One of the biggest debates in the digital photography world has been the merits of the JPEG and RAW file formats. One website will tell you that RAW files are too big and clumsy to be of any value. Others will tell you that JPEG files sacrifice too much quality and shouldn’t be used by any serious photographer.
The fact of the matter is that both formats have their perks and their drawbacks. The format you choose should depend on your specific situation and exactly what you want to do with your photographs.
What is a JPEG file?
The JPEG format is the most popular picture format for both professional and amateur photographers. JPEGs have been around since 1992 and have lasted this long for good reason. They’re the porridge that is neither too hot nor too cold. It is of higher quality than the 256 bit GIF format and smaller than the bulky PNG format.
If a digital photograph is being traded over the internet, it is more likely than not a JPEG.
The nice thing about jpegs is that they can be taken straight out of the camera and be ready to use. No special programs are required.
If you want to conserve space on your digital camera’s memory card, saving the photos as a JPEG is a great way to do this. Your computer’s hard drive will also appreciate this.
On the other hand, there will be a noticeable loss and quality the more you edit a JPEG file. This is one of the downsides of the JPEG format. If you edit a JPEG more than once, the loss in picture quality will be very obvious. The reason for this is that the JPEG is a lossy format, meaning that some information is lost when the photographed is processed into a JPEG.
Because of this, jpegs are much better suited for instant sharing than serious editing.
The JPEG format’s compression struggles when there is a sharp contrast between adjacent pixels in the picture. You will see fewer artifacts when there is a smooth variation in tone and color in the picture.
In recent years, variations of the JPEG format have come out which have tried to limit the amount of information lossed when a JPEG file is created. These so called lossless formats, however, are not yet widely supported.
What Is A RAW File?
Think of a RAW file like the negatives of an old-school photograph. It is a pure, uncompressed chunk of data from the camera. Unlike the JPEG, there has been no information loss.
Saving a photograph as a RAW gives you total control over that picture.
As you might expect, this format takes up a lot of space on your memory card and on your hard drive. What you get in exchange, however, is the highest possible image quality you can get from that picture. After all, a RAW file contains virtually every piece of information collected that by the camera when taking the picture.
Another perk of the RAW file is that you can edit, crop, and resize the image without losing any quality in the image. You don’t have the problem that you do with the JPEG where every time you edit, you lose a substantial amount of quality.
Unlike a JPEG, however, you cannot take a RAW file out of the camera and begin using it immediately. First you must use a specialized program to process the file. Because the RAW file is the unadulterated version of the photograph, it is not yet ready to be edited with a mainstream editing program. Like a photo negative, you need to process it first.
Because you need specialized software, RAW files are not ideal for sharing.
The other downside alluded to earlier is the enormous size of the RAW file. You will be able to take substantially fewer pictures if you’re saving them in a RAW file format as opposed to a JPEG.
Another downside is that there is no such thing as a standard RAW format. Different cameras have different RAW formats. This is a challenge to the developers of the specialized software that opens RAW files because it forces them to constantly update their products. For you, the humble photographer, this makes it even more challenging to find appropriate software.
So which file format should you use for your photographs?
If your ambitions are limited to sharing your photographs with friends and family over the web, then the JPEG is a no-brainer. The JPEG small file size and ease of use makes it ideal for this.
If you are a professional photographer, you can go either way.
On the one hand, jpegs do give you a high image quality with a relatively small image size. As time passes and newer software and hardware comes out, the quality drawbacks of the JPEG will probably decrease.
That said, you might want to consider experimenting with the RAR format because it will give you the most possible control over your photograph. Your general image quality and the range of colors available to you will be the most they could possibly be.
Additionally, if you plan to seriously edit your photographs, then going with the RAW format might be a good idea. Unlike the JPEG, you do not lose image quality when you edit a RAW photograph.
Again, the format that you should choose really depends on what you want to do with your photographs and your specific situation.
