Confessions of a Compact Camera Shooter: Get Professional Quality Photos with Your Compact Camera

Chapter VI. Get the Best Image Quality: RAW and JPEG

This one is a no-brainer. When you set the Image Quality on your camera, you are, that's right, determining the quality of your image.

Sounds simple, right? Well, basically it is. But there are times when you don't necessarily have to choose the highest quality setting to get the best image quality. This applies to particular situations and uses.

Basically, you have two choices: RAW and JPEG.

RAW captures all the detail in an image, so it's more forgiving. Your exposure can be a bit "of" and you might be able to get a good image with a bit of digital darkroom work.

Conversely, when you shoot JPEG files, the image file is compressed and you lose some image quality in the compressing and uncompressing process. As you will read, this may or may not be noticeable.

By the end of this chapter, you'll know which image quality setting is best for you, depending on your shooting situation and how you'll use your images.

When RAW Rules

Do you like to see fine details in your images ... and subtle changes in tone and color? Do you like to shoot scenes with a nice contrast range? Want the best quality image?

If you answered yes to all of the above, then you want to shoot RAW files.

The two scenes pictured on this page have a lot of color, contrast and ...