Which Format? RAW or JPEG.

Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom RAW image editor.

Lots of people ask me this question; which format should I use when taking photos? And the answer is pretty simple; if you are shooting a wedding, or any important event, then you should only be shooting in the RAW format.

Apple's Aperture RAW image editor.

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If you are a keen photographer, and have been shooting lots of photos, and you may have already been asked to shoot a wedding for a friend. The question is, which format to use. Using the RAW format can be more than a little daunting. Most people have never really had anything to do with this format, because the smaller consumer digital cameras generally do not have this option. Most will have JPEG at various resolutions, and some may have a Tiff option, but few have a RAW option. RAW is usually the domain of the DSLR or high end consumer cameras. The other caveat is that most computer software is only designed to process JPEG images. However, when you are shooting something as important as a wedding, then you need the flexibility that the RAW option gives you.

There are many benefits to shooting RAW.
Firstly, ALL the scene information is captured, unlike the JPEG format. Even in the highest resolution setting, JPEG format still is deleting some of the file information in order to allow more images to be captured on the memory card by creating a smaller file. This can make image editing a more difficult process later.
Secondly, the range of manipulations available with RAW image software, is far and away greater than with standard image editors. If you do not shoot in the RAW format, you will lose the ability to be able to use the many RAW specific adjustments available for this format, which can literally be in the hundreds of adjustments.

Two of the most popular RAW programs today, are Apple's Aperture and Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom. Aperture is Macintosh, so if you are a Mac user, like me, then you can use Aperture. Lightroom, on the other hand, is available on both the Mac and the PC. Both are extremely good at editing RAW files, and the latest iterations of these programs are introducing filters as add ons. So they will become even more capable.