Why you should always use the RAW format in your photos

To all those that ask me why they should use the RAW format instead of the lightest JPG, I always try to explain that the RAW format keeps inside a lot more data about light and colours than the JPG, and that all these data can be extracted either to rescue a photo that is a bit under/over exposed, or to retrive details or colors that in the original exposure have been lost. Morever, the RAW format allows to elaborate an HDR (High Dynamic Range) in all those cases when it is impossible to take multiple exposures. Some times, for example, it happens that it is not allowed to use the tripod, or, also, you can't keep still the subject of your photo. In all these cases, taking just a single photo in RAW format, you can still elaborate a decent HDR. This is the case, for example, of the photo below, where in order to capture the sprays of the sea, I could just close the aperture of lens to get a lower shutter speed (I didn't have ND filters) and then a slightly overexposed photo where the sprays were particularly spectacular. Anyway, from this single RAW where rocks are underexposed and the sky is drammatically overexposed, I was able to pull out a decent HDR. If I had used the JPG format, the only thing that I could do was to erase that photo and forget it. So... this is why you should always use the RAW format!

Play with the photo below dragging the mouse inside it to see the before/after

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