Why Shooting RAW files

Camera manufacturers continue to boost the megapixel output of their digital SLRs, enabling them to capture more information and more detail with every new model release. It only makes sense then that you would want to preserve all of that information and detail, right? If you always shoot JPEG files instead of RAW then you may not be realizing your camera’s true potential.
JPEG images emerge from a camera considerably smaller in file size than RAW captures. For many uses JPEGs are convenient and offer fine quality. RAW files are larger and must be processed in software before they can be utilized and shared. So why shoot RAW and have to deal with an extra step when the JPEGs may look just fine? There are a few good reasons that professionals and serious amateurs choose RAW.
Think of your camera as performing two distinctly different functions at exposure. In one step the camera captures an image and in the next step it processes the image into a usable format. If your camera is set to RAW then it performs only the first operation and stores the RAW capture data. If it is set to JPEG then the camera also converts the RAW data into JPEG (a compressed but easier to share) format using camera settings you’ve preselected (white balance, image size, amount of JPEG compression).
What if one of your settings was less than ideal? Say your white balance was set incorrectly, to daylight white balance when you were shooting indoors. The image will be very yellow and need correction. Yes, if the image is an already-processed JPEG it can be corrected in software but that may take some serious fiddling. It also will not be as accurate as if the camera settings were correct in the first place. There will most likely be odd bits of color showing up in highlights and shadows, still.
Now imagine the same photograph had been shot with the camera set to RAW capture. Since the file was not processed in the camera we simply move the file into our processing software, select the correct white balance and it will emerge with accurate color. One simple step has created an image with accurate color and little effort.

Okay, it’s extreme time. Click over to http://reviews.photographyreview.com/blog/why-shoot-raw/ and read the full article by Jim Talkington / prophotolife.com

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