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The Raw Format – Digital DSLR Cameras - TheShopBay

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The Raw Format – Digital DSLR Cameras - TheShopBay

Let’s understand what a RAW format means, the advantages and disadvantages of RAW format, and is RAW mode suitable for all kinds of photography with TheShopBay.

One suggestion that you will always get from an experienced photographer is to shoot in RAW format or RAW mode. Why? Let’s get an explanation for it.

In this digital age, we all are aware of the term JPEG. JPEG is short for “Joint Photographic Experts Group“. It is the name of the committee that created the JPEG standard.

This format makes life so much easier when we talk about the easiness of capturing a photo and uploading or sharing it on various social platforms. JPEG is also the world’s most widely used format to store image data.

However, if you are a little more familiar with photography or someone who is a professional photographer, you will agree that JPEG format comes with its limitations.

How? Consider an image you shot recently and have issues like low/high exposure or wrong colors. You won’t be able to correct such issues if the image was processed as JPEG. It’s because JPEG is a lossy and compressed format. A lot of data you capture gets lost, as JPEG tries to keep the file size low while processing the image.

To counter this problem, you need to have a format that does not compress your image and stores all image data captured by the sensor to give you the maximum image quality. This format is called RAW, and is available in all Digital DSLR Cameras and Mirrorless cameras.

A quick tip. Capture all your images in RAW format, transfer it to your laptop, do the necessary editing, export the image in JPEG, and then share on various social platforms.

Related – Image Sensor Format – Essentials of Photography

The required editing can be done on any application that understands the RAW file.

Below are some Applications or Software’s the understand RAW files.

Some advantages of shooting in RAW mode.

  • You get the maximum image quality without losing any image data.
  • RAW files are highly flexible when it comes to its post-processing. It gives you more control over the final image.
  • The changes you make while editing a RAW image are reversible. It means that you will never lose the original image that you had clicked in RAW mode.
  • The prints you get from RAW files are of great quality.

However, some reason why shooting in RAW mode is not a good option.

  • If you are someone who is not willing to invest time in post-processing of the image. The process of achieving the final image through post-processing of a RAW image can add time to your workflow.
  • If you belong to a category of photographers who are time-sensitive. Some good examples are action photography, sports photography, or wildlife photography. You may miss a good shot while the image is getting processed and saved to your memory card.
  • If you want to shoot in continuous mode at a high burst rate. It is again related to the processing time required for the image to be written to the camera’s memory card. JPEG images take less time to process and the advantage of getting longer burst shots.
  • In some cases, while you are out on a tour and want to share pics with your family and friends and you don’t have a laptop. In these cases, RAW is not an ideal format, as you won’t be having the advantage of editing the RAW images.

Another question that is frequently asked is why do RAW images look washed out when compared to JPEG images?

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