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The Last Word on RAW v JPEG and more
I'm writing this because I'm just plain fed up of listening to the bunkum that is talked on articles about whether you should shoot in RAW or JPEG on your digital camera if it has the capability.
Lots and lots of column inches have been devoted to the pros and cons of which one offers what benefit and which provides for what drawback. I hope you read all those articles because I wont be wasting my time repeating them here.
The long and the short of this post is that RAW v JPEG is a CHOICE not a WAR! Too many people who write articles, feel the need to draw a conclusion as to which format they have finally settled on and then blindly shoot that format going forward.
I recently lent a camera to a young aspiring photographer at my cricket club and forgot to switch the capture to JPEG from RAW. She spent the afternoon taking 1-3 images of most of the cricket shots from our batsmen and then she handed me back the camera.
I was distraught to find that all 600+ images had been taken in RAW. Why ever would you want to shoot local amateur sport in RAW. There are bound to be any number of good shots available and for 99% of those, the camera will have done a great job exposing the result. The results were going on the Cricket Clubs Flickr Page and even if a 'magic image' been missed because of exposure issues...so what? Its Local Amateur Sport.
I however had an afternoon of wading through each image and then having to process each one through Adobe Bridge and in 100% of cases clicked 'auto' in the settings selection...what a waste of time!
RAW is a Tool for the photographer to use just as much as a Tripod is a tool. Use it when you need it or feel that it would be helpful in creating a great image and avoid it when you don't need it and feel it would be cumbersome in either the time it takes you to process the images, or in the file size that it consumes on your storage media and backup media.
The Conclusion is...Make an educated choice based on the pros and cons of each image type and use the one which suits the setting and the opportunity, JUST like you would a tripod. Carry it if you'll need it, leave it in the trunk if you don't. It's SIMPLE!
Stop listening to all the static that is talked over RAW and start listening to your own skill and judgement. THAT'S what sets pros apart from amateurs.
Regards
Ewen Rankin (JPEG & RAW User)
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Ewen Rankin