RAW or JPEG? Best prints?

[bluemtnrunner]

So now I have my Nikon camera and I love to take a photograph... I love it love it and really love not burning through film like crazy. So now my questions are, RAW or JPEG? If RAW, best programs for processing the photos.
AND, best place to get prints. I have used shutterfly in the past.

I'll upload some pics I have been taking.

 

[Beach Runner]

I'll ask our daughter who is a professional photographer and get back to you. She shoots in raw and edits before sending the photos to her customers, but I don't remember what software she uses. Of course, it takes a fast processor to process raw unless you want to claw your eyeballs out while waiting.

She lives in Atlanta, but has been hired to shoot a wedding this weekend in Philadelphia. Hopefully she'll answer me before she leaves.

EDIT: Here's what she said. (Sorry, she was in a grumpy mood yesterday. Not looking forward to driving to Philly. Can't fly because Delta flies a small plane there and won't let her take her equipment on. When she did a wedding in Cleveland, Delta forced her and everyone else with more than a purse to do a gate check, they damaged some of her equipment, and they refused to reimburse her.).

for prints, whcc is the best. however you have to have a business to set up with it. all of the print places are like that, or at least all of the decent ones. shutterfly is crap.

need lightroom regardless, but it is a must have if shooting raw. every single raw image must be processed on the computer because the camera isn't doing the processing for you.

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/raw-vs-jpeg

there's one of about a million articles.

also, it depends on what kind of camera they're using and how much they know about photography. also, if they shoot in raw, they'll burn through CF cards in about 2 seconds. that's why i carry hundreds of gb of space with me.

there are just a lot of factors that make this an impossible question to answer not knowing anything about the person and their history. given the fact that they're asking, they should probably just shoot jpeg and do more research.

 

[Will B]

Reader's Digest version...

Raw = Professional's medium. There is no compression of the file. Downside is that the files are huger than huge.

JPEG = Layman's medium. If you are going do a lot of large printing, select the highest resolution. If they are just for viewing on a computer or laptop, a smaller size is fine.

It would take a trained prefessional's eye to look at an image and tell the difference, and they may not even be able to without some sort of magnification to look at the pixels.

I'm sure Kurt would be a good info source on this!

 

[Beach Runner]

Reader's Digest version...

Raw = Professional's medium. There is no compression of the file. Downside is that the files are huger than huge.

JPEG = Layman's medium. If you are going do a lot of large printing, select the highest resolution. If they are just for viewing on a computer or laptop, a smaller size is fine.

It would take a trained prefessional's eye to look at an image and tell the difference, and they may not even be able to without some sort of magnification to look at the pixels.

I'm sure Kurt would be a good info source on this!

Well said!

 

[tailwagger]

So now I have my Nikon camera and I love to take a photograph... I love it love it and really love not burning through film like crazy. So now my questions are, RAW or JPEG? If RAW, best programs for processing the photos.
AND, best place to get prints. I have used shutterfly in the past.

I'll upload some pics I have been taking.

Stick with jpeg. Nikons are good cameras. But you'll want to try different settings to get the look you want. If color is a little flat you can set to vivid or whatever, boost contrast, etc.

 

[Beach Runner]

Right. Just don't shoot in auto with a nice camera. The good thing about a digital is that it's free to play around with the settings.

 

[Abby Prentiss]

I get awesome pics on auto.

 

[Em]

all above is well said. RAW keeps the raw image, without processing. All of the processing is up to you. That way, you are not having to correct the camera's processing. If you don't know much about processing, don't bother with raw. Photography is one thing and processing is something else, even more complex. Your Nikon will do a great job on auto and you will be able to go manual and get some creative and more advanced shots. Go jpeg. Join a couple of online photography sites where they have weekly photo challenges. It will be very helpful to be selective of how many frames you shoot.

 

[Beach Runner]

I get awesome pics on auto.

But with the depth of field you get on auto, it makes your photos look like they came from a mommy-cam.

 

[Em]

not necessarily. Depth of field can depend on the lens and focal length.