Raw or jpg in lightroom?

Hi
a stupid question about lightroom , i'm a new customer
i know that i can edit raw & jpg files
is there a big suitability to edit raw files in quality???
or can i edit jpg files as well like raw?
thanks

With the power and functionality of today's RAW editors, such as LR, and the cheapness of memory cards and hard drives, there is every reason to prefer RAW capture and development over other formats, especially JPEG, for "most" photography.
I say "most" because I'm aware that in some instances high-volume and fast turnaround deadlines make shooting in JPEG desirable. An example of this situation would be sports shooting where JPEG allows for faster continuous-mode performance (as well as much more image storage before having to change cards) and, for sports journalist photographers, they may have a short timeline to deliver their images in JPEG format.
However, for most "serious" photography, the highest quality image is near the top of the list. If you invested in a camera that can give you RAW, you should have no qualms about using that capability. JPEG is for final output when needed, as in Web display or giving to clients to view, but RAW is needed for the best results in the basic editing process. With programs like LR, you can do so much with RAW you may never need anything else to edit for many of your pictures. If you need Photoshop's capabilities, you can export your images from LR to PS with no loss by exporting a copy of your RAW file and PS will recognize all of LR's adjustments. For other applications LR can export as a TIFF, which will prevent the "lossy compression" that is built in to JPEG.
So, there should be very little (or no) reason to edit a JPEG unless you have no RAW (or PSD or TIFF) to work with the original image quality. We can even print from Lightroom without saving to JPEG.
Tony

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Colors of RAW vs JPG in Lightroom and CS3

I am confused by this.
When shooting RAW +JPG on my Canon 350D, the RAW and JPG have different color qualities. The RAW is more yellow, or maybe warmer. The JPG more blue or cooler.
I think this is odd. And it is consistent in Lightroom AND CS3 and yet in Irfanview and Canon Digital Photo Professional they they are identical. Totally.
Why would this be? And which is "right" in Lightroom? The RAW? It looks the better of the two, but hard to compare across programs. But why the difference and why not in all programs, just ADOBE?
Thanks.
~Bob

DPP uses the in camera settings as its starting point to view RAW files, so these files will appear identical to any jpegs produced at the same time. The in camera settings are attached to the RAW file and DPP reads this information when opening or loading a RAW file for the first time.
Lightroom does not have access to this information and so it has its own starting point that it uses when you open a RAW file, thus the RAW file will look different than the JPEG and different to the RAW file opened in DPP (while the JPEG and RAW file in DPP will look the same). Most other RAW programs do not have access to this information (Capture 1, Bibble etc) and they also will have a starting point that is different to DPP. One of the significant advantages of Lightroom over DPP is that you can create your own profiles so you can tailor your "starting point" to suit your preferences and style whereas with DPP you always start where the Canon guy says you should be.
There are a few programs that use the Canon SDK or Canon RAW viewer utility in windows to display images (Breeze Browser comes to mind). Irfranview may be one of these which is why RAW files viewed here may look te same as DPP or the JPEG.
As to which is right. Neither, none or all of them. Right or wrong is purely subjective and based on which you prefer. If you never make any changes to the RAW file you may as well just shoot jpegs and that will be right for you. But then you loose thae ability to influence the look of your files proior to the file creation which is why we shoot RAW in the first place.
Hope this helps
Gordon

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Thanks for any help.

Export as jpg, checking add to catalog and then delete the originals. This will be a mistake. Keep your original files or you will regret it one day. If you need to save space that badly then convert the Raw files to DNG.

Combination of RAW and JPG displayed in Lightroom?

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It's in the import preferences. You'll have to sync or re-import once you change the pref for that ("treat JPEG files next to raw files as individual images" or some such language).

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Highlight the 40 images, and then open the export dialogue and set your options. There is no "save" option or "save as" option in Lightroom. Since Lightroom doesn't alter your original images, it is necessary to export derivative copies for whatever use you need.

Raw and jpg as one in Lightroom 3 second try.

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Thanks!
I'm in no hurry so I'' wait to see if someone comes up with a solution. Otherwise I guess I have to import them anew and tag them again. Not difficult. Just taskes a while. Should have done it correct from the beginning.

