RAW files are unprocessed sensor data that need extra software to develop but give you maximum editing flexibility. JPEGs are compressed and ready to share immediately, but you lose detail and dynamic range. Shoot RAW if you plan heavy editing or need to recover shadows and highlights; shoot JPEG if you want quick sharing and smaller files.
Your camera has 2 ways to save photos, and you should really be choosing which one works best for you.
I can't decide.
All modern cameras allow you to save in JPEG and RAW format. RAW photos are basically what they sound like. They are just the ones and zeros that the camera has captured off the sensor. They're raw, they're unbaked like cookie dough.
I'm cookie dough.
Whereas JPEGs are more like the finished baked cookie. There's not a whole lot of things that you can really do to that cookie to change it. Now I'm starting to get hungry. Does that mean that you should always shoot in RAW? Absolutely not. In fact, if you're starting out and you don't feel like doing a lot of processing on your photos, then shooting in JPEG is perfectly fine. What you should know though is that JPEG is compressing your images. You lose some detail there. Normally it's not a whole lot of detail and it doesn't necessarily make the picture bad. JPEGs can be pulled right off your camera and shared with anyone and everyone. However, if you've got a scene that you're photographing where the contrast is just a little too much and you might want to recover some of those shadows or those highlights, then shooting in RAW can be really helpful, but you're going to have to use a program to process that photo, and when you do process it, you're likely going to export it as a JPEG. Some other benefits of choosing JPEG over RAW is that the files are smaller, and that means that you can fit much more of them on your card. A lot of cameras give you the option to save in both RAW and JPEG. Should you be doing that?
I can't decide.
Well, that depends. If you want to do some post-processing, then it makes a lot of sense to have those RAW files.
I'm not done baking.
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Bye bye.
