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Health & Fitness

Homebody Photo Tip: The Benefits of JPEG Format

     Not every photo demands the highest quality or the full flexibility advantages of RAW format.  And then there are some situations where JPEG format is the best way to go.  You probably won’t ever shoot sports in RAW format unless you have the highest end equipment or are shooting professionally.

     I think of JPEG format as being simple and complex.  JPEG is simple because less processing time is required on the computer. You can e-mail the JPEG right out of the camera.  You can post immediately to a web site.  You can take a shot and hook up your camera to a Pict-Bridge equipped printer and make an immediate print from a JPEG:  This can’t be done with a RAW photo.
  
     I think of JPEG as also being complex because, if you want to take a really good picture with this format, your settings must be pretty much right in camera.  White balance must be accurate (a custom white balance is preferred), exposure, color, saturation, and sharpening should be very accurate.  Test shots before the “money shot” are advisable.  These in-camera settings are “baked into” the picture when taken and there is less leeway to edit changes.  If you get it right, you can make a decent print if you were shooting at the highest quality setting for JPEG.

     I often, half-jokingly, say, “I’m not that good a photographer to shoot in JPEG.” That’s because I don’t have the patience to get all these settings perfect in-camera before taking the shot.  Many times I don’t have the time either, like when the light is rapidly changing at sunset or a young grandchild is smiling at me.
 
     JPEG has other advantages over RAW.  File size is much smaller.  Many more JPEGs can fit on a memory card of a given size.  The camera can fit many more JPEGs in its temporary, “buffer,” memory and write these to the memory card much more quickly.  Thus JPEG’s advantage in sports photography where many shots are taken in burst mode to get the one or two great action shots.

     I’ll shoot JPEGs for sports and for quick, fun snapshots.  Or, if the photo is only going to be used for display on a screen or for a quick, non-critical print.
 
     The attached JPEG photo, “Maggie,” was taken as a test shot when I was learning my camera’s live-view mode.  It was converted to black and white and processed in Topaz Simplify.  I liked it and posted it to Facebook.    

     Kings Park Photo Club:  Meets the third Thursday of every month at the Kings Park Library at 7 PM (next meeting is on February 20, 2014).  Check out our members’ work on display at the People’s Bank, on Indian Head Road, and the Nissequogue River State Park Administration Building.

     Thanks for reading, if you have any suggestions for topics please post them in the comments.

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