RAW or JPEG?

What do you all use and why? Any advice on this?

Many thanks

John

JPEGs are obviously more useful for posting and have shorter loading times and take up less space, but there are different RAW to JPEG algorithms.

Usually the conversion on camera is optimised for speed, as you wouldn't want to wait 5 seonds before you took the next shot. When you do the conversion on PC, the algorithm is usually biased towards quality (and takes longer to convert).

There are many very good technical reasons for shooting in RAW, but better quality JPEGs is a good practical one that everybody can appreciate. 

One reason for using RAW is that it gives you complete control over how your picture develops. A bit like using the old print film. You could take the developed negative into the darkroom and manipulate the image easily. Just shooting Jpeg is like using slide film, once the film itself was developed that was your image. With RAW a little over exposure won't hurt you can still pull back some detail and it is better to under expose because you can easily increase the exposure using Photoshop or RawShooter Essentials (which you can download for free) and you will get an increase in your shutter speed = sharper pictures. If you really over expose you will blow your highlights and lose all detail but, it isn't as bad as it used to be with film.

One more thing. Photographing Reptiles/Amphibians, we are usually using a brown/green background for a brown/green creature so everything is usually midtoned. Shooting in Jpeg mode shouldn't be a problem. If you do want to make adjustments save your file as a TIFF, work on it and save as a Jpeg when you have finished. If you keep saving a file as a Jpeg it will loss quality at every save, as the file is compressed. Where as TIFF is lossless, but a bigger file.

If youwant to prepare your images for the web here's how using Photoshop CS:

Open the master file.  Select Image/Mode/Convert to Profile. Adobe RGB (1998) should appear in the Source Space box. If sRGB does not appear in the Destination Space box, click on the arrow and select it from the drop-down list. Now click OK. Then click on Image/Image Size and change the resolution to 72(PC) / 96(MAC) pixels per inch, making sure that the Resample Image box is unchecked, and click OK. Next, click on File/Automate/Fit Image. Enter 650 in both the Width and Height boxes. Click OK. Then sharpen the image for web use - Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask with the settings at  Amount:125%, Radius:0.2 pixels and Threshold:0 (for small JPEG files to be used electronically...). Some digital images might need two sharpening passes. Film images generally require three rounds of sharpening. Next, click on File/Save for Web. Make sure that JPEG is selected in the box below the word Settings. Click on the tiny right-pointing arrow above the word Optimized near the upper right corner of the Save for Web window and then click on Optimize to File Size. Enter the number 40 in the Desired File Size box, click OK, and then click Save. In the Save As Optimized box, make sure that you click through to the desired location and folder and make sure that "Images Only" appears in the Save As Type box. If HTML and Images appears in the Save as Type box, click on the arrow and select Images Only (*. jpeg) from the drop-down menu. Click Save. When you close the picture, a box will appear asking "Save changes ... before closing?"  Click No as you must leave your master file intact.

Have fun.

Great pic! What lens did you use?

Many thanks

John