New member

• colt

  Participant

  February 16, 2010 at 8:18 pm

  hi i am new to photography ireland, and you could say new to digital photography too, although i have been using a samsung nv3 point and shoot. i have just purchased a nikon d3000 after 2 months of exhaustive searching the internet (i could have done with this site). It was a toss up between cannon or nikon. in the end the nikon won and i am happy with it but now i have a question? raw or jpeg and what are the advantages or disadvantages 8)
  5faythe

  Participant

  February 17, 2010 at 2:42 pm

  Hi Derek,

  Welcome to Photography Ireland.
  Lots of info available in the existing threads and members are quite willing to
  answer any questions you might have.

  Don’t be shy about contributing to the site.

  I think most people are happy enough to shoot Jpegs especially at the start.
  I know I shot just Jpegs with my DSLR for the first few years.
  The Jpeg is a processed and compressed version of the RAW data your sensor captures.
  The way it is processed and compressed depends on your camera settings.
  You can decide how your camera processed the data by altering the settings.

  You can also just use the default settings of the camera and produce very good photographs but
  most photographers who wish to progress their skills will want to learn about the possibilities and
  set their camera to suit their own requirements.

  A RAW file is the unprocessed data your sensor captures.
  You need software to process the file into a viewable format like TIFF or Jpeg.
  Programs like photoshop will have RAW conversion software built in although you may have to
  download an update depending on your camera type.

  RAW files are larger than Jpegs and will thus use more space on your hard drive.
  You will have to process RAW files which can be time comsuming.
  Certain adjustments like white balance can be adjusted when you have a RAW file.

  Jpegs files are smaller and take up less space on a hard drive.
  The Jpeg is a compressed format and contains less data than a RAW file.
  A well exposed Jpeg needs very little processing.
  Most editing software can handle Jpegs.

  For my part I save a large Jpeg and a RAW file for each photograpoh I take.
  Mostly the Jpeg is fine and I use that.
  I process the RAW file if the Jpeg is not what I need. (eg white balance adjustment)

  I always save the processed file with a new name and keep the original RAW and Jpeg
  files.
  This means I can revisit these files in the future as my processing skills increase or advances
  in software might maker it worthwhile processing the original file again.

  I hope this helps.

  John.
  colt

  Participant

  February 17, 2010 at 4:12 pm

  thanks for the advise raw v. jpeg john, i will contribute to the site as i gain some more experience at the moment it is good to read what others are doing and trying out some of the set ups with my limited equipment.

  derek.