Harry's Blog

Now here's a subject you see on every photography forum. Should you record your DSLR images as RAW of JPEG files?

Photographers unlucky enough to Google the subject and end up with Ken Rockwell's nonsense will probably tell you JPEG every time, if they are fans of oversaturated cartoons.

But the truth is this. Whenever you take a picture with your DSLR the result is a RAW file. Think of this as your negative.

If you've got your camera set to JPEG only the camera then processes the RAW file - based on your various colour, sharpness and contrast choices - into a JPEG. It then discards the RAW file. The result is you get a print, but you've lost the negative.

The practical upshot is that if you want to make changes to this image your options are more limited than with the RAW file. After all, you'd be in the same boat if you wanted to edit a photograph based on a print rather than having the 35mm negative right?

But for many, fiddling around with RAW files is a daunting prospect. It needn't be, software such as Canon's Digital Photo Professional make it easy. However you may be nervous about switching to RAW files right away.

So here's what you should do. Set your camera to RAW + JPEG. For now you can continue to enjoy all your JPEG files as usual. The RAWs will sit unused on your PC, but that's fine. Because in a year or three when you start editing RAW files you'll be glad you kept all those digital negatives.

So in conclusion my message is this. The answer to the question "should I shoot RAW or JPEG?" is this. Shoot both, or just RAW, but don't just shoot JPEG.