what is the advantage of shooting RAW + Jpeg?

[mojitomax]

Hi all,

some people shoot RAW + jpegs. what is the advantage of this over just RAWs?

I only shoot RAWs. one advantage i have is that macs can read RAWs natively so i don't have to convert every image to view it when i get back home. my wife's windows 7 computer cannot read the raw images so they have to be converted.

Is this why some people shoot raw and jpegs, so that they can quickly view images without converting them? Even if they do this, then would they have to note down each image they wanted to keep and then manually convert the raw later?

would it not just be easier to get a raw image viewer?

It just seems to me to be a waste of memory card space and time gaffing about at home?

Am i missing something?

[GetCarter]

Yep.

I shoot Raw onto one card and JPG onto another. Much of the time the JPG is fine for what I need. It's a smaller file - pre processed etc etc. If I need the raw to work on, I have it on the other card.

Nothing to do with Mac/PC, I use both.

[flat-planedCrank]

As Mr Carter said, if you want a streamlined, pre-processed image than having jpg versions already 'baked' can be useful.

Also worth mentioning that 'RAW' isn't a file type, they vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and even camera model to model. When new cameras are released RAW processors require updating in order to read the new files.

[tenohfive]

It's just convenient. Windows can natively view JPEG's, they're smaller files so they take much less time to open and because they're smaller files they don't actually take up much room on the memory card anyway - they're about 1/5 of RAW, so unless you're planning on coming pretty close to filling your memory card up then I don't see a good reason not to.

[ian in lancs]

On my D700's I have the 4 menus banks set up as...

A - General lazy snapping / mucking about - Large Fine JPEG
B - Landscape - Large Fine JPEG and NEF Lossless Compressed 14Bit
C - Portrait (serious studio work) NEF Lossless Compressed 14Bit
D - Action / Sport - Medium Fine JPEG

Oh, if youre saying Win 7 cant read NEf files - just download the codec and it will.

[RobDickinson]

Canon alkready embed a large jpg processed with your selected picture style into the raw.

Canon DPP can give you an exact duplicate of the in camera jpg from raw whenever you want.

If you absolutely need the jpg right there and then some canons can produce a jpg from the raw in camera.

For me raw+jpg is utterly pointless. For others it may not be.

[ian in lancs]

RobDickinson said:

Canon alkready embed a large jpg processed with your selected picture style into the raw.

Canon DPP can give you an exact duplicate of the in camera jpg from raw whenever you want.

If you absolutely need the jpg right there and then some canons can produce a jpg from the raw in camera.

For me raw+jpg is utterly pointless. For others it may not be.

Interesting! Can one be extracted from Nikon NEF files too?

[flat-planedCrank]

ian in lancs said:

RobDickinson said:

Canon alkready embed a large jpg processed with your selected picture style into the raw.

Canon DPP can give you an exact duplicate of the in camera jpg from raw whenever you want.

If you absolutely need the jpg right there and then some canons can produce a jpg from the raw in camera.

For me raw+jpg is utterly pointless. For others it may not be.

Interesting! Can one be extracted from Nikon NEF files too?

Isn't DPP re-rendering the JPG file from the RAW data & settings?

Don't recall seeing an option to export the embedded JPG - though I've not used it in ages

[theboyfold]

I shoot raw plus small jpeg. This is because I copy all my photos on to my file server. When I want to browse them on my laptop I have to use my wireless network. So it's faster to view the jpeg files.

When I work with the images, I use my desktop machine which is wired to my file server, so then I'll use the raw.

[ian in lancs]

Obviously LR can generate JPEGS but I'm after ones modified with in-camera picture controls. For the most part they are fine but I shoot RAW + JPEG to give me more editing latitude for RAW should I want it and an immeadiately useable JPEG. That's cos I've got fed up working all day on a computer and too much spare time editing RAW files!

[RobDickinson]

flat-planedCrank said:

Isn't DPP re-rendering the JPG file from the RAW data & settings?

