JPEG vs RAW!!!!

This is a topic that gets a multitude of reactions. I know you're probably thinking "the last blog was about Back to Basics and this week about Raw" but i want you to seriously consider this and not look back wishing you'd read this sooner. Should you or shouldn't you make the change from shooting in JPEG to the ever more popular RAW format. My simple answer is.....it's a must! Myself, like many people who are serious about their photography these days shoot 99% of the time in RAW format. When I first started out with my camera I was like most people and shot my images in JPEG format on the (Large) setting. This is fine if your looking for a half decent image, and that's it....fine. But, if your looking to step your photographs up a notch then RAW format is a must. With a standard JPEG image you can only change so much if your going to be doing post production work. Most of the important tweaks have been chosen by your camera when taking the original shot. On the flip side of the coin, if you decide to shoot in RAW you can alter pretty much everything that you want in post production. The typical JPEG photo contains 256 brightness levels, a few of which are irreversible due to the camera making the decision for you. The typical RAW photo on the other hand contains over 16,000 brightness levels which in comparison is far greater. The RAW image is like a digital negative. ISO's, colour temp, shadows and saturation levels can all be adjusted before saving your file. The likes of PhotoShop etc allow you to import your RAW file and use it in a "digital darkroom" to add your own personal touch. NOTE: if you don't have the correct editing software and you take a Raw image you will not be able to open it on your computer as it will come up as a CR2 file. I have included a screenshot below to show the settings that you can still alter post production if shot in RAW.This is particularly helpful if you have the likes of an underexposed shot and need to brighten it up or change shadows. The only major downside to using RAW for me would be the file size. Most of the shots I take come out around 8-11 Mb's. Yes that is very large and takes up a lot of storage space but you can easily convert it into JPEG once you've altered your image and it then reduces to somewhere around 2Mb's. in all honesty I have not taken 1 Jpeg shot since I made the move and I have not regretted it for a single minute. You would also see a big difference when enlarging a print for instance as the pixels in a JPEG photo would not be as sharp. A couple of other things I would recommend.....first, get yourself a bigger memory card. 2GB ain't gonna cut it if you've half a days work ahead of you or to a greater extent a full days work. I currently work with an 8Gb memory card and I can get around 720 RAW images on that. For me that's plenty of room. Secondly, get an external hard drive. This will be crucial if you don't want to slow your PC or MAC down because before you know it you've 1000 photos on your laptop and space is no longer a luxury. It may seem like a lot of money to spend just to turn to RAW format but it's totally worth it in the end. You could very easily do it for less than £100. There are loads of editing packages available both online and in-stores so don't be thinking you "have to" opt for the most expense. This is not the case. Remember- The camera doesn't take the photo - you do!! As good as the editing software is these days I try not to alter my images too much. That's all the preaching i'm gonna do on this subject. Give it a try, even with a few photos and have a look at the difference on your computer. You'll not regret it.....