raw vs jpeg

Lacrossedad

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Pardon me as I am just recently getting back into photography. I am trying to get a handle on the RAW vs JPEG issue. Does RAW really give you that much more in clarity or sharpness over JPEG?? Could it be that RAW gives you more options with editing? I haven't invested in Photoshop/Lightroom yet as I just dropped a lot of money (to me) on equipment.
 
Raw (not RAW) gives you much more latitude when editing. JPEG is the finished product, raw is all the possible ingredients.

Raw%20v%20Jpeg%20comparison.jpg
 
Does RAW really give you that much more in clarity or sharpness over JPEG?? Could it be that RAW gives you more options with editing?
Not so much "clarity" or sharpness, but more like white balance and color bit depth.

What do you mean by "clarity"?

You will have to apply sharpness to your Raw files if you want them to look sharp.

A JPEG is something created by your camera, or more precisely the engineers who designed your camera's firmware. For most people JPEGs are adequate, especially after a bit of tweaking in an editing software.
 
Get Lightroom, and see how it easily adjusts RAW images, and then allows you to make exported JPEG images.

Yes, RAW capture does give a loooooot more post-shoot editing potential to the image files, especially in regard to white balance assignment, and exposure/brightness/contrast adjustment. In-camera JPEG files have a baked-in white balance, and usually have only a moderate amount of adjustment potential after they have been brought into the computer. 480Sparky's meme above pretty much says it all: a can of soup for lunch is the JPEG; a pantry full of options for lunch is the RAW image file!

Software-based sharpening of a digitial image file is almost a given, standard procedure these days.
 
A SOOC JPEG is created by automated software built into the camera. Automation (of anything) can only function in the presence of "average" conditions. Think about how you would automate harvesting a field of corn if every single corn plant grew randomly compared to all others. Another word for average is mean and the related concept median. They share a root meaning with this word: mediocre. Automation is designed to create mediocrity.

Save a best possible camera JPEG and allow me to save a raw file from the same camera. No matter what camera, I will never fail to process the raw file to an end result with superior IQ than the JPEG. You can of course learn to do the same.

Joe
 
Thanks everyone for your help. I will certainly begin to learn to shoot in Raw and spend the money on Photoshop.
 
I will certainly begin to learn to shoot in Raw and spend the money on Photoshop.
There isn't much to "learn", you just set your camera to capture the Raw file.
 
Try some of the free software first. Like what came with your camera. Or any of several offerings available on the innernets. You may find free stuff is all you need.
 
Layman explanation. A .jpg is a walgreens print. A raw file is a digital negative.

Use the negative and make your own prints.
 
For me I like to have as much flexibility as possible with the camera and lenses on hand. Shooting raw provides that flexibility. Often, the raw files may get plugged into Bridge CC 2017 and the keepers get fed into Photoshop Image Processor to generate jpg files at whatever size is needed. Other times the raw files go into Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and into Photoshop for minor to major pixel level changes.
 
The difference between JPEG and Raw is about image bit-depth and editing headroom.

Raw files generally have a bit depth of 12 to 14 bits and have lots of editing head room.
Digital photos have 3 color channels - Red, Green, Blue (The RGB color model)
12 bits (digital) can represent 4096 different tones of color per color channel - 36 total bits of RGB colors.
14 bits can represent 16384 different tones per color channel- 42 total bits of color.
Note too that Raw files are not finished photographs straight out of the camera and have to be 'finished' with editing.

JPEG is limited to just 8 bits (256 different tones - 24 total bits of color) and some JPEGs have little to no editing headroom.
Part of the limits to editing headroom have to do will the way JPEG files are compressed to make the file size smaller.

That was all done to make JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files a ready-to-print file type that would not be edited any further.
Photo Editing Tutorials explains bit depth, JPEG/TIFF and Raw right off the bat.
 
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Thanks everyone for your help. I will certainly begin to learn to shoot in Raw and spend the money on Photoshop.

Learning to shoot raw and process raw files does not have to necessarily lead to spending the money on Photoshop. That's an option and it can be a good one but there are many options. I only shoot and process raw files; I don't use Photoshop to do that.

There are excellent options available over a wide range of costs beginning with free. Photoshop is at the top end of the range. I'm not telling you not to go with Photoshop, just that you may want to have a look around first.

Joe
 
Canon's DPP is an okay raw file developer, and comes free with Canon cameras. Nikon also supplies free software for basic raw development. There are a number of apps that can develop raw files. Adobe's Lightroom is pretty handy for popular cameras and is available for purchase as a stand-alone piece of software, OR as a monthly rental from Adobe. Capture One, Irridient Developer, Raw Digger, and Phocus are other raw file developers.

Make SURE that any raw converter software version that you buy can posiitvely OPEN and convert the raw files from your camera! Older versions of some apps will not handle files from newer cameras! There are times when the software companies decide that X-camera is the cut-off for developing raw files with that piece of software. When brand-new cameras hit the market, there comes a time when "some" software developer apps will no longer be compatible with the newest raw format images.
 

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