gayellen Loc: Arkansas

Do you have to shoot in Raw to use any of the Photo editing programs? Thanks for your help.

APhelpsPhoto Loc: Indiana

No, you can shoot in JPEG and edit as well

jw32003 Loc: Oklahoma

You can edit in jpeg but raw gives you much more data to work with in your editing software.

LarryD Loc: Mojave Desert

As mentioned, photo editing programs will work on almost any format.. jpeg images can be very vibrant and rich..

Keep in mind though, a format that compresses the image file, such as jpeg, tosses out image information and data every time you edit and save (it also has already done this once in the camera). Eventually you will have an image much degraded from it's original.

This means that you would want to edit a jpeg at one time and save... period. You should not edit and save, look it over, edit some more and save, come back later, edit and save.... etc..

You could immediately convert your jpeg to a tiff and then use the tiff as your master "negative". (but the jpeg has already tossed out the 4096 12 bot levels of color in the raw data and reduced it to 256 jpeg 8 bit color - data you will never get back)

gayellen Loc: Arkansas

Thank you all for your information. It does help a lot.. Appreciate your help.

gayellen

DB Loc: Myrtle Beach, SC

another thing to consider..... newbie to newbie..... RAW files are very large files. Mine run about 7-9mb per picture. Depending on how big your SD card is and how much space you have on your harddrive, it will fill up faster than with jpgs. Also all RAW files will need some sort of editing. With your D90 (I think thats what you have) setting it to Jpeg FINE and largest size will give you great shots... if you plan to print out billboard size shots raw would be better. To figure out which works best for you take some shots with your camera set to Raw and Jpeg.. then decide for yourself if the editing is worth it or if the jpeg is to your liking. I'm beginning to use both.... I don't bother editing the raw file, I just save it and use the jpeg. If I ever want to do anything else with the file then I have the raw to work with. I have a 1tb external harddrive just for raw files. The experts will disagree but thats ok....they were all beginners at one time too.

gayellen Loc: Arkansas

Thank you all for the wonderful information. I have been shooting jpeg, but I think I will start doing what DB says and shoot both.. Again thanks for the advice...

Cornishpete Loc: Illinois

gayellen. It is great to see a very sensible question that has been very sensibly answered. The responses from all of the above are clear and to the point. So often on photography forums such a question would be an invitation to some folk to use every acronym they have come across to show off while the unfortunate newbie is left wondering what they have got themselves into.
Good shooting and keep asking for explanations of anything you are not sure of!

BOB Loc: Texas

How do you convert to tiff ??

photocat Loc: Atlanta, Ga

It will depend on which software your using, (as to where the infromation is located). When you "save as", a drop down menu should appear that will give you a variety of options, including TIFF).

You can change your jpeg to this format , and I would suggest you do so, after making a copy. Tiff"s are not a losy format which is an advantage IMHO)

George H Loc: Brooklyn, New York

DB,
I am a working pro and find your answer to be a wonderful one. I shoot in JPEG a lot more than in Raw. Now some pros would say I am totally wrong, I don't think so. If I know what the light is and it will not change I shoot JPEG, when I do not have complete control over a situation I shoot RAW. Now when I download I save all photos in a original file, then any editing I do on a copy of the photo. Your idea to put all RAW images on a external drive is a good one.

photocat Loc: Atlanta, Ga

Frankly, I get tired of people telling others "what to have to do".

RAW has advantages and it has disadvantages. I agree with DB as well. I shoot both, and if I am not going to do "heavy lifting" the jpeg is just fine, if I am going to do a lot of post pocessing then it will be with the RAW file as it has a lot more infomration available for "pushing and beating up on:.

I tell my students, photos from your childrens parties, jpeg, making art < RAW.

Making and keeping back ups on external drives, a no brainer, it is just part of the workflow.