Why I Still Shoot RAW

Today’s Post by Mark Toal

Every year digital cameras produce better JPEG files and I wonder if I still need to shoot a RAW plus a JPEG file. This image that I took last week showed me why RAW files are still important. I only had a minute to capture my friend Jeff feeding his horse with the sun rising behind them. I had my camera set to Intelligent Auto and quickly shot three frames before the horse ran off.

The camera saw all that bright sky and tried to adjust the exposure to capture it which left Jeff and the horse very dark. Because a RAW file gives you more ability to adjust the shadows and highlights I was able with the help of Adobe Lightroom to lighten the shadow areas and still keep the sky from getting too light.