Happy Friday Friends!!!ย Today’s post is one that I hope you all find useful! Shooting in RAW vs. shooting in JPG! There are TONS of articles on this, so I don’t plan on going into this in depth, but it’s a question that gets brought up time and time again! And be warned, this post is going to be REAL! A real look at how shooting in RAW has saved images for me!
If you’re wondering what I am talking about ย this article is amazing for covering the basis of what the two formats are. Basically, when you shoot in RAW, this format is uncompressed, and unprocessed, where as a JPG has been processed and compressed in your camera. Still confused, read the article I linked!! ๐ It’s super informative!
So now that you understand what the two formats are, which one should you choose? Again, there are amazing resources out there that compare the two formats. This one in particular is one of my favorites, or doing a simple Google search will bring up many more helpful articles.
As you guys can see by the title of this blog post, I chose to shoot in RAW exclusively. I shot my first wedding in JPG, and decided the benefits of shooting in RAW out weighed the only con I believe shooting in RAW has;ย file size. RAW files haven’t been compressed by your camera so you get the complete data of the image from your camera’s sensor. This means the file sizes are WAY bigger than shooting in JPG; however, memory is so cheap nowadays! Having all that data, that hasn’t been compressed, is aย life saver, friends! You know, some times you just are shooting away and not paying attention? Maybe you’re going from a dark church to a bright sunny day after the ceremony, and forget to adjust. Maybe your flash didn’t fire. Maybe the sun comes out on a dark, gloomy day. What ever the case, trust me we’ve all been there ๐ Shooting in RAW may help some of those mistakes you make!
*Disclaimer: It may not be enough to save an image!! Bad light is bad light, no matter what format you’re shooting in! If the image is too under or over-exposed, you may not be able to save it! However, shooting in RAW can save you from some sticky situations!ย
In this example, I didn’t have my flash strong enough, causing the image to be about 2 stops underexposed. I brought this in to Lightroom, and was able to save it!
I honestly have no reason as to why this image is overexposed. One of those times I was just shooting too quickly and carelessly. However, it was one of the best images from this location, so I kept it, and I was able to save it!!
And this last image, isn’t super under or over exposed, but it didn’t really look amazing. We had been in a tornado watch earlier in the day, and we lost light quickly. The light coming in from the windows was really cool, and the lights and candles inside were very warm. So I tried to meet the light in the middle. (The back light is still a little cool, but overall this image is so sweet!)