Dwiggy Loc: Dunedin, FL

I have been shooting with my Canon camera set to RAW and JPG. Talking to a Nikon friend over the weekend, they said you should only shoot RAW it is better. I said well mine is set to RAW and JPG. What's wrong with that? They said, "you won't get as good of results." Correct or Incorrect?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

In the ideal world, which you just happen to have with your Canon EOS, you want to expose to the right (ETTR) for your RAW capture, maximizing the data captured by the sensor into the RAW file. The ETTR results will tend to over-exposed the JPEGs, making them of little use. Using the JPEGs for culling is a waste of time as you have two versions of the same file to delete. Instead, get a RAW-specific culling tool like the modestly priced $29 Fast Raw Viewer (FRV).

Being a successful JPEG shooter is a different shooting technique than a successful RAW shooter. Trying to be both from the same camera at the same time is to be less than your best at either.

ETTR in Practice

ETTR in Practice II

julian.gang

As long as you work with Lightroom, which is available to both RAW and JPEG you should be fiine!...Julian

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

RAW.

tgreenhaw

I shoot both. SD cards have gotten inexpensive and I like the convenience of SOOC jpgs and the option of saving or perfecting the best shots with raw.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Absolutely incorrect!
Are they selling bridges also?

RAW has benefits, if you use them, as well as JPEG, just different benefits. You wind up with a file of each to use as you please.

(I shoot RAW+JPEG also. (For 12 years so far since I purchased a camera that provides both.)
I have my reasons, which are very simple.

Dwiggy Loc: Dunedin, FL

Hey Paul,
This is truly helpful. More than I bargained for looking back at your ETTR posts from 2013. I wasn't on UHH at that time so this is helpful. I believe you answered my question well. I have noticed that the jpg's were not as "up to par" as I thought. Thanks a million!
Dwiggy

BebuLamar

One thing is that if you shoot very fast and your camera doesn't have good buffer you would run out of buffer faster with RAW+JPEG than RAW alone.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

No choice. Your camera will always capture raw data, and you will always want JPEGs for sharing images. The question is this: do you want to create your own JPEG images from the raw files, or let the camera do that for you?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

There's nothing 'wrong' with JPEGs. You're just limited with how far you can push them in editing. Therefore, it becomes more important to get the JPEG as close to the end result coming out of the camera as possible. The WB has some flexibility, but not as much as a RAW. The shadows also have less flexibility, for a few reasons, including the data has been compressed to an 8-bit format in a smaller overall colorspace.

Many people don't want to edit each and every image, as is needed from RAW. Others do. Lightroom is the best tool for efficient RAW editing where you can mass-edit your images, syncing the adjustments from one image across a series of similar images. Once you get the hang of this syncing action, you'll never consider hand-editing every single image.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

There's nothing wrong with shooting both RAW and JPG. It doesn't impact quality. There's some advantages, like you can see how the camera chose to develop the picture. However, your photo collection will be complicated by the duplicates. I did RAW + JPG for a little while, and had LR stack JPG with RAW. However, I soon concluded that it wasn't benefitting me. For the last 8 years or so, I've shot only RAW.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

I was about to say that amazingly enough there was no possible basis for controversy on this thread from the posts so far. Then I read yours again ...

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

The complete aversion to saving JPEG files dates back to a time when memory was expensive. Many cameras by default saved extremely compressed JPEGs, and many photographers adjusted their cameras to do so to save a few bucks on memory cards. Some, without perhaps even realizing what they were doing, also saved images at significantly reduced resolution to save a little bit more. The combination of reduced resolution and extreme compression, which led to further image deterioration, led to a completely understandable bias against ever using JPEG for anything.

Now that memory prices are more reasonable, it is no longer necessary for most people to make the extreme choices of the past, but the bias remains. Raw is certainly a superior medium, and the only choice in some cases, but there are many other situations in which a well-crafted JPEG will work just fine. Turns out that the range of a color printer is a really close match to the range of an 8 bit JPEG.

My suggestion is to learn to work with both. Then, use the one which best fits the need and avoid the fray.

I will agree that good JPEGs are not compatible with ETTR. They are also not compatible with night sky starscapes and some other subjects. Sometimes, you have to choose. Other times, I save both files.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

People love to tell others that the way they do things and what equipment is the best.
Yea, the best for them... In their opinion, whether based on fact or their gut feeling.
What I can't figure is why they think everyone should be doing things their way.
Oh, wait, it's the best way.....

- I store RAW+JPEG.
- I don't use a cataloger, I use File Explorer.
- I don't edit every picture I take, but I keep the majority for nostalgia.
- I don't take 50 shots of the same thing, I'm selective.
- I don't shoot manual always.
- I don't have to have the latest & greatest anything.
- I use protective filters.
- I don't use Auto ISO.
- I use third party batteries.
- I don't need six to ten lenses.
- I use AUTO, A, P, & T, as warranted for what I want to do.
- I don't care which brand or model camera is "best".
- I don't shoot for the sake of shooting.
- I don't give a RRE about mirrorless.

- I do what I want.....

Others, can do what they want.

Happy shooting!