The world of photography has evolved a lot since its inception. For the most nostalgic, the reel and the fact of going to a development site in 1 hour was an adventure. But currently, immersed in the digital world, we have to talk about compatibilities and formats.
Do I take the photos in RAW or in JPG?
If what you want is to have the photo ready from the moment you take it, without having to go through any digital process, configuring your camera or your mobile to save them in JPG will be ideal. Here we are subject to the processing of the photo by the camera itself and the result can be very standard. Let’s not forget that the JPG format is already a lossy and compressed image file. The changes that you will be able to make will be based on that JPG already edited automatically.
On the other hand, if you want to get all the editing possibilities, the best thing is to get them in RAW , which is nothing more than the raw format of what the camera sensor has captured. All the information regarding the shot is contained there. You can see that a raw file occupies about 10 times what the JPG file occupies.
Another point to take into account is that the RAW file cannot be used as is, it necessarily needs a treatment, since it contains all the information but is not processed, that is why we will see the photos with a very dull color, almost white or very dark, etc.
But not all cameras use the same format for saving data in RAW format. Each brand uses its own and processing them in programs such as Adobe Photoshop may be incompatible from the outset. For this, Photoshop has the CameraRAW plugin, which is constantly being updated to be compatible with more and more types of cameras, that is, with more RAW formats.
Compatibility and types of raw formats
As we said, the world of RAW can be very extensive, since it began as something more reserved for photography professionals but has been extended to the general and amateur public, reaching smartphones, which many of them also have the option to capture and save in RAW.
To make sure that the files we obtain are compatible with our Photoshop, we must first check on Adobe’s own website, if our camera and raw format are compatible. In most cases it will be, except for very new cameras, in which we will have to wait for Adobe to update CameraRaw. In the tables provided by the web, we can see which version of the plugin we need so that the photo editor can open and process our photos.
Downloading and installing the plugin in Photoshop may differ depending on whether our system is Windows or macOS, but we have all the information on the Adobe website about how to do the process depending on which version of Photoshop we have installed. If we want, before downloading and wrapping the blanket over the head, we can check in Photoshop which version of CameraRaw we have installed. Currently version 13.1 and earlier is available, compatible with countless formats. To say that each version of the plugin also needs some minimum requirements in terms of the Photoshop version and the equipment’s features.
What is clear is that obtaining the raw photographs, that is, in RAW, will give us a range of possibilities in terms of editing that a JPG will not give you, especially in the case of landscapes with a very clear sky. and strong shadows, low-light portraits, or shots with strong, vivid colors.
