Back to School - Raw vs Jpg

So i get a few inquiries about whether i supply the RAW files to my clients. Now this question raises a few issues...1) what is meant by RAW and 2) Is what I consider to be a RAW file the same thing as my proposed client thinks is a RAW file?

Digital SLR's, and some higher end Point n Shoot (PnS) cameras, can shoot in both RAW and Jpg modes. Jpg is your standard file that you can use straight out of the camera (SOOC), and is a format most people are comfortable with. I liken them to digital versions of the prints you used to get from your developed Film in the 'Old Days'

RAW files are the undeveloped negative files - the roll of film you used to drop off to your photo lab. The roll of film went though the fancy machines and came back as prints. RAW files do need certain things done to them to make them usable. The work the fancy machines used to do to your roll of film, is now done on the computer, though various programs, by your photographer, instead of the lab technician.

RAW files are unusable to the general public, and they also large bulky files and unfinished. Just like you wouldn't ask Leonardo DaVinich to give you an unfinished painting, RAW files are unfinished work.

Sometimes people consider a Jpg file, that is SOOC, to be a raw file, but this is more raw in the sense of an unbaked cake - more literal.

mmmmmmmmmmmm cake......

In our studio, RAW files are never distributed. They are the unfinished negative out of which our beautiful images emerge.

next week - the difference between SOOC files and what YOU receive!