RAW vs JPEG

There are two file formats that you can use with dSLRs. These formats are RAW or JPEG.

JPEGs are compressed files, which means the camera makes the adjustments to the photo you taken by making guesses as to what you want. The benefit of these files is that the information that isn't used by the camera is then thrown away, which menas smaller file sizes. JPEGs also don't require any post processing to be done to them. In my opinion, as well as many other photographers, JPEGs usually don't look very good. If you're going to be using a dSLR and using JPEG files, I don't really know why you wouldn't just buy a nice point-and-shoot.

RAW files are unedited by the camera, and all of the information is there for the photographer to work with. Having all of the information is ideal for editing photos. The downside to RAW files is that they must be edited. Unedited RAW files are flat and almost never look good if nothing has been done to them.

Here are examples of a RAW file and a JPEG. I've underexposed by about two stops to demonstrate how much better a RAW file looks compared to a JPEG when photos need to be "saved."

The first file is the JPEG. The second file is the RAW file which was exported as a JPEG. The only thing that was done to the JPEG was an increase in exposure of +4. The adjustments made to the RAW file were what I generally always do to my RAW files, which is an adjustment to contrast and clarity. The RAW file's exposure was also increased by +4.

As you can see, the JPEG file lost a lot of detail on the left hand corner of the camera. There's also a lot of noise in the JPEG file. It's also easier to fix the white balance in a RAW file. If you decide to switch from JPEG to RAW now, that doesn't mean you don't have to try your best to get as much right in the camera as possible.

This type of situation was as much of a real-world-situation that I could think of while not getting up from my computer. This type of thing would happen if you were walking around, saw an awesome camera you wanted to take a photo of, but oh no! Your settings were slightly off from a photo you took before (if you're shooting manual) or your camera made a mistake with the exposure (if you're shooting auto, or manual). You get home and start looking at the photos and see your mistake. At least to me, it's pretty obvious which file I'd rather try to save.

Some people may think, "but you made other adjustments to the RAW file that you didn't to the JPEG." This is a valid argument. But I just did what I normally would have to a RAW file, and the camera did what it normally would have to a JPEG. This is the beauty of shooting RAW. You have that much more control over the final image.

For those of you wondering, this is what the unedited RAW file looked like before editing.

And this is what the JPEG looked like before editing.

If you can't tell a difference between these two photos, I would strongly suggest going out and trying it for yourself.

If you're unsure which file format I use, this was the first time I've ever shot a JPEG with a dSLR.