Shooting Raw + Jpeg

canon400d

I have recently started to shoot Raw and to be honest I think it is excellent especially when I use CS3 Extended. Can anyone please tell me if I should be shooting Raw or Raw + Jpeg. What is the purpose of shooting both. I have tried it and I just cannot understand the purpose. No doubt there is a good reason and I would love to know why. I have read my 40D book but I cannot find the difference.
Thanks a lot
Bob

Cameron

canon400d wrote:

I have recently started to shoot Raw and to be honest I think it is excellent especially when I use CS3 Extended. Can anyone please tell me if I should be shooting Raw or Raw + Jpeg. What is the purpose of shooting both. I have tried it and I just cannot understand the purpose. No doubt there is a good reason and I would love to know why. I have read my 40D book but I cannot find the difference.
Thanks a lot
Bob

RAW + JPEG can be useful when you want to have a jpeg to use immediately - no need to process a file. Using CS3 it is pretty easy to generate a JPEG from the RAW. Note, however, that the JPEG generated using adobe's default RAW conversion settings won't look the same as the JPEG out of the camera.

Anyway, having both is mostly a matter of convenience. The drawback is the space it takes both on your card and computer.

ziggy53

I moved this thread to the Finishing School where I think it is more appropriate.

ziggy53

CSwinton wrote:

RAW + JPEG can be useful when you want to have a jpeg to use immediately - no need to process a file. Using CS3 it is pretty easy to generate a JPEG from the RAW. Note, however, that the JPEG generated using adobe's default RAW conversion settings won't look the same as the JPEG out of the camera.

Anyway, having both is mostly a matter of convenience. The drawback is the space it takes both on your card and computer.

Art Scott

The reason I shoot the combo of raw + jpg is for chimping.....when you are looking at your file on the camera lcd it will not magnify the raw file....on the jpg can be magnified.......if it weren't for wanting to magnify the files when I am looking at them I would only shoot raw.

ifocus

Magnification

Art Scott wrote:

The reason I shoot the combo of raw + jpg is for chimping.....when you are looking at your file on the camera lcd it will not magnify the raw file....on the jpg can be magnified.......if it weren't for wanting to magnify the files when I am looking at them I would only shoot raw.

Btw, Nikon magnifies the files in camera as it generates a jpeg thumbnail by default; no need to shoot any jpeg. This is really handy. Other than than, I sometimes shoot RAW+jpeg to understand how to match the jpeg in camera to the raw converter settings. I learned a lot doing this on a regular basis.

JY

arodney

canon400d wrote:

I have recently started to shoot Raw and to be honest I think it is excellent especially when I use CS3 Extended. Can anyone please tell me if I should be shooting Raw or Raw + Jpeg. What is the purpose of shooting both. I have tried it and I just cannot understand the purpose. No doubt there is a good reason and I would love to know why. I have read my 40D book but I cannot find the difference.
Thanks a lot
Bob

I never use it. Reason is, I'm not in a hurry (I could see this as useful for say a newspaper person) and, the Raw and JPEG are difficult to match. Instead, I only shoot Raw and build JPEGs from the Raw rendering instructions, then the two match exactly. Maybe with a camera manufacturer built converter, you can match them or get close, but I use Lightroom. Its possible to get them to somewhat match with a lot of work, but then I don't see the benefit of speed here and, I end up with less files to manage in LR and more space on my cards.

To answer your question, in a workflow where you need the qualities of Raw but need a rendered image (JPEG) quickly, it might be useful. Otherwise, I don't see the need. I can build rendering instructions in Lightroom to provide a color appearance I wish, then easily build out JPEGs when necessary (which expect to send images within an email, I don't ever need to do). LR has a web gallery that will build JPEGs that now match the Raws, about the only time I'd generate a JPEG.

arodney

Art Scott wrote:

The reason I shoot the combo of raw + jpg is for chimping.....when you are looking at your file on the camera lcd it will not magnify the raw file....on the jpg can be magnified.......if it weren't for wanting to magnify the files when I am looking at them I would only shoot raw.

Well maybe not on your camera. On my Canon 5D, the camera will zoom into the Raw's to 1:1.

canon400d

arodney wrote:

Well maybe not on your camera. On my Canon 5D, the camera will zoom into the Raw's to 1:1.

Thanks everyone for your replies I have found them all very useful indeed.

Regards to you all.
Bob