JPEG, RAW or Both ?

[jordanatkins]

Awaiting the poll and I will vote in it, but answering already.

I used to shoot RAW-equivalents only with my Fujifilm S3 Pro, Nikon D300 and Leica M8.

But since I started shooting the Ricoh GXR-M (with electronic EVF) I shoot RAW and JPEG combined, since it allows me to set the camera to B&W and I get a monochrome image in the finder and on the LCD. Which makes it much easier to find lights and darks in an image, it's like shooting the final image straight away. If I decide to keep the imported RAW file in color later, I still benefit from better exposed photographs since the balance between lights and darks is so much easier found while shooting.

And yes, I do discard the in-camera JPEG's altogether, having the RAW file and fine-tuning that later is much more versatile IMHO.

Not quite an answer that fits your question I think, but it's an answer...😉

EDIT: I chose the option that was closest...

I also do this with my NEX-7 so that I can see in B&W while I'm shooting and to have a quick file for preview--extremely useful. I usually discard the jpegs later in favor of tweaking the different tones in Photoshop with the B&W filter.

 

[Contarama]

Does this mean I can just go take pictures now?

Yes! You will be able to get them to your client faster too!

 

[srtiwari]

I also do this with my NEX-7 so that I can see in B&W while I'm shooting and to have a quick file for preview--extremely useful. I usually discard the jpegs later in favor of tweaking the different tones in Photoshop with the B&W filter.

I have asked this earlier in the thread, but did not receive a response- Why shoot JPEG at all ? My x100s, allows me to switch the film mode to Black and White, while recording only RAW. Is this not the case with other Digital cameras ?

 

[Mcary]

Shoot RAW only
Processing 99% LR5 1% PS
Only check the camera LCD on a random bases and have auto review turned off on my M8 to help save battery life.
Way I look at it shooting RAW and processing in LR is a lot like shooting and developing B&W as both make you wait until later to see the results. Also just like I use the same developer+Time+Agutation to process all the images in a roll of film I generally start by apply the same development setting to all the images in a series and then later make additional adjustment to my favorites.
As far a JPEGs go I generally treat them as disposable in that I generate them from LR for posting to the web/email or uploading for printing and then delete them once they've served their purpose.

 

[peter_n]

I save both formats in the camera but have never used the RAW files. For what I use color for the OOC jpegs are more than sufficient from my NEX-7. I created an action in Photoshop for the NEX files and usually one click in PS and I'm done.

 

[Godfrey]

On most of my cameras, raw only. I use raw only most of the time because it works the way I prefer to work with a camera: concentrate on exposure, focus and subject, leave image processing decisions to rendering time. As someone else said, my exposures are always imported into LR so I can export a JPEG any time I want to without thinking too hard.

However, when I'm on the road nowadays I carry only my iPad mini. I've got a good raw converter for the iPad mini, but it's rather slow. So I switch the cameras to work in JPEG + raw so that I can easily play with and/or post a photo while I'm traveling.

Some of my cameras (the Leica X2 and Ricoh GXR) don't have a good option for raw only so they're always in JPEG+raw mode. For these, I import everything into LR, then remove the JPEGs so as not to clutter up my view of the exposures with duplicates.

G

 

[mikemc_photo]

There's no option that really describes what I do. I always shoot RAW+JPEG and keep both versions. My usual practice is to use the JPEGs to generate a "digital contact sheet" on fairly cheap paper (Canon High Resolution Paper or similar) from the JPEGs and do my selects from there. This is a two-stage process - picking which files to include on the "contact sheet" means I've reviewed them on screen, after printing them I've reviewed them on paper (albeit in small size). The photos I do select are then worked on from RAW.

That's my main use for JPEGs, but I also use them when for some reason (eg. an event, a sporting match) there's a need to print or otherwise circulate files swiftly (faster than I can process finals from RAW). I have a couple of Photoshop actions I've put together to do some standard edits to take things from the way I set the in-camera JPEGs up (generally a bit flat and certainly unsharpened) to produce immediately-usable/printable files (understanding that "printable" means "not too horrible as 6x4s").

...Mike

I can correct much better than any jpeg...I save in tiff

 

[Sid836]

Always RAW, then JPG (for publishing).