There is almost no camera, lens or photographer who can get everything perfect at the moment the photograph is taken. Since the earliest days the true birth of a photograph has been – and still is – when it is in processing. Photography is never an accurate record of a fleeting moment. It is an interpretation and all the photography greats became greats because of their ability to manipulate all of the factors that combine to make a photograph. RAW gives us that power today. JPEG does not.

If you have the oppertunity to do a custom white balance in camera you will get better color representation in your computer than trying to adjust for it later. Say you are a wedding photographer doing formal shots outside and the bride is wearing a cream colored dress. Later that day, or the next day when you edit you will have zero point of reference for what the true color of the dress is and you could give her prints back that look more like egg shell white than cream. It takes a minute to do it, if you can make a custom white balance, do it, save yourself the time and headache from doing it in post.

Second, I’m a photographer, not a post production artist. I know how to process my photos but I get paid to take them. Each hour I sit post processing images is one hour wasted making money shooting the next client’s work, effectivly loosing money on my bottom line. Even if I’m not shooting, I should be marketing, meeting with clients, etc. I want to shoot, so I do as much as I can to get the best shots right into my camera as possible.

RAW isn’t for all the time either. I shoot stock photography as well, some of it is product shots on white. With controlled studio lighting I can easily get my setup to look great in JPG format, making almost no post production needed other than cropping, sharpening (if even needed) and dust removal. I get paid for the end result, not the amount of time spent on each image, so again, the better going in, the less time wasted on the way out.

I’ve found most people who shoot in RAW don’t even use a properly calibrated, quality monitor. You might as well edit with your eyes closed, but that’s a whole nother article for you to write about.

Shoot RAW or JPG based on what your output will be + how much in camera you can accomplish. Don’t rely on shooting RAW to fix your consistently under-exposed photos, learn how to shoot better.