Back in 2009 we asked dPS readers whether they shoot in RAW. Just over half of our readers indicated that they always did. Lets see if that result has changed with another poll:
This time around we’ve added a category for those of you who shoot in RAW and JPEG simultaneously as I know a number of our readers use that feature which is on many digital cameras today.
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44 Responses to “POLL: Do You Shoot in RAW?” - Add Yours
July 23rd, 2012 at 6:27 am
There are exceptions to my ‘always raw’ vote: i can’t shoot raw when the camera i’m holding (incl my cell phone) doesn’t support it. When I’m using the camera, or staying light on a hike and only using a point-n-click, I have to use jpeg only.
July 23rd, 2012 at 6:48 am
I don’t think I am good enough NOT to shoot in RAW. I need the extra latitude RAW gives me in post processing when I make mistakes in exposure and white balance.
July 23rd, 2012 at 7:05 am
The term “JPEG” (aka JPG) is an acronym for the Joint Photographic Experts Group which created the standard. The term should always be capitalized.
The term “raw” means unprocessed, as in raw milk. Raw is not an acronym for anything. The term should never be capitalized.
Every digital camera and image scanner captures in raw, a format which is not viewable. JPG is a viewable format based on raw original. A raw image is completely unprocessed, usually too “flat” for normal appreciation. Raw images are usually “tweaked” in post processing programs to adjust exposure, contrast, color saturation, sharpness, and cropping. The resulting image is then saved as a TIFF, JPG, or other printable format/viewable format.
July 23rd, 2012 at 7:11 am
RAW is like a negative to meet. Has all the data I can want and use.
July 23rd, 2012 at 7:14 am
Almost never or sometimes. I’m an event photographer, and taking 30 photos in a 6 second burst is far more important than editing them later to adjust for color problems.
When you have motorcycles flying overhead, the minor advantages of RAW suddenly disappear compared to getting the shot.
July 23rd, 2012 at 7:35 am
Shooting raw and jpeg simultaneously help me for postproduction. The jpeg version is a good base and then I can go further with the raw file.
July 23rd, 2012 at 9:23 am
Like Joe Shelby, It depends on the camera. I always shoo tin RAW with my DSLR, but I have other cameras that only shoot in jpeg (iphone, Canon point and shoot and GoPro Hero2)
July 23rd, 2012 at 9:45 am
RAW. I don’t believe I’ve taken a jpeg in about 3 years.
July 23rd, 2012 at 10:01 am
I’ve always shot RAW but with my new Fuji X Pro 1, I’m starting to shoot RAW+JPG as the JPG engine in the camera is second to none, so want to take advantage of that!
July 23rd, 2012 at 10:17 am
When I bought my Canon 60d this year I began shooting raw…and kicking myself for not doing it sooner…I will never shoot JPEG again.
Sue
July 23rd, 2012 at 11:04 am
I thought RAW was shooting in the buff.
July 23rd, 2012 at 11:27 am
I used to shoot RAW exclusively with my DSLRs but recently bought a Sony A65 at the same time a friend bought a Nikon D5100. We did some Raw+Jpeg shooting to compare. We found that the in-camera Jpegs were amazing (compared to in the past). For most of the shots; those without tricky lightning, they were every bit as good as the post processed RAWs when viewed at 100%, 200%, even 300%. For tricky lightning, RAW adjustments were easier to get to where they needed to be. Those Jpegs required what seemed like “back processing” to undo what the in-camera program did then try to reprocess them — a real pain. After a few, I gave up trying.
A couple of other things that I should mention. The Sony has a dial setting that is Auto+ which balances out the exposure in a high dynamic range of a scene across the exposure range (instead of just lumping the extra tone (outside the 255 range) on the ends). It also has a couple of in-camera multi-exposure processes that reduces the need for HDR in post processing like an in-camera multi-shot HDR and “Twilight” to reduce noise.
That said, I have adjusted my aversion to Jpeg but with the low cost of memory, and Aperture’s one-click auto adjust making RAW adjustments much easier and faster I still shoot RAW. The new cameras and software are amazing.
July 23rd, 2012 at 12:26 pm
For me it depends on what I’m shooting. Raw if its important definitely.
July 23rd, 2012 at 12:53 pm
I always shoot RAW and my workflow includes Lightroom for post-processing… then finally WordPress for my blog.