Yes, what do you thing the camera does to make the jpg?

flat-planedCrank said:

Don't recall seeing an option to export the embedded JPG - though I've not used it in ages

Its not on all cameras, its one feature of the 7d 2.0 firmware, I think the rebels has it?

[Gad-Westy]

ian in lancs said:

Obviously LR can generate JPEGS but I'm after ones modified with in-camera picture controls. For the most part they are fine but I shoot RAW + JPEG to give me more editing latitude for RAW should I want it and an immeadiately useable JPEG. That's cos I've got fed up working all day on a computer and too much spare time editing RAW files!

Nikon's freebie raw conversion software (can't remember what they call it) can read all of the cameras picture controls from the raw file. If you just convert straight to jpeg, you'll get the same jpeg as the One you'd have got from the camera.

[ian in lancs]

Gad-Westy said:

Nikon's freebie raw conversion software (can't remember what they call it) can read all of the cameras picture controls from the raw file. If you just convert straight to jpeg, you'll get the same jpeg as the One you'd have got from the camera.

ViewNX?

ETA

and as that creates the JPEG with picture controls that the camera would have done anyway whats the point doing it with NX. Especially as its clunky software?

Edited by ian in lancs on Sunday 22 July 09:53

[VxDuncan]

Download the free "Instant JPEG from RAW" utility. With my Nikon D300 I took a shot RAW+Jpeg, then extracted the embedded jpeg from the RAW file using IJFR. Stuck the two on top of each other in photoshop. I then used the difference blend mode, and it was jet black, even when zoomed 100%. IE the two jpegs (embedded and saved RAW+Jpeg) are identical, down to the individual RGB pixel values.

For the D300 at least, there's no point shooting RAW+Jpeg as the embedded jpeg absolutely identical...

[coxyuk]

Pretty much all raw formats have an embedded jpeg. The iPad uses these to allow users to view raw files. I often shoot raw to one card and basic jpeg to an eyefi card and transmit that file to the iPad. It's a useful way to review the shoot with the subject as you go along.

Edit to add 'there's an app for that' http://instant-jpeg-from-raw.software.informer.com...

Edited by coxyuk on Sunday 22 July 22:25

[tinman0]

mojitomax said:

some people shoot RAW + jpegs. what is the advantage of this over just RAWs?

I only shoot RAWs. one advantage i have is that macs can read RAWs natively so i don't have to convert every image to view it when i get back home. my wife's windows 7 computer cannot read the raw images so they have to be converted.

I'm with you on this. Mac seems to handle RAWs perfectly ok. I did try and shoot both at once (one day) and just got so confused when it came to archiving the stuff, bah. Just shoot raw these days.

[rxtx]

Apple add RAW support for new cameras to their software updates.

[ian in lancs]

coxyuk said:

Pretty much all raw formats have an embedded jpeg. The iPad uses these to allow users to view raw files. I often shoot raw to one card and basic jpeg to an eyefi card and transmit that file to the iPad. It's a useful way to review the shoot with the subject as you go along.

Edit to add 'there's an app for that' http://instant-jpeg-from-raw.software.informer.com...

Edited by coxyuk on Sunday 22 July 22:25

To save anyone else wasting their time looking for a downloadable link

http://www.mtdhelp.com/discussions/ijfr/147/assets...

[ian in lancs]

Am I right in thinking the embedded JPEG is extracted complete with picture controls applied?

ETA - sussed it! It does but its 588KB. The file size of an in camera Large Fine JPEG is 3.76MB but both the same pixel dimensions so without checking I'm assuming its 'basic'.

Does the job though and saves card space.

Edited by ian in lancs on Monday 23 July 20:03

[VxDuncan]

ian in lancs said:

Am I right in thinking the embedded JPEG is extracted complete with picture controls applied?

ETA - sussed it! It does but its 588KB. The file size of an in camera Large Fine JPEG is 3.76MB but both the same pixel dimensions so without checking I'm assuming its 'basic'.

Does the job though and saves card space.

Edited by ian in lancs on Monday 23 July 20:03

Depends on the camera / RAW format. I'm 99% that the Nikon D300 embedded jpeg is identical to shooting straight jpeg (as my post above).