leave out all the rest

this entry is meant for photo hobbyist of all level.  suitable for all genres but im more skewed towards portraiture. please use your own judgement.

the “RAW vs JPGs” type of discussion / debate have being going on for ages.

bottom line of such topic – the type of image quality these two file formats could offer to photographers. capturing images with intense colours or wide tonal ranges is best done with the camera set to RAW capture. a JPEG capture doesn’t retain the colours or the tonal values nearly as well.

the people over at phaseone.com started a blog recently – a few of their entries tried to inform their readers on such topic – why shooting with RAW is infinitely superior to JPEGs or if you have the time to digest specifically what RAW files are – RAW files explained in-depth

reason why i chose these blog entries as one of the source references in this subject matter is because phaseone.com are the people behind capture one pro RAW converter. if you ask me to choose who are the experts in such topic matter, they will be one of them (although there are some “hard selling” peppered all over their articles, which is fine i guess). most commercial photographers i come across, uses capture one pro.

what does this mean to you, as a hobbyist ?

if you notice in these articles, its more or less discuss about technicalities, comparisons and facts about file formats.

what you might want to do, before even deciding what format to use – ask yourself what do you want to achieve first.

figure this out 1st, the rest of your approach and processing workflow – you will figure it out naturally what are best to suit your needs.

an example – my final submission of processed photos for a shoot are usually less than 20 images. to maintain consistency in my images, post processing is very important to me. i chose to shoot in RAW. therefore, what these translate to my planning in time management  (to process and to submit) and equipments are geared towards such approach. when there are some “last minute” incidents or what nots (always bound to be), i have the flexibility to improvise  because i am able to make informed decisions to suit what is at hand (thats because i know what i want to achieve at the very start).

another example – what if i shoot events? like on a wedding day? the approach is very different – the insane timeframe and the amount of images. so you decide what you want to achieve 1st then decide.

my personal opinion – there is no “1 size fit all” solution. its very subject driven.

what it is not –

if you decide to shoot in RAW format – you need to level your expectations – if your images are like crap, it will be crap no matter what RAW format offers. its just a file format to capture information of an image, not a “magic file format” to help you in your photographic skillset.

yes, im speaking from experience because i am one of the noobs who thought i was damn big time when i switched from JPEGs to RAW. i had my insane amount of crap images when i shot in RAW.

at present, shooting in RAW gives me absolute control in how and what my images will be.