Now, with all the extra nice mobile cameras (iphone, samsung, HTC) we need to have a extra mile to stand apart from the middle, that edge is manipulating the RAW file to produce better photos than quickly taken.
Here’s an sample of photo manipulated from the RAW file – and as you can see it stand outs from the rest.
http://www.kennethrivera.com/2012/07/turrialba-volcano/
[Sadly i didn’t take it with my phone to put them side by side, but you see the image you will notice foreground and background are well exposed with the same shoot. That’s really hard on a bright light background photo like that[
July 23rd, 2012 at 8:11 pm
I never shoot RAW because I get fantastic quality JPEG’s out of my D90. Also, I haven’t got the software to process RAW files from my D90. I haven’t got the time to process lots of RAW files. People say that RAW is better quality but in my view it isn’t worth the larger file size (over jpeg’s), or the time (which I haven’t got).
July 23rd, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Of course I don’t shoot RAW when I can’t (e.g. with my iPhone).
But if I can I prefere to shoot RAW. I also used the CHDK hack to shoot RAW and save DNG with a Canon Powershot D10 like the following:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50259324@N08/7196756434/in/set-72157630049881247
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50259324@N08/7438203430/in/set-72157630049881247/
July 23rd, 2012 at 9:54 pm
My D7000 has two card slots. I have it setup to save raw to card 1 and jpeg to card 2. The jpeg card only serves as a backup in case something happens to my raw card. Also I will format my raw card much more frequently than my jpeg card so in a way I have an extra external backup of my last several shoots. I almost never import or do anything with the jpeg card.
July 23rd, 2012 at 10:50 pm
Ken Rockwell has an excellent article from a few years ago discussing the RAW vs. JPEG debate. He makes several good points against shooting in RAW. He convinced me.
July 23rd, 2012 at 10:54 pm
I haven’t shot JPEG in almost 2 years
July 23rd, 2012 at 11:52 pm
I always shoot in RAW as it allows a better control of the picture in Lightroom. And slight error of exposure is easily corrected.
July 24th, 2012 at 12:34 am
I shoot in both RAW and JPEG simultaneusly. It’s easier to flick through the JPEG files to find the best shots, or to check a shot. When getting a new pocket camera a few years ago, I bought a Canon G10 that also supports RAW and JPEG.
I did a demo a couple years ago showing the difference between RAW and JPEG. I converted the RAW to TIFF, then blew the TIFF and JPEG way up. You could see the jaggednous in the JPEG file verses the TIFF. Good demo to show why you should never use JPEG for editing purposes!
July 24th, 2012 at 12:41 am
always shoot RAW, when the camera i’m using permits it.
July 24th, 2012 at 12:56 am
Have done so since day one and am just so used to it that I don’t think I can go to JPEG. I really like to tweak my photos in LR and RAW files are so much better for this.
July 24th, 2012 at 1:59 am
As others have pointed out, the “Always RAW” must reflect the camera currently being used. Also there are certain shooting conditions in which I will unhappily switch to JPEG. One is if I am shooting fast action such as birds in flight and want to ensure maximum transfer rate to squeeze out as much buffer space and burst speed as possible. The other situation where I will switch to JPEG is when I want to use a camera feature which is unavailable in RAW mode. Examples of this are the in-camera panorama and HDR functions which are available with my Sony SLT.
July 24th, 2012 at 6:57 am
I use EOS 60D and always shoot in JPG. My post-production skills are very good that I don’t need to use RAW. I also don’t have the time and the smaller file size is a bonus. Quality is almost the same so I’ve never needed to do it.
I’m looking into IR photography and that may be the time I start using RAW (to save the 30 sec exposure) and maybe experiment once more to see if it really has that much benefits (at night mostly I’m guessing since that’s when I need more light most of the time)
July 24th, 2012 at 2:08 pm
No matter your preference any newbie should know there are advantages to both. I often shoot raw but there are many many times I need the speed of JPEG or want to have a JPEG for comparison later on.
If raw was just as fast clearing the buffer my need for jpegs would admittedly decline but not be eliminated entirely.
Ultimately its another tool. I’m happy my 60D is not a one trick pony.
