I thought of an analogy today that I hope will help in the fight to get more people shooting raw.

JPEG : RAW :: Polaroid : Negatives

I don’t personally know any pros out there still shooting jpegs, but I know there are some old salts who just don’t “get it” when it comes to raw.  So here it is.  You wouldn’t give a client a Polaroid test shot, nor would you try to work from one.  So why would you change that behaviour in the digital realm?

Any excuses about room on cards are moot, since cards are big and cheap these days.  You can get a 128gb card for what I paid for a 32gb a couple years ago.  That’ll handle even D800 sized files.

Storage is cheap.  You can get a 3TB external drive with USB3.0 for a hundred bucks.

The only people who need files faster are press.  If you’re shooting with a client in the studio, should be tethered anyway, so fast previews aren’t an excuse either.

Quality is just plain better from raw too.

And if you’re going to CMYK, there’s just no other option.  Colors are more accurate converted from raw.

And to serious amateurs: shoot raw + jpeg and hold on to the raws until you’re ready to learn.  There’s no do-overs if you don’t hang on to them.  You can always make jpegs–the reverse isn’t true.