RAW vs JPEG

[hipolito]

Which one do you use and why?

Those who use RAW please describe your technique after taking the photos: Convert to TIFF? Make adjustments and then convert directly to JPEG?

Thanks

[sheila]

I shoot RAW all the time now (I used to shoot just JPeg but as I am selling and printing images, I am a convert to RAW ). If I feel an image would make a good print, I convert to TIFF immediately but if I feel the image is just a "snap", I convert to JPeg. I review the images using PS CS - much better than the Canon converter.

I burn all my RAW images to a CD on a weekly basis, after identifying them in the title.

Cheers
Sheila

[ukexpat]

I also shoot RAW exclusively. Why? Because it gives me much greater control over the final image. Think of a RAW file as a digital negative. You can process it (in a lossless manner) in a converter like that in PS CS (there is a great book that explains the ins and outs of PS CS RAW converter: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/032127878X/qid%3D1093289911/sr%3Dka-1/ref%3Dpd%5Fka%5F1/002-2217703-5712001) then if I need to I can adjust levels and sharpening etc in PS itself.

Now, all this is time consuming, so if you just want to point, shoot and print from the camera, RAW is not for you, but if you want the maximum control over the finished product, it's the only way to shoot.

[lord_of_the_badgers]

Always shoot RAW. JPEG is a 'lossy' format. RAW is a 'lossless' format.

Also, on the d100 in particular, RAW images are noticeably sharper than JPEGs.

[ukexpat]

Always shoot RAW. JPEG is a 'lossy' format. RAW is a 'lossless' format.

Also, on the d100 in particular, RAW images are noticeably sharper than JPEGs.

I would not say "always" -- horses for courses. Your experience with sharpness is 180 degrees the opposite of mine. In my Canon experience (D30 and 10D), RAW images require some USM. This is to be expected as the RAW image is the data straight from the sensor without any in-camera sharpening or other processing.

[castledude]

What I do depends on the shoot. If I am shooting for $$ or artsy then I use RAW and post process to give the customer the best possible photos.

If I am shooting for fun (vacations, friends, etc) , then I want to maximize the shooting fun so I set the camera to do the work and only switch to RAW when something special comes up. But mostly I am shooting JPEG.

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This is for the Minolta A1/A2 but gives you a pretty good flow for using RAW..

http://www.pbase.com/mtf_foto_studies/mtf_faq#PP1

[lord_of_the_badgers]

that's as maybe Nigel, but surely you can't push & play with your JPEGs in the same way as your RAW files? Sure, JPEGs can be fine, but I prefer to have the control. JPEG is still lossy.

[ukexpat]

that's as maybe Nigel, but surely you can't push & play with your JPEGs in the same way as your RAW files? Sure, JPEGs can be fine, but I prefer to have the control. JPEG is still lossy.

As I said, for me RAW is the way to go, but it might not be for someone who just wants to plug their camera into a printer and print out pics on the spot.

[edkel]

Is it true that most affordable digital cameras just have the jpeg format, and don't have the tiff format to store the photos? Do you have to buy an expensive slr digital camera to have the tiff format?

Does JPEG format automatically compresses the photos, everytime you save the photos? How do you avoid the jpeg compression? Can you save the photos in the tiff format in your pc, as soon as outloading the photos from your camera?

Is the Raw format as common as jpeg and tiff?

What is the next thing in compression? jpeg 2000?

[framewerkz]

For TIFF, read RAW. Well, mostly. RAW is a lossless proprietary format which high-end cameras use to store digital image files.

In order of your questions...

Yes, yes, mostly yes, yes, shoot in RAW format, depends on what camera you have, yes, yes.

[matiasasun]

Does JPEG format automatically compresses the photos, everytime you save the photos? How do you avoid the jpeg compression?

Thats the whole Idea of JPEG. This is a segment of a useful page with information about JPEG. Notice that most of this formats were design to work in internet, so the idea was to make "light" files... But when we´re shooting with digital the objetive change; we want good photos wich probably means larger files.

What is JPEG?

