Gill Prince A vital part of the toolkit
Freelance photographer and tutor Gill Prince says in many situations, JPEG is a tool you can’t do without…
It’s important to see file types as just another part of your photographic toolkit – which you use depends on what you’re shooting and why. For that reason, don’t ever feel somehow that you’re ‘not a proper photographer’ because someone tells you that you should be shooting raw, when they know nothing about your preferences. That’s just plain wrong!
For instance, when working on news or PR images, when the turnaround is tight, JPEG makes a lot of sense. Or if you’re travelling and don’t want to take a laptop with you, it’s also a good option. Obviously, it’s also attractive if you simply don’t enjoy, or are not interested in, post processing! And avoiding raw files keeps storage to a minimum, too.
On the other hand, if you’re shooting landscapes, or anything where you have extremes of dynamic range which you can’t easily control with filters, then JPEG might not be the best option. Or if you’re a control freak, and you love post processing, wanting all the data you can get to play with, then raw is the one to stick with.
I shoot both, but I always enjoy the immediacy of JPEGs. For street, it’s all about capturing fleeting moments, which can be a challenge – so opting for JPEG can be very helpful. It’s satisfying switching my Lumix S5 to monochrome mode, dialling up the contrast and shooting away. The advantage of seeing it all in the EVF means you know if the image will work straight away, and you see scenes that you probably wouldn’t even look twice at in colour.
Speed and efficiency are one of the biggest draws. I was advised by a seasoned gig photographer to try shooting JPEG not raw, and initially I didn’t believe him – but with good in-camera processing (something my S5 is great at – especially in low light) he was spot on. I’ve saved hours trying to deal with noisy gig shots just by using the JPEG files with in-camera processing – and having compared it to my own noise-reduction skills, it does a very comparable job! But it always comes down to a personal view, so I’d advise testing in low light to see how your camera’s processing deals with it.
When I need speed and efficiency, I often opt for RAW+JPEG so I have a ‘belt and braces’ backup – but if I’m happy with the JPEGS, as I usually am, I may never even look at the raws. To that end, getting settings right is very important and again a few test shots can help. White balance is probably top of the list as colour correction is never easy – or sometimes not possible at all – with JPEGs. I’d also say not to overuse the creative features and effects if shooting
JPEG alone, as there’s no going back once that’s baked in.
Fortunately, mirrorless models make exposure a lot easier with features like highlight warnings, live histograms and what you’re seeing via the EVF. Similarly, advancements like Panasonic’s 6K burst mode on my Lumix G9 are a JPEG-only feature but very useful when you don’t want to miss a moment! I can shoot at 30fps then extract a single 18MP frame from the sequence.