amfoto1 wrote:
You don't seem at all confused about the differences shooting RAW vs JPEG.
For me it all comes down to one thing....
I've never seen a photo that didn't need at least a little tweaking in post processing, and that's MUCH better done working from a RAW file than it is from a JPEG.
Something you forgot... Sometimes it's necessary to shoot JPEGs, such as when the images are needed immediately, when there's no time to do a RAW conversion and work on the image. (When that's the case, I usually shoot RAW + JPEG, to still have the option of later make more tweaks to the image in post-processing if I wish.)
Most cameras today capture 14 bit images. A few even do full 16 bit. Regardless, when a RAW file is edited most software works with it as a 16 bit file.
JPEGs out of camera are 8 bit. The difference is that 8 bit files have 256 tonalities per color channel, while 16 bit have 65,536 tonalities per channel! 16 bit images simply have a much more comprehensive "color palette" to work with. One of the ways this difference shows up in images is "banding" in smooth tonal gradations. That ugly effect is far more likely to occur in an 8 bit image than in 16 bit.
Yes, there are times when RAW allows you to correct a shooting mistake. Getting it "right" in-camera is always best. But it's almost never 100%. By no means is RAW just a covering up one's "inadequacies" as a photographer, as some like to suggest. Those "JPEG only" people never make any mistakes, I'm sure. But even their images would be better... sometimes a great deal better... if they instead shot RAW and did some finishing work on them. Working with RAW files is just part of the process of making your images the very best they can be. But, hey, if your JPEGs straight out of camera are "good enough" for your purposes, there's no one stopping you from shooting them.
You don't seem at all confused about the differenc... (
show quote)
Quite often, if you shoot a well exposed image in RAW, all you have to do is hit the Auto button in Lightroom and it's done. I'm not sure if hitting auto just does what making a jpeg in camera does or not. All I know is when I shoot a good shot in RAW there's little adjustment needed. It's not covering up inadequacies it's more about bringing out the best of what was captured.