RAW or jpeg

I've always shot jpeg pix, but I have Elements 7 (and have bought Lightroom 3) with the intent of tweaking jpeg pix. Both of them edit RAW images, which I know nothing about - I've never tried it.

My 40D can simultaneously record pix in jpeg and RAW with each press of the shutter. I'm curious about RAW.

Do any of you do RAW, or is it too much trouble?

Thanks
Hack

This message was edited Dec 20, 2010 1:27 AM

Hack, the best advice I ever got was from Denis (Calypso.photo) back in 2008. He advised me to shoot RAW, so bowing to his knowledge, I have been shooting RAW and JPEG ever since. Mind you, initially I was like the dog that finally caught the car. I had it, but had no idea what to do with it. Now, I do have some understanding. RAW is pure digital data that needs to be converted into a format that the computer recognizes. RAW can't lose quality and no matter what you do to a RAW image in processing, the original is there to be reworked as many times as you like, whereas every time you open a JPEG image, a little bit of the quality is lost - subtly, but over time, a favourite image will deteriorate. If you have only JPEG images, then it's best to make a duplicate and work from the duplicate, to limit the number of times the original is opened. There's an enormous amount of information on RAW and people far better placed than I will explain it better than I can. I'm still learning. But bottom line, shoot both until you understand what you can do with RAW. Denis only shoots RAW.

I've stopped watching this thread, to ask me a question PM me.

Hack

Good info Margaret. I'm still not shooting RAW much, until I get the hang of things or am shooting something special. PLUS, I have small storage cards. LOL.

However, I'm often editing in camera raw. just to confuse the issue. HA.

Here' a link: http://www.birdinfo.co.za/photographic/16_why_raw.htm

I'm also putting it on the Camera thread.

Margarett hits on the main points. I only shoot Raw, however, I did shoot Raw and Jpeg this year when shooting little league football because I needed to get the images up on my site quickly for the parents to view them - so the Jpeg images served the duty. When the parents ordered photos, I worked the Raw file and printed from them. Try Raw...even if you only tweak the white balance and exposure, you'd see a significant improvement in the photo.