I shoot both raw and jpg and I'm wondering the best way to import into Lightroom 4

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See this: http://www.digital-photography-workflow-basics.com/lightroom-raw-and-jpeg.html

Raw and jpg together as one picture in Lightroom 3

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I have so much disc so t
he space they fill up is no problem. Also like to have the jpg's if a friend or so want's
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Import selection RAW / JPG in Lightroom 3

Hello,
On some assignments I need to quickly upload some photo's in jpg to a client. But for my archive I need the same pictures in RAW. Therefore in those situations I shoot both RAW and JPG on the same CF-card.
I am looking for a way to quickly select pictures by extension at import, so that I can import only the jpg's on my laptop when on assignment and later import only the RAW files when at home at my desktop. Is there a way to do this?
Best regards,
Johannes Abeling

I have to agree with Jasonized that using file explorer to import your photos is the best way to move JPEG files seperately. Personally I never use LR's memory card import function. I prefer to consolidate most multi-day shoots (i.e. muliple folders on memory card) to one (1) folder by manually creating that one (1) folder first, and then using drag and drop or copy and paste to move the files off the camera memory card. If you only want to move over the JPEG files to another person's laptop, it's very easy to sort by file type using this process.
You can use LR's memory card import function if you prefer to load both RAW and JPEG to YOUR system. If you don't want to see the JPEG files (i.e. just archiving on HDD) go to LR Preferences>File Handling>General and unselect 'Treat JPEG files next to raw files as seperate photos.' I understand the convenience of using LR for memory card import function, so perhaps Adobe could add the ability to sort by 'file type' AND ability to also "combine" mutliple folders on the memory card to one (1) destination folder. Does that sound like something that would be useful?

Trying to upload raw cr2 files and Lightroom says "file is not recognized"

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The two raw files you've uploaded to dropbox are corrupted so Lightroom and Photoshop are giving you the correct message. At least with these two, the embedded JPG preview is there but the raw data is not correct so cannot be rendered. Here is the error that Canon's own software gives when the files are attempted to be edited:
You should reattempt to copy the images from the memory cards to your computer using a card reader and an operating-system function (Explorer or Finder) to do it rather than LR or a cable connected to the camera, then see if things work any better. If you already used a card reader, then try a different one and see if the situation improves.
If you cannot get a better set of images by retransferring them, then we can work through how to extract the embedded JPG previews en masse.

I have accidentally deleted a large number of develped images in Lightroom before I did a backup. I reimported the original raw files back into Lightroom hoping the develop settings would be re-established but no luck. Notice system mau have done an auto-

Question?
I have accidentally deleted a large number of develped images in Lightroom before I did a backup. I reimported the original raw files back into Lightroom hoping the develop settings would be re-established but no luck. Notice system mau have done an auto-backup as have an lrcat-journal file. Can I use this to restore my develop settings. I also have jpgs generated from all the deleted images.

Hello,
if you have a backup of your catalog you can do the following:
1. Backup your catalog first
2. Restore your backup catalog to some location
3. Open your current catalog and select "files->import from another catalog".
4. Select your backup catalog and your lost images. LR ask you if you want to overwrite the current settings or save them as a virtual copy.
As an alternativ you can open your backup catalog, select the "lost" images and save the development settings as xmp sidecar fiels (using ctrl-s). Then open your current catalog, seletct the images and use "Metadata->Read Metadata from files".

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A close family member is dying and she has still many RAW files, which of course look slightly lifeless as all RAW files do. She asked me to look for a simple Lightroom preset which will convert her RAWs into Jpgs with more contrast, saturation and sharpening. She has Lightroom 3, but has no experience in making presets and neither do I. She needs the preset to make the RAW files as Jpgs available to her partner & children. No fancy effects; just simple. She cannot work on her computer anymore. Can you help me with a concrete preset or if not can you make one for her?

This forum is for plugin developers - consider posting in 'Photoshop Lightroom' forum instead (at top of page, New -> Discussion -> Photoshop Lightroom).

Removing "+JPG" from Lightroom Thumbnails

Hello,
I've been shooting RAW+JPG on my 30D and importing them both into Lightroom. There seems no point in using JPG with Lightroom, so to save space I now want to shoot in just RAW.
To save even more space, I want to remove/delete the JPG's that I shot alongside my RAW pictures which are now stored on my hard drive. The problem is that if I delete the JPG, the RAW thumbnail still has "+JPG" in the extension. (Example: 20071113_001.CR2+JPG)
What do I need to do to update the filename in the extension so it doesnt show the associated "+JPG" which does not exist anymore?
I've searched several online forums but can't seem to find the answer to this problem.
Thanks!

