Raw v. J.Peg Large/Fine

[dtatooles]

New to the forum and excited. Need help. I just switched to digital. However, I can't seem to get a straight answer. . . Which is the better format to shoot with the D70s? Raw of JPeg large/fine. I know it depends on whether I will be making modifications after I download the image. . . but do I lose anything (i.e. color/saturation/resolution) shooting Raw if I will not be altering the image much in photoshop or the like? :confused:

[easternherp]

I always shoot raw as it does give the best result if you intend to do any modification of any sort, even just lightening an image. Yes it takes longer but you start with the best possible file. You can then save your files as tiffs rather than jpegs. Tiffs don't compress any pixel information so you can open and adjust the image as many times as you like and the image will till look good. A jpeg on the other hand will lose quality everytime it is opened and adjusted.
If you just want to send the files straight from the camera to a d+p lab then jpeg fine will be ok.

[KeithM]

This is one of those simple questions that never has a simple answer !! :)

Think of Raw as an undeveloped film and jpeg as a developed film... if you save as jpeg in-camera, that's it but if you save Raw, you get to develop the image again and again as often as you like ( conversion software gets better, as do your skills at using it so you can re-visit old images and re-work them ). But you then spend more time in front of the computer.

With raw you can do as much of the image editing as possible at the point of raw conversion to get as close as possible to the final result - but if you can do that with camera settings and save as jpeg in-camera, then that may work better for you.

Perhaps the easiest answer is to shoot jpeg and then if you subsequently hit the point where you find you can't edit the image and achieve the result/quality you want - you may then find that saving Raw gives you the extra information you need to get that result. This is what makes the fine jpeg/raw question so difficult to answer - it's a personal judgement.

Keith.

[Raindog]

Memory is cheap, images are priceless.

Shoot raw, there is a very good chance that you will screw up the WB at least a little if you are human.

[jesd]

Having "saved" many RAW photos, and having lost many JPEG (mainly due to whites burning out), have made the choice easy for me : RAW!

Jes