JPEG (pronounced "jay-peg") is a standardized image compression mechanism.
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the original name of the
committee that wrote the standard.

JPEG is designed for compressing either full-color or gray-scale images
of natural, real-world scenes. It works well on photographs, naturalistic
artwork, and similar material; not so well on lettering, simple cartoons,
or line drawings. JPEG handles only still images, but there is a related
standard called MPEG for motion pictures.

JPEG is "lossy," meaning that the decompressed image isn't quite the same as
the one you started with. (There are lossless image compression algorithms,
but JPEG achieves much greater compression than is possible with lossless
methods.) JPEG is designed to exploit known limitations of the human eye,
notably the fact that small color changes are perceived less accurately than
small changes in brightness. Thus, JPEG is intended for compressing images
that will be looked at by humans. If you plan to machine-analyze your
images, the small errors introduced by JPEG may be a problem for you, even
if they are invisible to the eye.

A useful property of JPEG is that the degree of lossiness can be varied by
adjusting compression parameters. This means that the image maker can trade
off file size against output image quality. You can make *extremely* small
files if you don't mind poor quality; this is useful for applications such
as indexing image archives. Conversely, if you aren't happy with the output
quality at the default compression setting, you can jack up the quality
until you are satisfied, and accept lesser compression.

Another important aspect of JPEG is that decoders can trade off decoding
speed against image quality, by using fast but inaccurate approximations to
the required calculations. Some viewers obtain remarkable speedups in this
way. (Encoders can also trade accuracy for speed, but there's usually less
reason to make such a sacrifice when writing a file.)

Hope this helps... By the way, this also explains why some cameras have different sizes AND different qualities ("compression").

_____________________
Text taken from: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/part1/

[castledude]

Is it true that most affordable digital cameras just have the jpeg format, and don't have the tiff format to store the photos? Do you have to buy an expensive slr digital camera to have the tiff format?

Does JPEG format automatically compresses the photos, everytime you save the photos? How do you avoid the jpeg compression? Can you save the photos in the tiff format in your pc, as soon as outloading the photos from your camera?

Is the Raw format as common as jpeg and tiff?

What is the next thing in compression? jpeg 2000?

TIFF is not the same as RAW. TIFF as it applies to all the digital cameras I know of is an 8 bit uncompressed format. The RAW format is a specific format that is dependent on the camera, it is usually 12 bits but can be 10 or 16 bits depending on the camera.

TIFF is available in many cameras (look over at dpreview or steves) RAW is pretty much a DSLR and Prosumer feature. The compression of most cameras is pretty low (when set up properly) so TIFF is not that useful (IMHO). RAW is very useful since it gives you a lot more information.

TIFF files are usually uncompressed RAW files are usually compressed using a lossless format. There is no RAW standard. RAW files from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Minolta, Pentax are all different.

BTW The TIFF standard is a wrapper so any kind of data can be put into it including lossy compressed data. But I am talking about how the digital cameras use it.

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JPEG does have cumulative effects so most people save the original (the "digital negative"). You then save the results of your editing in the native uncompressed format of the editor (like Photoshop .PSD, or Ulead .UFO) and convert this version for output (JPEG or PNG for web, JPEG or TIFF for printing).

-------------------

The next thing in compression will probably wait for cameras to get to the next plateau. When memory and storage are effecting the picture taking process then the storage method will be updated to either give us more pictures on a card or to give us faster compression. JPEG2000 takes some horsepower, that is not in the present cameras to give any advantages over the existing formats.

[edkel]

JPEG format automatically compress the photo, whether you like it or not. You don't have an option. You mean the people who originally created the jpeg format didn't have the foresight that they should make the compression NOT automatic?

[ukexpat]

JPEG format automatically compress the photo, whether you like it or not. You don't have an option. You mean the people who originally created the jpeg format didn't have the foresight that they should make the compression NOT automatic?

And don't forget that, apart from a few imaging applications, every time you edit and save a JPEG it is recompressed, so the more you edit it, the worse it will look (in theory anyway).