Practical_Photoshop__Issue_77__August_2017

RAW vs JPEG
Or, to put it another way, quality vs convenience...
RAW
Contains all the information
recorded at the time of
shooting as it comes off
the camera sensor
Raws hold greater dynamic range than
JPEGs, meaning there’s more detail at
the extremes of the highlights and
shadows. Depending on your camera
model, the difference ranges from
around 1-2 stops.
12-bit-per-channel raws contain over
68 billion colors, compared with 16 million
in 8-bit-per-channel JPEGs. More colors
means smoother gradations between
different shades – and less chance of
any heavy editing you do leading to
‘banding’ of colors.
Raws are the digital equivalent of a
negative in that, unlike a JPEG, there’s no
chance of copying over your original or
accidently resizing it. (Indeed, Adobe’s own
raw file format is called DNG, standing for
Digital Negative.)
JPEG
Stands for the Joint
Photographic Experts Group,
the committee that wrote
the standard
Straight out of the camera, JPEGs are
ready for emailing, printing or viewing on
almost any device, without any need
for post-processing or importing them
into extra software like Adobe Camera
Raw or Lightroom.
JPEGs take up far less space than raw
files, so you can fit more on a memory
card or a hard drive. This has become
less of an issue as storage has gotten
cheaper. But it can be handy to switch to
JPEG if you’re down to the last few shots
on your final remaining memory card.
Because they’re much smaller, JPEGs write
to your card quicker. They may be a better
option for sports or action as they won’t
fill up the buffer quite as quickly, meaning
you can shoot a longer continuous
sequence in high drive mode.