5 Reasons to Shoot in Raw Instead of JPEG

If you’re just getting started in digital photography, you may be wondering about the choice between shooting JPEG files and shooting in raw. Here’s a quick 2-minute video by B&H in which photographer David Flores explains the benefits of a raw workflow.

Flores explains that a raw file is an “uncompressed file recorded directly from your camera’s imaging sensor.” Due to the lack of compression, the files are a lot bigger than their JPEG counterparts. However, there’s a huge amount of breathing room in your post production.

Here are the 5 reasons that Flores shares on why you should be shooting in raw format:

1. The highest possible image quality can yield the highest quality edit.

2. Exposures are easily adjusted by “many stops,” with shadows and highlights quickly recovered.

3. Sharpening and noise reduction goes “a lot further.”

4. Artifacts in your image (such as banding) are easily smoothed out.

5. Files are future-proofed, allowing you to return and edit again later with improved software.

Watch the video above to see examples of the adjustments in action.

(via B&H via FStoppers)