JPEG vs RAW: Why I started shooting JPEG again after two years shooting just RAW

Before I ever knew about RAW files, I shot JPEG with my eos 1100d and had shot only JPEGs prior to 2013. What drew me to Shoot RAW was that awesome ability to recover detail in the highlights or to dramatically change exposure without losing detail. Yes, that’s what drew me to shoot raw but not why I found that so enticing. I shot raw because I thought it would make my images appear better as a whole and that I would not have to worry about spending time to learn how to get that correctly exposed shot; that shot that wouldn’t require tweaking a JPEG beyond its limits and losing data as a result.

Having shot RAW only for the past two years, my pictures did turn out better in terms of technical quality of an image but it stopped me from understanding what exactly what JPEG and RAW is. It also stopped me from understanding my camera as a whole.

From an easy point of view, RAW files contain all the raw data captured by your sensor while JPEG is an image format, an end product of a RAW file. This means that a JPEG from your camera is always the end product of a RAW file, irrespective of whether your camera is able to produce RAW Files or not. Hence; what separates a JPEG from a RAW file is choice, choice of allowing your camera's firmware process it into JPEG as an end product or you processing it via another programme or  software.

So why choose to shoot in JPEG again? Why choose to let my camera process its raw data? To the first, I say it helps me understand my camera through making use of settings that affect the processing and outcome of raw data and to the second, it saves me loads of time and space as RAW files are much larger than JPEG. This as a whole lets me see the true possibilities and power of what camera I posses. It also enables me know and push it to its limits.

Straight out My Camera, (resized for web)

Next Post: When I shoot in JPEG.