Why Beginners Shouldn’t Shoot in RAW
If you are getting into digital photography and have purchased a DSLR you may wondering what this RAW file format is all about. Most things you read online will say you should always shoot in RAW since it provides more options. Why is does provide more flexibility, there are some draw backs of using it.
RAW is a format that preserves the raw data off your digital camera's sensor that captures the image like a piece of film. If you shoot JPEG, the camera will take the RAW photo, apply white balance, do some post processing (sharpening/contrast/saturation/color tone) and then encode it down to a JPEG.
The argument is if you get the white balance wrong or the camera doesn't do post processing to your satisfaction, you can fix it back at your computer since the original data is preserved. This is great for professionals that may only get one shot at a wedding or sports event.
Here is why I think you should not use RAW if you are just getting into photography:
- RAW files are MUCH larger than JPEG's. With memory cards and hard drives getting bigger, you won't have to worry about this until you start collecting many photos and need to back them up. As an example 100 JPEG photos from my Canon Rebel T1i will be about ~700 megabytes. The same photos in raw would be ~2000 megabytes.
- Seemless support for RAW is still not there, especially if you buy a camera that was released in the last year. This means you may need to use your camera manufacturers RAW utility on your photos before you can use them in your favorite photo editor or put them online.
- Most people will start off using Auto White Balance and won't notice if the white balance is off. Also every photo editor has a Warming/Cooling filter that can fix this even if it's a JPEG.
- The extra data RAW provides won't make a noticeable difference in quality if you post your pictures online or are making small prints such as 4x6 or 8x10.
In the end, the choice is yous. Most photo editing software can fix the issues that may be inherited by using JPEG over RAW. Consider using JPEG for it's convenience and you won't be giving up the option of making a large print when you take a photo you truly love.