I've been shooting JPEG, Switching to Raw, Advice?

[Skyline On Fire]

Okay, basically I've shot JPEG since I first got a DSLR last year. I've never really had a problem with JPEG but since I feel I am getting better at post processing, and at photography in general, I think it's time to switch to RAW.

What's different to JPEG in the post processing stage. Say I shoot a shot on my 7D in raw and Jpeg, I open the JPEG and the Raw file in photoshop separately, what would the difference be? I've heard that Raw isn't as sharp straight out of the camera as a Jpeg, any truth to that? Would I have to sharpen every shot etc? Basically Im quite clueless about RAW despite reading up on it, I keep hearing contradicting info everywhere, and I think I'l learn best with a discussion with people who know a damn sight more than me on the subject.

Thanks for any advice guys, I appreciate it.

 

[J4MIE_P]

Again you are pretty much true on your conception of raw, it does need sharpening as it's straight from the cameras sensor, where as a jpeg is post-processed in camera rather than you doing it yourself.

I have my sharpening all done when I export my photographs dependant on the size of the image I'm outputting.

With raw you have much more possibilties for editing as you can bring out more colours and change white balance and to an extend more exposure. It allows more detailed changes to be made as it saves much more data about the colours used in the image, etc.

Just give it a try and see how you get on. Dont bother shooting raw+jpeg I would say as you can just make a jpeg copy of the raw on the computer and will save on space on your memory card.

Hope that helps