Raw vs jpeg and the ability to extract detail from shadows

Black-billed magpie, Yoho National Park, BC - backlit and underexposed.

A backlit field often renders a subject significantly underexposed, in this case by about three stops (see bottom left inset).  There are few details in the shadows, which renders the bird as a silhouette in this case.  There are about eight stops of latitude in a JPEG (HEIF formats are better at around 10), while raw images carry much more, often surpassing 12 stops.  

Although HEIF images are superior to JPEGs in almost every way, few apps allow you to edit an HEIF without converting it to a JPEG first.  So, either way, if you're not shooting in raw file mode, you are making JPEG images (if you plan on editing them at all outside of the camera that took them).

This may be the point at which one could argue that you have to convert the raw image into a JPEG for it to be of much use.  While that is true (most web platforms won't work with raw images), they also don't work with HEIF images either.  Facebook, for example, converts HEIF images to JPEGs before posting them.  The advantage of raw images is that you can work with them to extract highlights and shadows and to compensate for over- or underexposure and produce a JPEG that is superior to a JPEG native image.  Although the JPEG can be adjusted (top right inset), the data just isn't there to extract the details.  

I have written on this subject before.  Below, I have several links to blogs addressing aspects of different file-types created by cameras.

I shoot only raw images where possible, including on my iPhone.  While the raw file type from Apple doesn't compare to raw files from DSLR and mirrorless cameras, it is better than other options.  If you want to read more on this subject, do a search for the topic of interest on my Facebook pages or through Blogger.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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