Digital Photo Formats - JPEG vs. RAW
Wednesday August 31, 2005
The best format for photos used in desktop publishing documents is usually TIFF. However, TIFF isn't an option with most digital cameras. Digital photos are converted to TIFF from JPEG, the most frequently used graphics format for digital photos. But it seems a lot of professional photographers swear by the RAW format.
POLL: Do you use JPEG or RAW format for digital photography?
1) JPEG 2) RAW 3) It depends
About Photography Guide Peter Marshall extolls the virtues of Raw Power: Shooting Raw Digital Files. Since emulating the professionals is one way to learn and improve your own work you may wonder if using RAW rather than JPEG is something you should consider. At least one of the pros suggests that it is better to stick with high-quality JPEGs. About Graphics Software: Should You Capture Digital Photos In Raw or JPEG?. Explore both points of view and decide for yourself between JPEG and RAW. Just remember that for high resolution printing you'll still want to convert your images to TIFF for placing in your page layout application.
POLL: Do you use JPEG or RAW format for digital photography?
1) JPEG 2) RAW 3) It depends
About Photography Guide Peter Marshall extolls the virtues of Raw Power: Shooting Raw Digital Files. Since emulating the professionals is one way to learn and improve your own work you may wonder if using RAW rather than JPEG is something you should consider. At least one of the pros suggests that it is better to stick with high-quality JPEGs. About Graphics Software: Should You Capture Digital Photos In Raw or JPEG?. Explore both points of view and decide for yourself between JPEG and RAW. Just remember that for high resolution printing you'll still want to convert your images to TIFF for placing in your page layout application.
I have been taking pictures with digital cameras for about 3 years, gone through the camera menus and played with most of the settings and now have a great computer to process them with. I swear by RAW and found a significant difference between RAW and JPEG. JPEG is fine for the family photos, they can easily be shared in many ways. From RAW for all other photos I find the best format to convert to is TIFF 16 bit, Photoshop will handle the large file size and the clarity of the photos are of the highest quality. I have a photo of a wind turbine being built in the area last summer (2008), a large crane was erected next to it with cables loosely hanging from the boom and the sky had little definition. In JPEG format the viewer had the impression of the cables, TIFF 8 bit allowed the cables to be clearly visible and TIFF 16 bit brought out colour and definition in the sky. I’m sold on RAW converting to TIFF.
Thankyou for the great article and confirmation of my own tests.