Well…Joe Marshall and I are going to try and do Podcasts on a regular basis answering questions from our NPB subscribers. Here’s our very first one that talks about Raw vs Jpg when shooting for Digital Backgrounds.
So…I guess this would be Episode #1 
The idea with these podcasts is to answer a question or two in under 10 minutes…so you can learn and apply what we teach as fast as possible.
Listen to the podcast below and leave us a comment.
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26 Responses to “Do I Shoot JPG or Raw When Using Digital Backgrounds?”
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Great thoughts… I’m still having trouble being a newbie and seeking perfection. These are great tool Scott, thanks!
Thanks for the info. I do fit into the beginner stage. I have been shooting raw but now will go back to jpg and try that. Thanks, always learning and loving it!
I have shot in both.RAW requires lots more hard drive space. I was told that to get big format photos (over 8.5×11) you needed to shoot in raw. But I took some jpeg files I had, cropped them and still made them 11×14 with no noise, no problem with my 8mp Canon Rebel xti. Thanks for sharing!
As long as you got your lighting and camera settings down, I agree 100% for studio work. Jpeg takes up so little space compared to RAW and processes much faster in camera as well. I use RAW in circumstances where I absolutely will not be able to take the shot again, such as event photography or weddings, etc. In these situations the lighting conditions can change quickly and RAW just gives me that extra peace of mind. I know there are a lot of people who still shoot jpeg even for those situations, but for me its just peace of mind.
Hey Scott. This is a great question. There are so many proponents who say RAW is the only way to go and there is the other camp that says JPG is the only way to go. You and Joe have made it pretty clear and easy to understand the benefit of JPG. Denise is right when she says the files take up so much more room. I did a comparison myself and took photos in both RAW and JPG and I pretty much came up with the same conclusion.
Thanks so much for posting this. I think a lot of folks will certainly benefit by it. By the way, these 10 minute junks of info is a wonderful idea!
Wow guys, getting it right in the camera is still not a reason not to shoot RAW. Photography does not stop when you press that shutter button. If you spent anytime printing your own black and white negatives you would know we had to use filters to play with out contrast.
My question back to you guys is how much tweaking to your picture control settings are you doing in the camera?
JARED POLUN AKA the FRO FROKNOWSPHOTO.com I SHOOT RAW
Hi Scott & Joe,
Thanx for that Podcast. I’ve always wondered the same, but now I’ve heard this podcast I’ll stick with Jpegs. Thanx for all your instructions Scott, My photography has come on in leaps and bounds since I joined NPB last year. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Scott once again. I fully agree with the both of you. Shooting raw can take up a lot of time. I have used both, and always go back to jpeg as what I have seen in the differance is not that great. Again thank you so much for the information as always.
I personally shoot in RAW I only started my business 15 months ago and find it much easier for editing, once I have the pics how I want it I simply copy and paste those setting to the rest of the set and they all look the same. If I was just doing it in jpeg I’ll find my first pics total look is totally diff by the time I’m at the 20th one so this why they are more even in appearance for the final set.
I have shot both ways and now just shoot in jpeg because as a member of the forum I have had the advantage of advice from some great photographers. Joe takes the time to help any of us that ask for help not only with our lighting but with just about anything that has to do with capturing great shots I know my photography has improved a lot. NPB forum members that want to learn have consistantly improved theirs as well and the ones who already know are always willing to share their secrets. Thanks Scott, Joe and the rest of the “family” for offering your time and being willing to help.
I have always shot in jpg. Never really understood the whole raw thing. But I must admit, I would be lost without photoshop!!! Thanks Scott and Pro. Joe for a great pod cast and I am looking forward to many many more!!
What is better RAW or JPG?
Personal preference IMHO. I only shoot RAW to get the most info possible on each shot. I guess it’s a leftover of the Medium Format film days.
Today Hard Drives are cheap. 1.5 Tera bytes for less than a 100 bucks.
Each of my images from my D3 is about 24 Mega pixels. In RAW I can play with it to my hearts content. In JPG I am somewhat limited.
I know Joe is only shooting JPG, but this is his preference.
As he said on the Pod Cast, there are a lot of Pros which shoot JPG and a lot which shoot RAW.
One thing for sure, try to get it right in the camera the first time and if you have doubt, take several shots and bracket it.
The fact remains, JPG has less information of the image you shot, than RAW.
