Printing photos- RAW or JPEG

[Wazza]

So when I edit photos I don’t really do much, maybe some cropping or adjusting shadows or highlights etc. up to now I’ve always exported the edited photos as a JPEG as I’ve only been posting on Instagram.

But I’ve got to the stage where friends and family are asking for prints of some of my photos to put on walls, in frames etc.

So should I print from the JPEG or does it lose some quality in the conversion in which case shyi save the edit as a RAW file and print from that?

[51-a- good year]

depends on how good the jpeg conversion was !

But in general the advantage of RAW lies in the ability to change things -eg get better detail in shadows or highlights.

[Wazza]

Originally Posted by 51-a- good year

depends on how good the jpeg conversion was !

But in general the advantage of RAW lies in the ability to change things -eg get better detail in shadows or highlights.

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They look good on computer/phone screens. It might be a case of giving both a go and see what looks best

[YorkshireT]

You’ll likely not be able to tell any difference.
JPEG is a baked file. You can change it but only change the data which is baked into the conversion.
RAW is the entire data in the photo. So allows much more manipulation. You would not normally leave RAW ‘as is’ because it usually requires some manipulation which your cameras in body computer does to make the JPEG. Different manufacturers’ have different software in the cameras to make the out of camera JPEG. Colour science is the main differentiator.
So if you manipulate your RAW to look like your JPEG it will look exactly the same when you print it out.
RAW allows you, for example, to recover more detail in shadow when editing.
The vast majority of the public have neither the time, knowledge, software or know how to manipulate RAW images.
I am no expert but have been into photography off and on for 35 years and I can’t usually be bothered with the effort of RAW files. I did have a Lumix G9 and used to export in both Jpeg and RAW to different cards and I hardly touched the RAW files. I have however just got a new camera (a Nikon) which produces wonderful JPEGs.

[cornishfrogboy]

I think that in years gone by, Raw was important whilst JPEG was in its infancy (to very able photographers).

Software and equipment have now advanced to the extent that for most of us, a JPEG photo conversion will be more than adequate for our needs in basic alterations. Certainly, I can get very satisfactory results on MacBook Pro or even IPad.

It has even reached the stage where for my recent vacation, I left my (for me) rather pricey Canon 77D and all its lenses at home, taking just an IPhone 14 instead (and an Olympus Tough that we never even used).

I believe now that a recent iPhone and an in computer editing suite will for most of us, produce excellent results.. or certainly for us. I am now in a quandary as to what to do with my DSLR, as I won’t be taking that weight and inconvenience on my next vacation 😉

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

I think that in years gone by, Raw was important whilst JPEG was in its infancy (to very able photographers).

Software and equipment have now advanced to the extent that for most of us, a JPEG photo conversion will be more than adequate for our needs in basic alterations. Certainly, I can get very satisfactory results on MacBook Pro or even IPad.

It has even reached the stage where for my recent vacation, I left my (for me) rather pricey Canon 77D and all its lenses at home, taking just an IPhone 14 instead (and an Olympus Tough that we never even used).

I believe now that a recent iPhone and an in computer editing suite will for most of us, produce excellent results.. or certainly for us. I am now in a quandary as to what to do with my DSLR, as I won’t be taking that weight and inconvenience on my next vacation 😉

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I had the same issues. Bought a Sony ZV1 which is way above the smartphone and tiny. I’ve just bought a Nikon Z30- a bit bigger but APS-C sensor. So I’m now selling the ZV1.

[BevS97]

You generally won't want to print from a Raw file. If you are very keen to work with them then you need to edit the raw file to get it looking perfect and then save it as a jpg to print. Raw files straight out of camera don't tend to look good.

As others have said I don't think it's worth the effort.