Shooting in RAW vs JPEGA cameras RAW filename extension differs for each brand (NEF for Nikon, CRW for Canon etc.) however they are all essentially the same. A RAW image file name is an uncompressed data of whatever it may be youve just shot. They are very large in filesize, higher in dynamic range, and much more editable than JPEG.

JPEG on the other hand is a widely recognisable file format, most devices can read it and does not require special programs to open it compared to RAW, it is small in filesize and could be even further compressed to a smaller size. However JPEG is not as easily editable as RAW.

Here is a screenshot of a comparison of their file sizes, of the same image. As you can see the NEF file (RAW) is almost 7x larger than its compressed counterpart, though this may not be big compared to the storage spaces now available, several number of RAW can accumulate huge amount of space. RAW is also a file format not widely used in the web despite its superior quality compared to JPEG. This is an important aspect to take into consideration when uploading images on to the web.

A program specifically designed for the brand of your camera or DSLR is normally provided, however there are other programs that are fully capable of editing your RAW images. This one provided for Nikon is called ViewNX2 as you can see it has different adjustments to the right to correct your image to your specific taste.

This program also presents the metadata of the image taken. Metadata contains all the information about the image, such as time and date, brand and camera used, lens and f/stop, image resolution, ISO settings and shutter speed.

By manipulating the different aspects of the image youll be able to increase the overall appeal of the images, the adjustments to the images are, exposure, contrast, brightness, highlight protection, shadow proctection, and then cropped to remove the negative spaces.

Here the RAW files is being converted into JPEG, this will compress the file, into a smaller size.

JPEG as a file format for photographs is good enough, as long as you keep the resolution at a relatively large scale. In fact JPEG is the file format most photographers would convert their RAW files to because it has the perfect balance of file size and quality. To summarise this, it is better to firstly shoot in RAW format because it will be give you better editing capabilities compared to JPEG. After you have edited your image you can then convert it to JPEG for upload to the web.