If you want all the information, shoot RAW.
Correction:
It’s Froggy not Foggy
Great information. Thanks you guys. I’ve been shooting raw lately, and there is a lot more color information in the image but also a lot more work to process the files and takes lots of time. Like Joe said, get it right in camera and you don’t need raw. Plus .jpg is much smaller files.
Judy
I shoot in both formats, Raw and Jpeg, and plan to continue to shoot this way! I like the comfort of knowing I have the option, but if your short on hard drive space, it would become a problem! Happy shooting…. Evie
I also shoot in both RAW and JPEG. I like having the option to be able change extra things if I really need to. I have two external hard drives to store all of my photos because it does take up a lot of space! But yes, I do love RAW
)
Karen
Awesome podcast Scott & Joe! Good information here. Lately I’ve been shooting both Raw + jpeg. My camera has the option to shoot both formats as Evie stated above. Fancy
This is a great pod-cast, but I personalty think that RAW is always the best way to go. While I know that it’s a good Idea to get it right in the camera I would say that with raw really saves time in post processing specially if you have a bunch of pictures to post process. You can also adjust setting in you camera to do RAW and JPEG at the same time which comes handy because if you already like the way your picture look in JPEG than you don’t have to post-process on that image, but what if you got some other images that didn’t come out the way you wanted? Easy just got to the RAW one and get it how you wanted it. Just keep in mind that doing these will use your memory card faster. I recommend a 16GB or 32GB to get many shots on these setting. Sorry if it was to long of a reply I just wanted to share this. Thanks.
I recently shot my first wedding and was pretty nervous on getting it right, so to be on the safe side I shot Raw+jpeg, I just made sure I had plenty of memory cards. I have to say the Raw looked much better in comparison than jpeg from the camera, and it gave me more scope to get the photo just the way I wanted them. I can see advantages to having both formats, but at the moment I am going to stick with Raw.
Jpeg is certainly much easier and takes less space than RAW, but I go by the situation. If I know I\’m just shooting for a series of online photos, of course jpeg is the way to go…and for many other shoots where exposure is a no-brainer. But if it\’s a shoot that I know consists of once-in-a-lifetime photos, especially when I\’m not so confident with exposures (I\’m no Joe!) then I go to RAW. But as a NAPP member, there are some excellent new tutorials on their site about the advances in the RAW workflow with CS5 that make it all so much easier than it used to be than even in CS3. NAPP members should check it out. I was pleasantly shocked to view it this past week. Ah, the more I learn, the more I know I don\’t know…ya know?
When I first started in Photograpy I used a VN press camera where you had to set aperature,speed and distance manually and only through experience did we get the shots right especially at weddings where you only had one shot at it.Nowadays with all the digital stuff too help IMHO I’m quite happy too use jpeg and if need be there is always photo editing programmes galore to help if need be.Interesting too hear Joe liking jpeg too plus there is always the fact when your sending photos online jpeg seems preffered option.Forgot too mention with VN camera came large suitcase for all the plates we had too carry which we normally developed at wedding reception if we were out of town so we could show guests proofs of photos that they could order from
raw is awesome and doesnt take that much time…i have my exposures fine….i like it cause i can change angle and not mess with my pixels….and i dont cut out my people to insert them i use layers and erase….i am raw all the way but thank you for your thoughts
For portrait, commercial and HDR i shoot raw. I came from film were i had a 16 stop gamma range and how i proceded the film (push or pull) also gave more exposure compensation. With digital be on the money in jpg becouse there is a 4 stop gamma range. Have your white point right and change your white point every time the lighting changes (5500k to 3000k) That is a lot of time wasted and i probably mist the perfect moment. If i am manly photo-shooting in the same lightng condition i will us tiff or jpg. It is so fast and easy to batch out difrent lighting Conditions in raw conversion and i can alwas have that pure data file to go back and do what ever with and it be non distructive. Raw does have limits but when not shure or dont whant to mis the moment i shoot raw or raw and jpj.
Thank you for your help, I loss to much time in the computer to fix it, now I’ll use Jpg.
Maybe I missed it, but unlike RAW, which is a lossless format, everytime you
save a jpeg, some of the data is lost. Over time a significant amount creates substantial degradation. Depending on Ur intended use, each has it’s purposes . However , for indefinite archiving, I’d shoot RAW.
Thank you for that.