Understanding The Difference Between RAW vs JPEG

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What’s the difference between RAW vs JPEG?

Its a question a lot of Photographers and digital artists beginning there journey will find themselves asking.

We thought we could help so without further ado.

Here is the difference between RAW vs JPEG?

JPEG:

JPEG files in digital photography are processed in camera. How this takes place is dependent on the model of your camera. When shooting in this mode your camera will be processing your images to adjust the sharpening, noise, contrast and brightness of your image. After doing so it renders the file into a compressed jpeg. When shooting in this mode there is a loss detail and information that can no longer be recovered.

RAW:

RAW files are left uncompressed and preserve all the details available to your camera’s sensor (varies from model to model). These will often come out looking darker and flatter as they are unprocessed. This file type is usually processed through various software before Photoshop, such as Camera Raw, Lightroom or Capture One. RAW files are larger and will naturally take up more memory. RAWfiles have no embedded PPI/DPI, once they are processed into either a JPEG or TIFF they can be assigned a DPI.

Some Other Things You Should Know. 

Dynamic Range:

Dynamic Range  is the term used to define the tonal range from the image’s darkest to lightest points.

Most digital camera models will also allow for both RAW & JPEG files to be shot at the same time. This means you will end up with two versions of the same file, one that looks display ready but has lost information (jpeg) and one that will need processing prior to display or printing (raw).

Resampling:

Resampling is the process of changing the image size in pixels. Usually, this does not affect the image resolution. This is usually done for adjusting images for video but is avoided for printing. We avoid this process as it drastically alters the image. During resampling the computer replaces pixels with approximations of other pixels from nearby.

Scaling (resizing):

Scaling does not alter the pixels on an image but affects the spacing of the pixels on paper when printed. The original pixels are left unaltered. Images are based on PPI (pixels per inch) while the video is based on pixels with no concept of inches or measurement. Therefore, both scaling/resampling exist and serve different purposes.

Megapixels:

Megapixels area million pixels. With digital cameras, although a PPi/Dpi will be assigned post processing, the camera acts based on its megapixel value. As with PPi/Dpi, the greater the value the higher the quality. 

Sensors:

Sensors will also vary in different digital camera models. Although two cameras can sharethe same number of megapixels, the size/quality of their pixels may not beequal. This all comes down to the size of the cameras sensor. Larger sensorsare more expensive and can be found in higher grade SLR cameras. The general different between SLR cameras and compact cameras is down to the sensor size. Larger sensors can reduce noise and are better for indoor or low light/high ISOconditions.