Many photographers will consider RAW photography at some stage. It is accepted that this can give you greater contol over your images and allow you to produce finer detail and colours.
Here are some of the advantages of using RAW:
-RAW images lose less information than JPEG images
JPEG uses a lossy compression which means some of the data in the image is lost forever
-A RAW image has a greater latitude this gives better highlights and shadows
You will be able to get more highlight and shadow detail with RAW
-You can use 16-bit output rather than 8 for better images
This will result in better images after manipulation
-You can choose to set for sRGB or Adobe RGB
Some users will welcome the greater colour range available
-You dont need to worry about camera settings such as contrast and saturation. These can be adjusted later (you do need to use correct exposure and focussing)
Leave your white balance and other parameters as they are you can adjust them later. The camera data will still be there but RAW will ignore it.
-RAW images retain fine detail JPEGs lose it
RAW doesnt compress files like JPEGs and therefore very fine detail is preserved
-RAW files can be saved as TIFFs which lose less information than JPEGs
TIFFS dont compress and therefore complements RAW
Eric Hartwell is an experienced photographer and owner of the extensive photography resource website ephotocentral
