What Is The Difference Between RAW And JPEG Photos?
RAW and JPEG are file formats. Photographers use both. JPEG images have an amount of processing and compressing done to them when a photo is taken. RAW photos have no processing done to them other than creating the file, that is.
JPEG photos can be viewed by anyone straight off the memory card. To view RAW photos, you need specialist software.
JPEG files are smaller than RAW files, but RAW files contain more data to work with than JPEG files.
RAW And JPEG - What Do They Mean? Which Is Better?
RAW and JPEG are picture-taking formats. When taking photographs using RAW no processing is applied to an image other than creating the image itself. When taking photos using the JPEG format the RAW data is processed in-camera at the time of image capture. JPEG files look better straight out of the camera, but RAW files record more tonal and colour data.
Fact or Myth: JPEG deteriorates over time
JPEG files do not deteriorate over time. This is a myth. If you open and close a JPEG file a million times, this does not degrade the image at all. So do not worry - your precious JPEG files are just fine and not deteriorating quietly in the background. However, every time you edit and save a JPEG, you will lose some image quality, though, and this is irreversible. So take photos in RAW if you can, and save in JPEG, and the problems all go away.
