RAW vs JPEG

[phillycodehound]

Hey Everyone,

I'm a beginner when it comes to DSLR photography. I've been taking photos, though, for years.

I have a Canon t4i and it lets me do RAW photos. I'm taking all kinds of photos, lots of my 10 week old son and family but also more artsy stuff like landscapes and textures.

I've been shooting on JPEG and not RAW. I know RAW is better but is it bad that I'm sticking to the highest quality JPEG setting? I also use Photoshop CS4. Will that read RAW?

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks!

-Seth

[Markyboy1]

Hi Seth, I would say it woild depend whether you do a lot of editing or not if you do you should probably look at shooting in raw or check And ifbyour camera can do both at the same time ( I understand some can) but if your happy with HQ jpeg stick with it

Mark

EDTA the other day thing I meant to say was if your shooting in manual then raw will enable you to rescue pictures that didnt come out as well as expected.

[phillycodehound]

So can Photoshop edit RAW?

[markgozz]

As long as you have Adobe's free plug in ( Adobe Camera Raw ) it will read raw files but you will need to check that your copy of Camera Raw supports your camera other wise you may need to convert your raw files to Adobes free DNG file then any version of camera raw is compatible .

I hope that make sense .

Mark

[phillycodehound]

I'll get that. My Canon T4i can do both raw and Jpeg.

Thanks Mark!

[markgozz]

I shoot in raw plus jpeg and I must admit I'm very hard pushed to notice the difference in quality but I only use them for personal use at home and I don't do any large printing .
I tend to use the raw file more because they are a lot better at recovering detail in under or over exposed areas and for adjusting white balance ( as Markyboy1 said )

Mark

[Edmack]

CS4, (and I think 3} and later, can open jpeg, in RAW, via Bridge. Ed.

[Adam Cowley]

The main reason for using RAW is for the increased editing possabilities. With a JPEG you can do a certain amount of editing, but it will come to a point where you will start to degrade the image. Most editing software will accept Raw files, although you may need to download a plug-in for your particular camera. The other thing to note is that you would need to change any pictures to Jpeg in order to get them printed, but if you are going to be editing your pictures, that would not be a major issue.

[Carolpgh]

The other possibility, if your camera isn't recognised in your particular version of Photoshop, is to use the Canon software Digital Photo Professional, which is on the discs that come with a new camera. If you didn't buy it new, you might have to do a bit of a hunt. However, I used to be able to edit RAW photos with CS3 so you should be fine.

[hssutton]

Adobe CS4 will process your Raw images, but you may need the 5.2 update

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...jsp?ftpID=4220

Harry