Should I Shoot JPEG or Raw Pictures?

Yesterday's post described the importance of choosing the largest size and best quality settings for your camera's photos. These setting apply specifically when saving pictures as JPEG files. JPEGs are developed in the camera and are ready to use (after resizing) for email, Word documents, Powerpoint presentations, social media and printing as soon as you download them to your computer.

Near River Point Campground, Seeley Lake, Montana

Raw image files need to be developed after downloading to your computer to turn them into JPEG or other file formats before they can be used. Saving a photo as a raw image gives you some leeway for fixing exposure or color balance mistakes more easily and can produce a better image than a JPEG in some cases. But you do have to take the time to process the files in order to achieve this. It's the equivalent of developing your own film in the wet darkroom days.

Learn about image files and other helpful camera information in my one-day Getting to Know Your Digital SLR Camera class on February 24, 2018, in Missoula, Montana. Click here to register online.