If your camera has the function to shoot Raw images, should you shoot Raw, Jpeg or both Raw and Jpeg? For people who take photography seriously, I would suggest shooting Raw and Jpeg. If you simply want to upload images to social media sites and personal use, I’d suggest Jpeg. If you’re someone like me who takes photography on a more serious note but also want the best of both worlds, shoot Raw and Jpeg together.

There are some pros and cons to shooting Raw, Jpeg or both. When shooting Jpeg, your images will have a bit more saturation and contrast right off the bat but not by much. Your files will also be compressed so you can shoot faster and store a lot more images depending on your camera and SD card size. The drawback to Jpeg shooting is that since the files are compressed, so are the details in your shot. Imagine a 4×4 pixel that has 4 different shades of red. What a Jpeg will essentially do is evaluate the “average” color of the 4 pixels and make it 1 solid block of color 4×4 pixels large. When you shoot Raw, each pixel stays true therefore retains more detail in your images. With post-production softwares such as Photoshop’s Camera Raw, you have the flexibility to utilize all of the dynamic range of your shots and it provides you more flexibility to correct your shots with exposure, sharpness, white balance and more. The drawback to Raw is your files will be much larger and you will shoot less regardless of your burst rate due to the time it takes to process each shot to your SD card. You will also need to convert Raw files to Jpeg or any other recognizable file format to share it on the web, e-mail or for personal use.

Take a look at some sample images of Raw and Jpeg below and see if you can tell the difference between the two.

Jpeg Straight Out Of Camera

Raw Straight Out Of Camera

Jpeg with post-production work

Raw with post-production work

Jpeg with post-production work zoomed in

Raw with post-production work zoomed in

Today you will come across numerous point and shoot cameras with high megapixels and some DSLRs getting up to 24 megapixels+! Is it really necessary to take good pictures? No, unless you plan on making billboards.

The myth behind megapixels is that the more there are, the better. Take for example a 5×7 photo. How close do you put it in front of your face to look at it? How about a 24×36 poster? A billboard? You catch my drift here? The bigger an image is, the further back you’re looking at it like a museum print or a billboard. Rarely will you look at an image under a magnifying glass so don’t be too concerned about how many megapixels your camera has unless you want to make enlargements.

Your photo shooting skills is more important than the number of megapixels on your camera. Take the photos on this post for example. These were shot with an old Canon Elph with 3.2 megapixels. Ok, if I were to make enlarged prints of these photos, you will begin to see pixelation but how often are you going to print larger than 5×7 or 8×10? Most of us take pictures and post them on Facebook or somewhere on the web. Sadly, with the convenience of smart phones, laptops and tablet PCs, the photo album we all looked through as kids are slowly becoming extinct and quite frankly, obsolete.

Now don’t get me wrong. It’s very nice to have 18+ megapixels on my DSLR when I do want to take raw photos and make some gallery prints. But for the vast majority, all you really need is about 8 megapixels for your everyday online sharing use. Forget the numbers advertised on the feature stickers on the new cameras and learn how to properly take pictures by using tripods and familiarizing yourself with the manual functions. You’ll be glad that you did after you see your results, on screen that is!

A buddy of mine asked me to help with some camera flashes popping off during certain scenes in his Korean mini series project on Sunday and I gladly accepted. Although my job was to have the flash go off randomly, I decided to take some shots during production and came up with a few good results. There’s definitely more room for error with video than photo so a lot of prep work, planning and numerous takes were necessary to achieve the right look. Much respect for Ty and all of the people involved with film and audio.

I’ve finished rebuilding my website to focus more on my photography. I will continue to do graphics, art and illustrations but my goal is to push myself further with the lens. While photography will be my main focus, I will be utilizing typography and graphics to complete the visuals I intend on creating. My decision to take photography more seriously came about when I had lost my Canon S95 point and shoot camera. I loved my little pocket DSLR but I see it as a blessing in disguise. After thinking long and hard whether to get the same camera or invest in an entry level DSLR, I had made my decision and never looked back.

Currently, the equipment I am using is a Canon T3i with the kit lens and a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens. As I continue to develop my photography skills and techniques, I plan on investing in an L series lens along with a shoe mount flash. Studio accessories are in the works so that I can begin to experiment with portrait and product photography.