Lesson Eight: Shoot in Raw

Save yourself some time and a lot of headache and just shoot in Raw format.  The standard format for most pictures you've seen on the web or elsewhere is jpeg and most of the pictures you'll take will eventually be converted to jpeg.  So, why bother shooting in Raw if you have to convert to jpeg eventually anyways?  Well,  there's a couple of reasons.  First off, when you shoot in Raw, the camera captures a lot more data than if you were to shoot in jpeg.  This does, however, lead to one of the few drawbacks in shooting in Raw - it takes up a lot of memory on your memory card.  I mean a LOT!  You can search the internet if you're interested in how much more memory Raw files take up than Jpeg files.  The main reason to shoot in Raw format is that you can undo many of the mistakes you may have made as far as choosing settings on the camera.  Because of this ability, people commonly refer to your Raw file as your digital negative.  There are very few feelings worse than a picture ruined because you forgot to change a setting back to where it's supposed to be and very few feelings better than pulling a photo out of photo oblivion by shooting in Raw.