So here’s the irony: I haven’t been taking photos in RAW.

Up until now that is. If you don’t know what RAW is, I’d like to point out that you’re dreadfully uncool in the circles of the camera lens carrying hoodlums. I would say you’re out of the cliche, but I’m too cool for that. Just.

RAW is basically a better alternative to taking photos in jpeg format (if your camera supports it). I tried to find a simple definition of the web, but typical of most photography sites, they over complicate the shit out of it. One of the better ones I found was from dpreview. Check it if you’ve already lost confidence in my credibility.

So, if you’re still with me and not browsing dpreview. I like to think of it like this:

RAW is like having a negative of the shot you’ve taken, and jpeg is more like having the finished developed shot.

Now in photo editing software like Photoshop, you can edit a jpeg in a million fantastic ways with amazing results. But you can just do it better with RAW. Its not a ‘lossy’ format like a jpeg, where a rearrangement of pixels ultimately results in losing some of the original quality of the image. RAW allows you to develop your photograph in tons of ways – saving snapshots as you play – unveiling possibilities and potential in your shot that you may have not known existed.

You can save an shot taken with the wrong exposure, and just have way more scope to develop your image in many more creative ways.

The only down side is that the file sizes are going to be much bigger in RAW: both on your memory card in your camera, and when you transfer them onto your computer. So, get a decent size memory card, and hard drive, and play.

In the future I look forward to putting up some shots on this site that have been processed in RAW, and maybe an easy tutorial on how to go about processing your RAW shots.

Also, please take note that I’m very much an amateur photographer, and whatever I share here is just stuff that Ive discovered and helped me as a novice.