JPEG or RAW?

Learning goal

You will be able to explain the difference between the two basic formats a camera offers when it saves a photo: that a JPEG is a compressed, ready-to-use file the camera has prepared, while a RAW file carries the unprocessed data the sensor recorded. You will be able to show with examples how much later intervention in color and shadow each format allows, decide according to your own needs which format to choose in which situation, and use the option of saving both formats together.

The question

If you watched a wedding photographer or a nature photographer, you would see them sitting at the computer for hours after the shoot is over. Your phone, on the other hand, gives you a ready image the moment it takes the photo: vivid colors, the contrast just right, ready to share. Don't you wonder why professionals don't want that ready image?

Why do professionals shoot "raw" files? This lesson's answer begins with a kitchen comparison. A JPEG is like a ready meal: someone has cooked it for you, added the salt and spices, and put it on the plate. A RAW file is the ingredients: the vegetables, the meat and the spices sit separately, and you cook the dish yourself. A ready meal is quick and often tasty. But if it has too much salt, you can't take it back. With the ingredients, you can do what you like.

Context

When you press the shutter button, the sensor measures the light falling on each point and creates a pile of data. This data is not yet a photograph; it is a raw collection of measurements, with undecided colors and flat contrast. The camera can use this data in two different ways. Either it processes it internally, produces a JPEG file and throws the raw data away, or it writes the raw data as it is into a RAW file and leaves the processing to you.

The format you choose decides how much the photo can be changed later. This choice matters especially in difficult light: lamps of mixed colors, faces left in darkness, a pure white sky. You will see editing in detail in the first-edits module and later in the module on processing RAW files on a computer. In this lesson we get to know the decision that sets, from the start, how far that editing can go.

Simple explanation

What kind of file is a JPEG?

JPEG is the most common format for sharing and storing photos. When a camera or a phone produces a JPEG, it applies a series of decisions to the raw data: it sets the white balance, that is, whether the colors will look warm or cool, adjusts contrast and saturation, sharpens and reduces noise. Then it compresses the file to make it smaller. Compression makes the file size much smaller by throwing away some details the eye won't easily notice; that thrown-away information never comes back.

In a JPEG, each color channel is recorded with eight bits. This means 256 steps of tone in each channel, from darkest to lightest. To show a well-exposed photo on a screen, these steps are enough. But when you try to change the photo noticeably afterward, for example when you brighten a dark area a lot, the gaps between these steps become visible: bands appear in place of smooth transitions, and noise appears in the shadows. Some phones use a format that compresses more efficiently, such as HEIF, instead of JPEG; the logic is the same, the file is processed and ready to use.

What kind of file is a RAW file?

A RAW file stores the data the sensor recorded almost exactly as it is. Decisions such as white balance, contrast and sharpness are not baked into the file; they are only attached as a note. That is why, when you first open a RAW file, the image usually looks paler and flatter than the JPEG. This is not a flaw; the ingredients haven't been cooked yet.

RAW files are usually recorded with twelve or fourteen bits per channel. Twelve bits means 4096 steps of tone, fourteen bits 16384; compared with the JPEG's 256 steps, the difference is huge. This greater bit depth lets the image hold together without breaking up when you brighten a dark area or try to darken a bright sky. It also has a price: RAW files take up many times more space on the card and on disk, each manufacturer uses its own RAW format, and you need an editing program to open the file. DNG, an open raw format, is supported by many programs and some phones.

Which should you choose, and when?

The choice depends on what you will do with the photo. If you photograph everyday moments, share the photo right away and don't want to bother with editing, JPEG is often enough; especially in good light and with correct exposure. If you shoot in difficult light, plan to edit your photos carefully afterward, or want a large margin for error, RAW gives you much more room.

This difference becomes especially clear when you photograph people. In a hall with mixed lamps, if the JPEG's white balance comes out wrong, faces stay orange or greenish, and the more you try to correct that color, the more the skin tone breaks down. In a RAW file, because white balance is only a note, you can change the color afterward without loss. In the same way, brightening a darker-skinned face left in darkness keeps the skin texture in RAW, while in JPEG it can bring out noise and banded tonal transitions. The first step to showing different skin tones accurately is to keep that flexibility in your hands from the start. Many cameras can save both formats at the same time: RAW and JPEG together. At the beginning, this option gives you both a quick file for sharing and ingredients you can edit later.

