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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Features

The Argument for Shooting JPEGS over RAWs in the Modern Photo World

Chris Gampat
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08/23/2014
3 Mins read

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony A7r review photos brooklyn bridge reddit walk (4 of 14)ISO 1001-800 sec at f - 3.2

Shoot Raw. Always shoot Raw. Only shoot Raw: this is the mantra that many, many photographers live by. They swear by it. We swear by it here at the Phoblographer. I swear by it as a photojournalist, commercial and portrait photographer for years. Why? So that we can get a better result in post. So that we can differentiate ourselves from the plebeians and peasants that would rather shoot in just JPEG and be happy with their results. Yes, reader: we are the higher class of citizens that stick our noses and in the air and would rather accept death than shoot in JPEG.

Or at least that’s how it’s been for years. As time has gone on and I’ve reviewed camera after camera and the technology has become better and better, I (we, actually) have seen that JPEG quality has improved tremendously. We even dare to say that it is now so much so to the point where that if you know what you’re doing in the first place with your camera that you won’t need to shoot in RAW. Indeed, many of the photos for the Phoblographer’s Instagram are shot in JPEG with an Olympus OMD EM5, Sony A7, or Sony NEX 6 then transferred right over to my phone or iPad and added to our feed. How much post-production goes into them? Basically, it’s not much more than some sharpening and contrast fixes in Instagram, VSCO or EyeEm.

And guess what.

The images are good enough for our over 4,000 followers on Instagram and usually just fine for our over 250,000 Facebook followers.

But all of this brings up the notion of getting it right in the camera to begin with. Do you think loads and loads of photographers always had time to sit there in the darkroom burning and dodging then applying fixer over and over again? Probably not. And so with that said, they worked to get it right in the camera in the first place.

Then you consider the advent of social media and how quickly clients want images for their feed. And if you can get it right in the camera the first time around, then why even bother shooting RAWs if your client won’t care? Do your client’s social media followers care? Probably not.

So why, are we as a society and culture of photographers so hell bent on always shooting RAW if all that matters is the end result and pleasing a client? Why do we have to focus on shooting RAW and not capturing the moment the right way the first time around in a day and age when technology has come so far where we don’t need to shoot RAW and where GoPro adds still images from their cameras to their social media feeds and have developed a cult?

Why can’t we just get it right in the camera in the first place while shooting a JPEG and be happy with the result? Sure, some work totally requires you to shoot in RAW. And we’re not bashing that at all–in fact, we’re not bashing shooting in RAW to begin with. But what we’re saying is that we don’t always have to. How many times have you come home from shooting and did some very minor adjustments in Adobe Lightroom via sliders then exported them and put them on the web? And why couldn’t you just dial those settings in your camera’s color profile?

We need to get back to accomplishing and achieving the end result in the most efficient and pain-free way possible and stop worrying about doing things the old way that photographers have been doing things since the spawn of digital.

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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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