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Friday, July 8, 2011

RAW or Jpeg. Which one should I use?

RAW and Jpeg are the format of your picture to be saved in your camera memory card. Some of the DSLR, there is an option which you can select to save your picture in both of the format. but...what the hell are RAW and Jpeg?


RAW...from its name, is an unprocessed picture format. Which means, you can imagine it as a negative film (remember those film-camera time?) ...unprocess..not yet printed as a picture. If you save your picture as in RAW file, it allows you to tweak or touch-up your picture by using picture processing software such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom. For example: if you find your picture is underexpose, the colours are flat, etc. you can use picture software to make the right exposure and add more saturation on the colour. Usually, a RAW picture consumes a lot of spaces in your memory card. A RAW picture can be at least 18Mb or maybe more. It is because, RAW file hasn't been compressed or processed yet.

On the other hand, Jpeg (from Joint Photographic Expert Group) is another type of image format. In this format, the picture is already processed in your camera. All the exposure, colour saturation, noise or grain density are already fixed and ready to be print. The disadvantage of using this format, you can't tweak your picture by using picture software (you can actually, but the effect won't be so obvious); although it doesn't take so much space in your memory card (a Jpeg picture is only 5-9Mb; depends on your camera quality and setting).

So, it's up to the user on which format he wants to use. If you are really keen to tweak your photo, RAW format is the right choice. However, if you have no doubts about your picture quality and have no idea on using picture software, Jpeg format can save your memory card space.

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