Visual evidence

Imagine a wedding hall: yellow bulbs on the ceiling, bluish-white LED decorations on the tables. The bride's mother, a woman with dark skin, sits at a table laughing; her face has fallen a little into shadow. The camera saves both formats together.

When you open the JPEG, the woman's face leans toward orange, and one side of her cheek carries a greenish reflection from the LEDs. The face is also a little dark. In the editing program you try to brighten the shadows and lower the temperature. The face brightens, but a fine grain appears on her forehead and cheek, the soft tonal transition on her neck breaks up into bands step by step, and the skin slides toward gray and then a purplish tone.

When you open the RAW file, the image is pale and flat at first. You set the white balance with a slider for the yellow light of the hall, and the orange disappears. When you brighten the shadows, the skin texture, the eyelashes and the sparkle in the eye on the woman's face come out; the transition on her neck stays smooth, and the skin returns to its natural warmth. The two files were taken at the same moment with the same settings. The difference is that one was processed and compressed, while the other was kept as ingredients.

Common mistakes

Summary

A JPEG is a ready meal the camera has cooked and compressed: it is quick and ready to share, but its decisions are hard to undo. A RAW file is the raw ingredients the sensor recorded: it carries far more steps of tone per channel and lets you change the white balance and the shadows without loss; that is why professionals shoot raw files, especially in difficult light and when they want to show different skin tones accurately.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you see the difference between the two formats in your own photo.

1. Find the option to save RAW and JPEG together on your camera or phone and turn it on; if your phone has no raw recording, do this assignment with JPEG only.
2. In a dim room or one with mixed light, photograph a family member or a plate of fruit under a yellow lamp.
3. Open both files in a free editing program, and in both of them brighten the shadows noticeably and change the color temperature.
4. Compare the two results and note in which one noise, tonal bands or a color shift starts first.

Check yourself

• Were you able to find the setting for saving both formats together?
• Were you able to apply the same edit to both files and put the results side by side?
• Can you say, based on your own observation, which format leaves you more room in difficult light?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is the basic difference between JPEG and RAW?

• A) A JPEG is a processed, compressed, ready file; a RAW file is unprocessed sensor data
• B) JPEG records only in black and white
• C) RAW produces smaller files
• D) RAW is ready to share, while JPEG needs editing

2. What is the difference in steps of tone between 8 bits and 14 bits per channel?

• A) 8 versus 14
• B) 100 versus 1000
• C) 1024 versus 2048
• D) 256 versus 16384

3. Why does a RAW file look pale when you first open it?

• A) The file is damaged
• B) Decisions such as contrast and white balance haven't been applied yet
• C) The camera was set up wrongly
• D) RAW records only shades of gray

4. Why is a face that has gone orange in a hall with mixed light easier to correct in RAW?

• A) RAW recognizes faces automatically
• B) Because the RAW file is smaller
• C) In RAW, white balance sits only as a note and can be changed without loss
• D) RAW doesn't record colors at all

Answers

1. A — In a JPEG the camera applies its white balance, contrast and sharpness decisions and compresses the file; a RAW file stores the raw data without baking in those decisions.
2. D — Each bit doubles the number of steps: 8 bits gives 2⁸, that is 256, and 14 bits gives 2¹⁴, that is 16384 steps of tone.
3. B — In RAW, contrast, saturation and white balance sit only as notes; because the ingredients haven't been processed yet, the image looks flat.
4. C — In a JPEG the white balance is baked into the pixels and correcting it damages the skin tone; in RAW you can change the color afterward without loss.

Summary card

• JPEG = a ready meal: processed, compressed, ready to share.
• RAW = the ingredients: unprocessed sensor data, pale when first opened.
• 8 bits = 256 tones; 12 bits = 4096; 14 bits = 16384.
• Difficult light and careful editing → RAW; quick sharing → JPEG.
• If you can't decide, save both together.

Bridge to the next lesson

You have chosen the file format; now it's time to choose how much control the camera will leave you. The letters you see on the mode dial decide exactly that balance. The module's last lesson asks: what do the letters P, A, S and M on your camera mean? There you will see how each mode hands control over from the camera to you, one step at a time.