This is a topic that I re-visit with some trepidation since I have learned that there are such strong feelings about it. And let me add that I am not telling anyone they have to shoot RAW or do any post-processing; if you are happy with your photography as it is then fine, you should stick with what you know and what you are happy with. But some people may be on the fence about the topic and wondering whether it is worth the time, effort and money that is associated with the switch. And I recently had some experience with this issue that may help in making that evaluation.

It may help to let you know that what renewed my interest in photography was precisely the new possibility of post-processing images on my PC. That new interest began a bit before there were digital cameras, so at first and for quite a few years I was editing JPEG files and initially these came from scanning photos taken with a film camera. The results, even with the early digital cameras, really look pretty inadequate today, but it was new technology and I enjoyed the process. I recently went through some of these old images; most are not worth spending time on.

But somewhere in the late 1990's, years before DSLRs were on the market, I bought an Olympus 2500L. For the day, that was a fairly high-end digital camera. Except that it would only create JPEG images, it would probably qualify as a decent bridge camera today. I found some images that I shot at Yellowstone National Park with that camera. I was busy with other things at the time so I'd never done anything with them.

Editing these old JPEG photos was a good reminder of why I should shoot RAW. Shooting RAW forces me to edit, but editing, for me, is a vital part of the photography process and I will do it whether I shoot RAW or JPEG. Editing these old JPEG images did remind me that the end results will often be better when you start with a RAW image, but really, I was quite aware of that. What I was less aware of was how much easier the job of editing tends to be using RAW sources. Editing these old JPEG images took much more time and effort than they would had they been RAW files. And I found myself resorting to editing techniques I'd not much used for many years; somehow easier techniques with today's great software just did not do the job when starting with JPEG source.

If you are interested, I put these photos into a short slideshow and posted them at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJcPA_78j5M