Phil Sheard | Blog

I finally appreciate why my camera gives you the option to save photographs in the .raw file format as well as .jpg. I’ve had the camera set to save both versions for some time now, but never had the software to view the raw versions.

There’s lots of info out there I’m sure about raw vs jpg, but here’s my summary: the raw file is the facts (good or bad) about what the camera saw, whilst the jpg is a presentable version you can show your mum. The photo loses a lot of information when it is processed to jpg – a jpg is 2-3MB whilst a raw file is 10MB+.

To illustrate, here’s are a jpg and raw of the same photo from the Conchords gig this week:

The jpg (left) and raw (right) capture the same scene but the colours are a lot different.

Here they are in close up:

Close-up of the jpg (left) and raw (right). Brett on the right was wearing a blue shirt not green!

I was surprised to see that there could be such a difference, and I’m glad I had the raw version. The honest, actual light is a much better photo the way I remember it.

If you’ve got any other tips for using raw, let me know. I’ve just started using Aperture on the Mac and I’m keen to learn more.