives you better quality. My camera does support this but I want to know.. is the RAW quality really better?
 
It's not as simple as that. RAW files simply store more information and allow you to recover & tweak the image a lot more in software such as Lightroom or Photoshop.

It's the actual data your camera records when you take a photograph - think of it as a digital negative.
 
Please use the search tool on the navigation bar... Sorry its just this thread is an exact copy of a previous one :)
 
dfrear said:
It's not as simple as that. RAW files simply store more information and allow you to recover & tweak the image a lot more in software such as Lightroom or Photoshop.

It's the actual data your camera records when you take a photograph - think of it as a digital negative.
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Can't you tweak it just as well in PS with a JPEg file?

edit: opps, sorry, davidbridges
 
Your camera always take a RAW file. You can either let the camera's on-board chip post process it for you based only using the settings you set in the camera before taking the picture, then compressing and saving it (JPEG), or you can have it just save the untouched image (RAW) and then use the extra computing power of your PC/Mac to run slightly more sophisticated algorithms to do the same things, but crucially, doing it on the PC later lets you experiment and try things, and also not to lose a shot due to having a silly saturation or contrast setting.

That why I shoot RAW.
 
I tried using the RAW option before. I took a picture, put it onto the computer and said Photoshop CS2 wasn't able to open it.. if I did use Raw I'd want to use Photoshop CS2 to alter it.. what do I do?
 
You need to make sure you have the Adobe Camera RAW plug in installed, and its the correct version that supports your camera.

RAW is better. The trade off is significantly bigger file sizes which means less photos per card and a more powerful computer for processing.
 
Did it not occur to you that CS2 needs the right raw plug in, in file formats, Go to adobes site and download the appropriate Camera Raw.
 
i had the same topic a few weeks back, after reading i decided to shoot in RAW and give it a try

works perfectly and it can save some images that may be over exposed slightly for instance

have a mess with it and see how you get on
 
Or you could shoot in RAW and JPEG which is what i do, i then view the JPEG, if it's ok i just tweak it a bit and save it, if it needs anymore doing to it i have the RAW file to do a full process on, use's up more card space but can save you some time and heartache.
 
RAW file = data file. it's not actually an image. it's the data stored by your camera when you take the shot.

JPEG = compressed image file. your camera takes your RAW file and tweaks it, then compresses it.

TIF = uncompressed image file. When exported from a RAW file, it should give you all of the information that the RAW file recorded as well as any tweaking that you did.

Take all of that with a grain of salt. I may be WAY off base, but that's how I understand it. Please correct me if I'm incorrect. lol
 
tel48 said:
Or you could shoot in RAW and JPEG which is what i do, i then view the JPEG, if it's ok i just tweak it a bit and save it, if it needs anymore doing to it i have the RAW file to do a full process on, use's up more card space but can save you some time and heartache.
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Do you shoot RAW + best quality jpeg??

I used to do that but changed to the smallest worst quality jpeg purely for quick viewing and it saves a good bit on card space...:thumbs:
 
Anton Roland said:
Do you shoot RAW + best quality jpeg??

I used to do that but changed to the smallest worst quality jpeg purely for quick viewing and it saves a good bit on card space...:thumbs:
Click to expand...

Actually, Preview Extractor can extract jpeg previews from Canon DSLRs too, but they're only half size. Still, if they're for quick viewing only, it could be enough.
 
Anton Roland said:
Do you shoot RAW + best quality jpeg??

I used to do that but changed to the smallest worst quality jpeg purely for quick viewing and it saves a good bit on card space...:thumbs:
Click to expand...

Why can't you quickly view the RAW files?
 
the only thing I have found anoying about using raw files is that windows cant display them (unless I am missing some plug in)

so you have to open cs2 (or watever you are using) and use the browse option.

That does slow down the Editing side of things a LOT. but I have used raw ever since I went to take some pics of a friends kids and stupidly forgot to check my white ballance and the pics had a horrible orange cast.


If any body knows a quikc way to preview the raws in window, I'll be smiling
 
excellent, you guys are great, I even googled it once, and came up with nothing other than camera raw files for CS so i thought that was that.
 
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