In this article, we’re going to take a look at What Are The Advantages of Shoot Photos In Raw. Basically, RAW files are uncompressed data from your camera’s sensor.
This allows you to preserve more color data and highlight and shadow detail. It also gives you more flexibility for editing your photos.
1. High Quality Files
The first and most important advantage of shooting photos in raw is the high quality files they produce. RAW files contain everything the camera’s sensor can see – including all of the details in the image, like the color range and lighting. This is unlike JPEGs, which only collect the information that the camera wants to keep.
This makes RAW images much higher quality than JPEGs, and you’ll often be able to recover a lot of information that the camera might have deleted in the process of creating your JPEG image. This is especially useful if your image has been underexposed (too bright), or overexposed (too dark).
It also means that you can capture a much greater range of colors than you can with JPEGs. This is great for capturing the details in the sky or the color of the skin, as well as allowing you to add or subtract more vibrant colors from the image.
Another key benefit of RAW files is that they’re non-destructive, meaning you can easily edit them in post-processing and never lose them. This is especially valuable if you plan to share your photos with others.
Shooting in RAW also lets you save a variety of versions of an image and adjust critical settings in editing software to recreate that image as you remember it. This can be particularly useful if you want to relive a memory or event, like a client’s wedding day, by taking a photo that perfectly captures the moment.
The file sizes of RAWs are also larger than JPEGs, so they take up a lot more space on your memory card and computer. This may not be a big deal if you’re a hobbyist or if you shoot casually, but it can become a problem if you’re shooting fashion, sports, or other fast-paced photography.
This means that you’ll need a lot of storage on your camera or hard drive if you decide to shoot in RAW, but this can be worth it for the quality and the ability to preserve the memory of your photographs for years to come.
2. More Forgiving Format
There are several advantages to shooting your photos in raw, one of them being that they can be processed with greater ease. Moreover, the files are also of higher quality than their JPEG counterparts, which means that you can use your newfound image editing skills to create stunning results.
The best part is that you don’t need to rely on expensive retouching software to do it for you – simply export your images in RAW format, and you can start fine-tuning them with the help of your favourite image editing program. This means that you can start putting your skills to the test and take your photography game to the next level, all without having to shell out a dime.
The other main advantage of RAW is that it is the most forgiving, allowing you to capture more details in a single frame than would be possible with a mediocre JPEG. This is especially true for the lights and shades of your subjects. This is especially important if you’re trying to capture the best of both worlds, for example, a landscape with both sunlit and dimmer areas. As a result, you’ll be able to see the tiniest of details on even the brightest of days.
3. Better for Editing
RAW files offer more color and detail information than JPEGs, making them a good choice for photographers who want to edit their photos. They’re also forgiving if you make mistakes with them during editing. However, if you’re just starting out and don’t have a lot of time to spend on your photos, JPEGs may be easier to work with.
One of the best benefits of shooting RAW is that you can correct problems with exposure and shadows in your images. You can use a photo editor to recover shadows or brighten the light in the image to bring out details and enhance colors.
You can also fix white balance, contrast and other basic image corrections. These are all essential tools for fixing common problems like an underexposed image, a harsh shadow or a blown-out highlight.
If you’re looking for a photo editor that is easy to use and provides all the basics for editing your RAW pictures, try Luminar Neo. It’s available as a standalone application or a plugin for Lightroom, and it comes with AI-based features like sky replacement, portrait bokeh, skin smoothers and more to help you get better results in no time.
Luminar is one of the best RAW editors because it’s simple and offers a triad of powerful tools for fixing most problems with your photos: the Adjust tab, the Lens tab and the Skin tab. These three neatly organized sets of tools form the core of Luminar’s editing power, and it’s the ideal RAW image editor for beginners and experts alike.
Another powerful tool is RawTherapee, a highly customizable organization tool for RAW files that can be used in conjunction with Photoshop or Lightroom. It has a lot of options and is very user-friendly, but novices might find the options too overwhelming.
The software is especially designed to run smoothly on weaker PCs. It is a good option for photographers who can’t afford expensive photo editors or don’t have the computing strength to use more advanced tools.
Capture One Pro looks more expensive than its rivals, but it’s a good choice for those who are serious about RAW processing and don’t need all the nitty-gritty features of Lightroom or Photoshop. It has a powerful processing engine and a wide range of features that pros use for image cataloging, searching and non-destructive editing.
4. Better for Sharing
Shooting photos in RAW is a great way to ensure that you can get the best possible results when you’re editing them. This is because a RAW file contains all the data that the camera sees, and you can use this information to edit your images yourself.
The biggest advantage of shooting in raw is that you can get more detail out of your images. This is because your camera captures the full range of light and colour that it can see, and you can use this information to restore detail in shadows and highlights that would be impossible with a JPEG.
Another benefit of shooting in raw is that you can also save your files in a more flexible format. For example, you can choose which color space to save in (sRGB or CMYK). This is important for photographers who print their photos, as sRGB is the most common for screens but CMYK is better for printing.
You can also change the white balance in your images if you’re shooting outdoors. This is a big help for wedding photographers and those who need to shoot in harsher environments with a wide variety of lighting conditions.
Unlike a JPEG, you can also store a larger number of raw images on your memory card. This is important if you’re taking a lot of photos at once and you want to avoid filling up your camera’s buffer too fast. This can also mean that you’ll need a bigger memory card than you would have if you were using a JPEG.
However, it is also important to note that a RAW photo will require more time to edit than a JPEG. This is because of the extra data in a RAW image and you’ll need specific photo-centric software to edit your raw files.
So, before you decide whether or not to shoot your photos in raw, it’s important to think about what you want out of them and what your goals are. If you’re a professional photographer who wants to produce high-quality images that will be used for galleries and prints, then it’s likely that a RAW file will be the right choice. But if you’re just a casual photographer who doesn’t mind spending a bit of extra time editing your photos after they’ve been taken, then a JPEG may be the more suitable choice for you.
