Photography | The RAW Advantage

© 2012 Wazari Wazir | Winter in Kashmir | Snow White

What is RAW? The RAW file format is digital photography’s equivalent of a negative in film photography, it contains untouched, “raw” pixel information straight from the digital camera’s sensor, on the other hand  if you shoot in  JPEG, the camera will do some post processing for you and as a result some of the details will be thorn away, or will be lost, and that’s why the JPEG file is small compared to RAW file and don’t be surprise to see that your JPEG files is better looking at your computer screen than your RAW files, the reason is that the RAW file is still raw material, unprocessed file, while your JPEG files already been processed inside the camera.

There is a lot of information and misinformation regarding shooting in RAW. I don’t want to add to another confusion here because RAW is not something new and I really don’t want to bother with you with all the scientific explanation to differentiate between RAW and JPEG. There is a lot of discussion about it on the net.

Off-course  there is the advantage and disadvantage of shooting with RAW, my suggestion is take the time to learn about RAW, know its advantage and the disadvantage of shooting with RAW and with this information, you will know when to shoot with RAW and when to use JPEG. One thing for sure, RAW will take much space in your memory card and will take more time to be written on your camera memory card because of the size of the data.

But nowadays most camera are so advanced and most of the newest camera today are capable to shoot RAW and JPEG simultaneously, meaning to will save both files, RAW and JPEG to your memory card and the writing speed is getting better by the days, it is up to you whether you like to use it or not. One of the biggest advantages of raw is flexibility. When a photographer shoots JPEG, the white balance, tonal curve, sharpening, compression, and other choices are essentially burned into the file. The sharpening and compression are irreversible . Color and tonal problems created by improper white balance or tonal curve can be adjusted somewhat in a JPEG file, but it will cause some degradation of the image. The problem arises because the camera sets these parameters into the image at the time the photo is taken. Making changes to these parameters at a later time can be difficult (e.g., loss of detail in the shadows due to the use of a contrasty tonal curve) or impossible (e.g., undo file compression).

I don’t shoot RAW all the time, because I know it will take more time for me to edit the image and if you shoot RAW, you have to do or you have no other choice but to spent your time doing some post processing. You can’t give the files to your client and hoping they can see it immediately, unless your client demand RAW files. In my line of duty I shoot JPEG because I don’t have much time doing all the editing, most of the times, my department wanted the picture quickly, so that it can be upload to the website immediately and you cannot upload your RAW pictures to the web without converted it to JPEG first.

In my line of duty, I will always try to get it right in the camera, so that when I finished shooting I can immediately downloaded it to my computer and emailed it to my department depending on the assignment given, sometimes I can get back to my office and there was a time where I need to emailed the picture from afar, especially when I’m working outstation and my department require the files immediately.

So the question is when I shoot RAW? When I have the time and when I think the subject worth to be shooting in RAW, just like the snow photograph above which I took in Sonamarg Kashmir. I know beforehand that in order for me to get the best quality image of the snow, I need to shoot it in RAW because, I want to preserves some details of the snow and white balance can be tricky here, so to be safe, I shoot it in RAW and this will gives me more flexibility during post processing. As you can see from the picture above, I manage to bring some fine details of the snow compared to the original RAW image from the previous post.

If you have never shot a single file or RAW image, you should give it a try and see for yourself but if you think there is no benefit in shooting with RAW, then don’t bother. There is no point arguing about which is better, RAW or JPEG when you have never tried it before. Just give it a try to know for yourself whether it works for you or not. Like I said before I don’t shoot RAW all the time. I know the advantage and the disadvantage of shooting with RAW and use it to my advantage.

Don’t get confused when some photographers say that, “wow great picture, you must shoot in RAW”, nonsense. Great picture is a great picture, it can be taken with iPhone or pinhole camera, great picture have nothing to do with RAW or JPEG files. The difference between RAW and JPEG is that RAW files hold more data or information than JPEG files and you can bring some details when shooting in RAW compared to JPEG during post processing.

So what makes great pictures?  Eddie Adams has the answer :

“If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it rips out your heart, that’s a good picture”

– Eddie Adams –

( Pulitzer Prize Winning Photojournalist )