Now that so many cameras offer the option to shoot both RAW and JPEG, I receive many questions about the two file types: what makes them different, why should one be used instead of the other, etc. I love a good analogy, so here goes…
Chef + Ingredients, or Microwave Dinner
For dinner, we could choose a microwave meal, or we could get all of the ingredients and cook a similar dinner. In my opinion, the home-cooked meal is superior for various reasons. The main reason being that it is customized to exactly how we like it. The microwave dinner is simple, you know what you are getting, but it is what it is, you can’t change it. The home cooked meal takes longer to cook than the microwave meal. If you don’t know how to cook, then the microwave dinner will probably turn out better. The microwave dinner is always the same; you take it out of the box, cut the plastic, press the button and close the door. For a home cooked meal, your skills will always be growing, you’ll find tricks that speed up the preparation, spices and cooking methods that make it taste better and exactly how you want, and after a year of cooking, your skill level will be far beyond where you started. After a year of microwave dinners your skill level for cooking hasn’t changed.
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