Hi Dom,
You could do it using the save metadata approach or the SQL approach (might be a bit quicker).
SQL method
Download SQLite Administrator (free) from http://sqliteadmin.orbmu2k.de/ and unzip it to a folder on your hard drive.
Make sure LR is closed and make a copy of your catalogue before you start.
Start SQLiteAdmin, then from the menu select Database>Open. In the Open Database dialog box change the Files of type to Any File, then locate and open your LR catalogue. Ignore the left panel, which lists all the tables and indexes in the database, you will be working in the right panels - SQL Query and Result tabs.
To begin with, copy and paste the following query into the SQL Query tab:
select count(image) as jpegSidecars from Adobe_imageFiles
where lc_idx_filenameExtension='jpg'
and importHash is null;
Then press F9 to Execute with Result. This will give you a count under the heading jpegSidecars in the Results tab. It is a count of the number of jpegs in the catalogue that have been imported along with raw images.
If you want to see the records, you can copy, paste and execute the similar query:
select * from Adobe_imageFiles
where lc_idx_filenameExtension='jpg'
and importHash is null;
Instead of counting the database records, this will list them in the Results tab.
So far, this is just information and has not altered the catalogue. The next SQL query removes these records from the catalogue - there is no going back after this (except with your backup). Copy, paste and Execute without Result (press F8) this query:
delete from Adobe_imageFiles
where lc_idx_filenameExtension='jpg'
and importHash is null;
This will only delete the sidecar jpegs, not jpegs that have been imported on their own.
Once this has executed, close SQLiteAdmin and open LR to check your catalogue.
You should see your raw files without the +jpeg sidecars. You can also now import your jpegs as separate files if you wanted to.
As far as I can tell, this is all that is needed.
Good luck
Tony

Export RAW to JPG question

Hello,
Here is once again a problem that I guess has to do with color management, and I'm having a hard time figuring out my mistake.
I'm editing my RAW files in Lightroom 5 and then export them to JPG (my settings are JPEG 100% / sRGB / no sharpening or any other editing option).
Then, to compare the RAWs and the JPGs, I import those JPGs back into Lightroom to make sure I'm seeing them with the same color profile (as I guess the basic "Preview" application I'm using on my MacBook is not color managed).
My problem is that the JPGs are much brighter than the RAW files (see screenshots).
I didn't calibrate my MacBook Pro's monitor (I'm just using Mac OS' standard color-LCD preset), and I'm not expecting other users to see my pics the way I see them on my screen, I'm ok with that, but I thought that on my own computer I would not see any differences between my RAW files and the JPGs I exported from those RAW files.
I found some similar threads on that topic, but usually the problem was that the users were checking the JPGs in a tool that was not color managed, and so it would not match what they saw in Lightroom, but since I do check my exported JPGs in Lightroom, I assumed they would be represented within the same color space, with no noticeable differences...
I'd appreciate if someone could tell me what I'm doing wrong!
Thank you!

To tell you the truth, a client asking for a 3MB JPG is a very meaningless thing to do.
Any time you are changing the number of pixels on a side, you are changing the image quality. Any time you are forcing the photo to be a certain size in MB other than the maximum, you are accepting a certain reduction in image quality. Which is worse? It all depends on the original, and how much change you are asking for.
So, that's my answer ... IT ALL DEPENDS.

RAW vs JPG quality question

Just got Lightroom and am now for the first time taking images in RAW format. I am using a Canon SLR as well as a Panasonic P&S both shooting in JPG and RAW. The Canon RAW images have an extension of .CR2 and the Panasonic has an extension of .RW2..
Okay with that out of the way, I'm going through my images and notice that the RAW images don't look nearly as nice as the JPG images. As I understand it, RAW has all of the information from the picture taken and gives more flexibility with adjustments. But how is it that the two images side by side look so different? I like the look of the JPG images most of the time.. They have better color quality and the lighting seems to be more accurate to what was shot. Some even seem to have a higher level of sharpness where the RAW images almost look like they could be slightly out of focus. I've tried to get the RAW and JPG images to look the same to see if there is a specific difference (see if contrast is always x lower or x higher etc... ) but can't seem to get a RAW image to look like what was actually shot.
Any input on working with RAW images or experience that would help me out here?
Much appreciated!
Nathan

The main “quality” thing you’ll probably see different your camera’s raw conversion (to JPGs) and Adobe’s is that there is no default luminance noise-reduction so there will be grain you can see and that the sharpening is more subtle.
You can adjust both the noise-reduction and sharpening to taste, just don’t overdo it. When I look at a camera JPG I typically see too much noise reduction which has removed too much fine detail, and sharpening halos along edges, both of which I dislike, now that I’ve worked with raws for so long.
Here is the first part of a three-part tutorial about the three types of sharpening, capture, creative, output, that you can do to raw files in Lightroom. The links to the other two parts are at the bottom of part one:
http://laurashoe.com/2011/08/21/sharpening-in-lightroom-part-one-overview-and-capture-shar pening/
You should also be doing your capture and creative sharpening with the zoom set to 100% or 1:1. The resampling algorithim used to show smaller-than-100%-zoom views in Lightroom Develop will give inaccurate sharpening preview results, so what you think you’re doing will be different than what is actually visible in the output you produce with LR, unless you use 1:1.

Raw or jpg in lightroom?

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