July 25th, 2012 at 2:57 am
It depends on what I’m shooting. Portraits always get shot in raw and at sporting events I will switch to JPEG for the speed and so I don’t hit the buffer limit as quickly.
July 25th, 2012 at 11:36 am
I always test shot with raw, then switch to JPEG while taking shot, so to do it right in-camera to reduce the need for PP.
July 25th, 2012 at 11:38 am
Post processing too many times in JPEG will reduce its quality. If i am going to do lots of processing for the images, then i will choose RAW. If i plan not to process the images, then i choose to take JPEG.
July 25th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
I used to shoot using both, but found myself deleting all of the JPEG’s in post processing so I’ve been using the RAW images for about 6 months.
July 25th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Since I started to use Lightroom and Nikon Capture NX, I shoot in RAW. A bit more work, but so well worth it.
July 26th, 2012 at 4:51 am
There was a time when I shot in RAW religiously. However, these days it’s just too cumbersome for the newspaper work that comprises the bulk of my photography. I still will use it when I know I plan on doing extensive editing.
July 26th, 2012 at 4:48 pm
Total control of White Balance, so raw if I can. Big on metadata control and tagging… so use Lightroom to publish JPG for quick work and control both information flow, catalogs, and quality of the output. Every device has its own method of processing data into a JPEG, some better than others… but I prefer the flexible non destructive raw handlers… even if no post processing is needed. But this goes hand in hand with using tools like Lightroom.
July 27th, 2012 at 3:09 am
There seems to be a misunderstanding about raw. We cannot compare the “quality” between both types of file simply because as mentioned before, raw is the digital negative, you cannot print it. You can however modify it and tweak it in a far deeper way because of the sheer data it has.
JPEG on the other hand is a printable file. You can still modify it and do corrections but with a lot less data what can be done is very limited.
I shoot in both always mainly because I’m lazy and I just delete the raw files of images I know I will not bother editing, like my cats’ sleepy faces (not that I do a lot of editing anyways). The main reason for raw is that it allows me to convert a file to TIFF if I want a large print or for those occasions I want to crop the image, mainly when shooting macro.
July 27th, 2012 at 7:12 am
Yes about 6 mo. ago I started shooting in RAW and JPEG fine…. I want to learn how to utilize raw and when I can do this with confidence, then I will eliminate the Jpeg…I am also taking classes on Photoshop Elements 10, although I have used so-so photoshop in the past… I finally decided to learn how to really use it so I can get great shots from my picts.
July 27th, 2012 at 8:35 am
I tried shooting in the raw at at a wedding once and got kicked out. People are so sensitive these days!
July 27th, 2012 at 8:47 am
No kidding Uncle G, ????
July 27th, 2012 at 8:49 am
I recently started shooting in raw & have an huge difference in the quality of my photos. Yes it does take longer to process as you have to tweak first in raw programme, followed by photoshop but the end results are amazing. Although I do sometimes shoot in raw & jpeg simultaneously as find it easy to view & choose the photos quicker.
July 27th, 2012 at 8:57 am
I would have liked another option, Normally, but not always. I shoot RAW unless it’s a case of a large volume of images, such as an event where I need to ensure I get everyone at least once in an image, like a fundraiser. Then, I don’t want to have to process every image because it’s RAW.
July 27th, 2012 at 11:29 am
I always shoot RAW. Recently I visited Thailand and took 50 large files on a disc to get large landscape prints made. (Excellent quality and very cheap) I used a printer in Phuket Town and when I picked them up he asked if the originals had been shot on film, such is the quality of a well processed RAW image.
July 27th, 2012 at 9:05 pm
The editing a camera’s software does to produce a JPEG includes cropping. For maximum width and height of an image use raw. There is quite a difference.
July 27th, 2012 at 10:11 pm
Mostly i shoot raw but there are exceptions e.g. when i need to have a lot of images quickly such as aparty or similar when i shoot both raw and jpg
July 28th, 2012 at 1:06 am
I only shoot in film – does that count as RAW or not? (:
July 31st, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Short answer would be “It depends”. I tend to be more interested in portrait work. If I have tight control of the lighting and other details then I would probably shoot JPG. Why fiddle when it shouldn’t be called for except to clean up minor little appearance glitches. If the project is off-site then I would tend to use RAW when I don’t have tight control on lighting and other factors.
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