Learning wildlife photography – Shoot in RAW or JPEG mode?

Posted on 05. Feb, 2009 by Paul Burwell in Equipment, Everything, Techniques, Wildlife photography

Pair of fox kits sparing for dominance - CA

Learning wildlife photography – RAW or JPEG? - Much discussion is bound to occur when photographers get together and the question arises:  “Do you shoot in RAW mode?”

Modern digital SLR and high-end point-and-shoot cameras support recording the images they produce as JPEG files and as RAW files.  The camera’s image sensor produces unprocessed data for each image taken and can store that data as a RAW file which does not resemble an image in any way.  JPEG is an industry standard for storing images in a compressed format.  To produce JPEG images, the camera processes the unrefined image data using preset parameters to adjust their sharpness, contrast, brightness and colour saturation.

Many photographers prefer to have their camera produce RAW files because they consider them to be the digital equivalent of film negatives and love the flexibility of processing the images.  In many ways, working in RAW allows photographers the flexibility they enjoyed processing images in the darkroom.  Because RAW files contain the unprocessed image data directly from the camera’s sensor, software can massage that information to produce the most pleasing image possible.  It also offers the potential of salvaging over or under exposed areas of an image or even recovering from situations where the camera or photographer chose the incorrect white balance.

Pair of fox kits sparing for dominance - CA

There are several advantages to having your camera directly produce JPEG files.  The files are smaller than RAW files allowing more of them fit on a memory card and the JPEGs are faster to transfer to the computer.  The JPEG files the camera produces are ready to go and with the exception of cropping often require no further processing.  Many photographers who produce a large number of images that will require little or no further processing choose JPEG as their format of choice.  At my recent Winter Wildlife Photography Workshop one of the participants was shooting JPEG and had a definite advantage over the RAW shooters.  The group was photographing a couple of Red Fox siblings when suddenly the interaction between the fox siblings went into overdrive and a serious contest of wills insued.  It is always a joy to my ears to hear those shutters firing.  The action was prolonged and people were frustrated that they had filled their camera’s buffers while shooting RAW images, while the JPEG shooter, with the smaller image size, was able to keep capturing the action.

The disadvantages of having your camera solely produce JPEG files arise when an image or sequence of images require manipulation to produce a pleasing image.  When the camera created the JPEG image, it already applied a number of adjustments to the photograph based on the camera’s settings.  The JPEG format is a “lossy” format that achieves its smaller size by discarding some of the image data.  Because you are dealing with an already compressed and adjusted file, it is not as resilient when adjusting the size, sharpness, colour and saturation or white balance.  If the manipulated image is again saved as a JPEG file, additional compression artifacts may result in an inferior image

Pair of fox kits sparing for dominance - CA

The primary disadvantages of RAW files are their larger size and the amount of time it takes to process them.  Because RAW files are unrefined data files they need to be processed with software in order to convert them into a picture.  A camera that can produce RAW files will include software from the camera’s manufacturer to process those files.  Additionally, third party companies such as Adobe, Phase One, Breeze Systems and Bibble Labs all make excellent products for processing RAW files.  These third party applications have options and features not usually found in the camera’s included software.  While software for processing RAW files has preset functionality to process the image, a perfectionist photographer can spend a fair amount of time adjusting the software’s various settings while working towards producing an optimal image.

Is there a perfect solution for the RAW versus JPEG question?  I don’t think so.  The correct answer depends on the situation and what you are trying to accomplish.

I fall into the perfectionist category and prefer to have my camera produce RAW files.  I love the flexibility of processing my RAW files and making various tweaks to my images without introducing unnecessary artifacts into my images.  Additionally, by retaining the raw image data I allow myself the option for further processing at some point in the future should it prove warranted.  So, when asked, I’m happy to state that I shoot in the RAW.

Have some thoughts on the RAW versus JPEG debate?  Let’s hear them.

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Tags: fight, fighting, fox, JPEG, learn, learning, Photography, RAW, red, red fox, spar, sparing, Wildlife