What do you save your images as?

[Roaminangler]

I do a fair bit of photography and writing and RAW certainly is the way to go with memory the cost it is there days. I also take with me an Acer one and a dvd burner instead of a laptop. smaller, lighter, cheaper and they have the Acer home theatre screen so looking at pics is great and much better on the eyes. I also have a little Pentax W series for water shots and when it's just too wet. Great little camera that is also dust proof.

[fishfinder]

I use to shoot in RAW as well as the wife but now we are getting on we put a stop to it as we don't want the kids to find our bedroom shots and believe me  is definitely not the case 

[Prado BB]

I use to shoot in RAW as well as the wife but now we are getting on we put a stop to it as we don't want the kids to find our bedroom shots and believe me  is definitely not the case 

hahahah classic

[Mandrake]

I shoot all my photos in RAW - And then after downloading delete without mercy anything that does not come up to a certain level - That way the old days of 5000 plus shots per week stored on DVDs CDs and USB HD drives is reduced to a few hundred - and lets face it you only really get 1 or 2 "good" pics out of a 100 ..

I use Fastone Image Viewer and it can view all RAW files both from the Canons and the Oly ..

Cheers

Steve

[albany_nomads]

I have shot in RAW and sometimes still do ...It depends on the what I'm photographing..If Ive set out early to do a landscape sunrise or sunset .eg.camera is on a tripod..and I'm trying to be creative I shoot in RAW...  If I'm taking just point and snap general photos be with my larger camera or small camera I have it set to JPEG in fine mode at the highest resolution...If you are going to shoot in RAW try and gain some developing and photo tweaking skills with what ever program you use to process the RAW's with (eg: ACDsee, Photoshop, Lightroom etc)..or better still if you're starting out with RAW a lot of new cameras now enable duplicate (eg: takes the same shot in RAW and JPEG) best of both worlds.
Below is a photo of a sunrise from Twilight Beach Esperance looking East over to Blue Haven Bay..Taken in RAW, long exposure (approx 20 seconds) on a tripod and used a neutral density filter in the field to hold back the intensity of the sun (just the top half of photo) so as that I could get a longer exposure and that soft look to the sea water as it ran back .
Photo was then processed and tweaked using ACDsee and Photoshop.turned then into JPEG and then re sized to enable it to be uploaded to the web

[SteveandViv]

So. Can you post the pic as a JPEG as well. I know RAW is best but what if you take that shot and save it as a JPEG then edit it...I'd be interested to see what the difference is for the average Joe...

[Blaze22]

Pretty easy if you ask me,  Use raw if you have the option on your camera.  Basically if you have a DSLR that shoots raw and you only shoot JPG you may as well have saved some money and bought a little Dig Hi pixel camera. Basically I'm saying would you buy a turbo and disconnect it?

[albany_nomads]

Good call SteveandViv..and Blaze...though I wouldn't necessarily agree 100% with Blaze's comments although I know where you re coming from Blaze and to a degree you're yea you're right. BUT
The beauty of a RAW is that it gives you a LOT of latitude to correct poor exposures and tweaking of the image along with max resolution.
This is great if you have the skills to do this..but even myself have totally stuffed up trying to rectify a poorly exposed RAW...BUT if you were to  bracket the exposures if you shoot in JPEG's and pick the best exposure..you have a relatively good exposure that only needs slightly tweaking with photo enhancement programs..and I do feel this process is a lot easier.
Again it comes down to skills of the operator and the needs for the finished image ( a lot of cameras have features where you can select a part program that brackets you're exposures auto for you..even if you shoot on manual setting).As I mentioned If I don't shoot RAW and instead select JPEG I choose max res with a setting of fine to get the best possible JPEG image.
AND also PS: SteveandVIv..Ive been having a good time reading the Youngs Blog and Travelogues..great photo's.

[Mandrake]

Don't know if this will help or not but here goes --

2 copies of the same image below - top is straight from camera quick convertion to JPEG ( as you cannot view RAW here - I would think ) - but anyway not processed - Not the under exposed foreground and over exposed sky ... Underneath is the worked on RAW file also converted to JPEG for viewing and printing etc..

Quite a big difference isnt there ...

Cheers

Steve

[Ian Wilkinson]

The advantage RAW has over jpg is more latitude to bring back detail in overexposed shots and much better correction of white balance if you are quite a way off.

RAW does you give 16 bit files, which is definitely worth it if you like to push your files hard, but if your colour is good and your exposure close to right, then everything you can do to a RAW file you can do to a jpg with pretty much the same final result.

95% of the pro world shoots RAW to cover our butt when we screw up. But if you can nail your exposures and nail your colour you may as well shoot jpgs. A RAW file is not sharper, or clearer or better.

This year I picked up runner up Australian AIPP Travel Photog of the Year with shots that were shot in RAW but worked on from the jpgs, and a few years ago I picked up Qld AIPP Landscape Photog of the Year with a portfolio of images from a 3mega P&S shot as jpgs. Not trying to sound like a poser but trying to show even jpgs which some consider to be rubbish can do the job just fine.

I'd always say shoot RAW, you never know when you'll need as much help as you can get to save a shot, and if you spend a little time learning the software you'll find converting RAW files to a useable format pretty easy.

Adobe PhotoShop Elements is perfect for most people and will make shooting RAW pretty easy for everyone, and you can pick it up pretty cheap. But if you have the latest camera you'll need a version close to current, Adobe has a policy of not back supporting new cameras with the older software.

[Dion]

I'd always say shoot RAW, you never know when you'll need as much help as you can get to save a shot, and if you spend a little time learning the software you'll find converting RAW files to a useable format pretty easy.

Hrm, I remember a thread on another forum a few years ago where you had a different opinion 

[Ian Wilkinson]

No you don't, you just couldn't read and I didn't bother telling you to read it properly 

RAW is best, but you were trying to say jpgs suck and they don't. Jpg's can be just as good as RAW provided the colour and exposure are correct. Same thing I wrote last time.

No one should feel just because they chose to shoot Jpgs that their work is in any way lacking. Jpgs are easier for anyone that doesn't have access to the software required. There's lots of people that love photography that just don't want to learn yet another software package, so they can successfully shoot using Jpgs and still return with great results.

Jpeg is not a horrible format, it's more than capable if you get your colour and exposure correct.