Tommg

As I understand RAW, it's not really a picture, it's digital (1's & 0,s) raw needs to be edited in order to create a picture. If you take a jpeg picture, your camera applies some editing (not sure editing is the correct term here) therefore it has been e "edited" by the camera, and those changes are pretty much "baked in"

As someone already indicated some of us use raw & some use jpeg, each to his/her own.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

And you came in full "Elitist Adam Henry" mode. You can disagree in an agreeable way but I would make a guess you are bored and getting everyone agitated is a way to amuse yourself. Of course you could just be stubborn and refuse to give any ground in a disagreement.

I use raw/Raw/RAW (pick your favorite) 99.9% of the time but can understand those who are content with jpeg. I am retired, have lots of time and no dead lines to meet so I can take my time and work with the files. Since I do a lot of small birds, insects and other animals I usually have to take them as is in nature which often means bad light so I need to do editing if I want an image I really like.

You can be content with jpeg, it is your choice. But apparently it is also your choice to stir up discontent for fun and profit. Or maybe just to make yourself feel in control and superior. Now you have gotten some people upset and then you make fun of them. That is not a very friendly attitude. Hence I use "Adam Henry"*

*Phonetic alphabet ala US Military and Amateur Radio. I am sure you can deduce the two words they stand for.

Now I suggest that everyone just calm down, have some tea, coffee or your relaxation drink of choice and have a civilized discussion of the merits of the two formats. We can discuss the situations that call for one or the other and agree to disagree. But in a polite civilized manner.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

When I was in the military it was "Alpha Hotel".

Wyantry Loc: SW Colorado

I recently (re)read Ansel Adams’ three-book series (The Camera, The Negative, The Print) and he must have been one of the better “Post-Processing” gurus.

So his zone-system exposure calculation was the “Raw” capture, and his printing processes (burning & dodging) were the “Post Processing”.

There was a LOT of “Post-Processing” involved in his prints!

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Actually it is more Southern or even Appalachian as opposed to "cowboy".

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Mistake noted and I will endeavour to correct my errors.

Having been raised in Brooklyn, New York, in what is now known as an inner-city, neighbourhood, the usage of the word "y'all(s)" did not enter my dialect until my first grade class in public school. I picked it up from my classmates along with a very colourful array of Hispanic slang. I did not realize that many of my new words had issues of, gender and plurals. Of course, our teachers tried to discourage much of this, but to no avail. These violations of technical English were exacerbated by my taking my military training in the Southern U.S. where "y'all(s) and many other colloquialisms became infectious and permanently embedded in my daily speech. Sadly, I have unsuccessfully attempted to remove a lexicon of "bad words" and foul language from my vocabulary with little success. Seems that bad habits die hard!

I can also trace someof my typographical errors back to high school where typing class was for the "girls" who wanted to become secretaries but "macho guys" always opted for metal, woodworking and electrical SHOP. Luckey, I used the gym at the Police Athletic League that had to be accessed through the squad room at the local precinct. An older detective showed me how to type 65 W.P.M. with two fingers. I can now do 80 at very poor accuracy! My mother was an executive secretary, expert stenographer, and could take dictation directly into the typewriter. She also had handwriting that nowadays would be called fine calligraphy. I guess missed that part of the gene pool!

A quote from Mrs. Malander, my 4th-grade teacher; "Edward should become a medical doctor, he speaks like doctors write a prescription"!

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

This is an excerpt from some reading material I consulted when I first made the decision to make a transition from film photography to digital.

That was a long time ago he the basic camera available was a Nikon body on a Kodak frame.

A camera RAW image is an unprocessed photograph captured with a digital camera. It contains the raw image data captured by the camera's sensor (or CCD), saved in proprietary file format specific to the camera manufacturer.

By default, most digital cameras process and compress photos as JPEG files immediately after capturing the image. The processing step automatically applies the appropriate color correction and the JPEG compression significantly reduces the file size. The result is an efficiently processed JPEG image.

While JPEG images are suitable for most purposes, professional photographers and photography enthusiasts prefer to control over how each image is processed. Therefore, many high-end cameras have the ability to shoot in RAW mode instead of JPEG. The raw files are unprocessed, allowing the photographer to adjust settings like exposure, white balance, and saturation after the image has been captured. Instead of applying lossy JPEG compression, which reduces the image quality, RAW mode saves files in a losslessly compressed format.

Because Camera RAW files are uncompressed, they take up more space than typical JPEG images. In fact, RAW files often require 5 to 10 times more disk space for each image captured. So you'll want to have a large memory card in your camera if you plan on shooting in RAW mode.

It's no big deal- it's straightforward and mostly still applies. It makes no mention of a photographer's skill or lack thereof.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I learned the y'all and all y'alls from a fellow worker who was from the Smoky Mountains area. Other phrases were jeetyet? Did you eat yet? If the answer was no, the next reply was, 'unto?' (want to?). If the answer was yes, the reply was lesqueet, let's go eat.

We had a blast. For me it was like learning a foreign language.
--Bob

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

I usually don't engage in this sort of discussion because it usually doesn't accomplish anything or change hardcore believers minds. I used to pride myself in getting it straight in the camera; I think it was a hold-over from my days of shooting film. After a while I became dissatisfied with my SOOC results; I couldn't get a well-balanced photo; the highlights were usually blown. I started shooting in RAW as a one-time experiment and shot to capture the highlights. Using my Camera RAW in Elements, I processed a number of iterations of the file and combine them for an HDR photo that captured what I actually saw. The first time I did this I was a convert. Now I shoot in RAW, expose for the highlights, combine exposures and am happy with the results. As a note, I used to bulk load my own black and white film and develop it as well.

This is just my journey from shooting SOOC JPEG to shooting RAW and enjoying the post processing experience.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Your testimonial is greatly welcomed following a nonsensical few days across multiple threads! More people willing to investigate and try new approaches would help short-circuit these discussions.

ygelman Loc: new -- North of Poughkeepsie!

And I learned to say ". . .twirly tweet" (too early to eat) when I wasn't ready to eat. Don't know where it originated, though.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I was in 66-69, two years in Vietnam. The older troops used one phonetic alphabet and the younger used another since the Army was in transition at the time. Then you had radio operators who picked up a mashup of the two and Ham radio types and law enforcement who used different versions. As long as it was understandable we didn't get upset about it. "Easy" "Edward" or "Echo", it didn't matter. In basic and advanced training in 66 both times I was in "C" company and almost everyone preferred the old "Charlie" to the new "Congo". It just sounded better to us. The same went for "Easy" Company across the street. Easy, where nothing is ever easy. They joked that "Echo" was slow learning and had to repeat everything. In Vietnam the helicopter gunship unit that had patrol and reaction in our area was "C" Company of the ??? Aviation Battalion and they didn't like either Charlie or Congo on the radio, they became "Crocodile". As night clerk and radio operator in the Tac Ops Center night shift I had a lot of conversations with Crocodile 19er. We went over using "Group" on the radio (593rd Support Group), got told it was wrong and the code was "Golf" - our Colonel didn't like that so since we were the base station we became '0' but used "Oscar" on the air since Zero didn't sound so good.
Then for several years I belonged to a REACT unit that worked with our local PD and they used the "name" version of the phonetic alphabet so I am used to it.

revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

"It all depends." If you seek professional quality, especially for large prints, and are skilled at post-processing then by all means use RAW. If you are taking numerous pictures while traveling, if you are satisfied with the quality, and if you want to spend minimal time in post processing, JPG does just fine.