To shoot in RAW or JPG mode on your digital camera? Do you really get the extra, fine detail that 16-bit RAW mode purports to deliver, and that everyone is raving about?
Or is it a case of the Emperor's New Clothes, and no one wants to say anything? Or, more precisely, do people even notice?..Full Blog Post Here
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antron said... 16-bit RAW mode lets you post-process the picture in order to reveal image data you couldn't get without shooting several pictures with different exposure times
Check it out (16 bit RAW section)
http://www.hdrsoft.com/examples.html
I like the analogy with the music industry and digital vs. analog. I'm a huge music buff and within the last year i started collecting vinyl. I have some albums in digital form, in both mp3 and CD format as well as on vinyl. If you were to blindfold me and play the three different formats one after another, I probably wouldn't be able to tell you which is which.
Back to the photography part of it now. For my shooting purposes, I'm not a professional photographer in the sense that I don't get paid to make pictures, jpg format is sufficient. The only time that I shoot raw is when I want to go in and "digitally remaster" the image (sorry for another music industry reference. i couldn't help myself). After I'm done editing, i save as a TIF and delete the RAW file.
I guess it's just a matter of preference at this point. A good picture is a good picture, no matter what format it's shot in. Vinyl is making a comeback in recent years. Who knows, maybe some day RAW will become a desirable format for "photofiles" of the future, giving them a retro feel to their images.
-brian
thewanderingarchitect
July 23, 2008 6:21 AM