JPEG options?

[Mr. Lips]

This is a question that applies to cameras in general, and not just Sony Alpha.

I know that most serious photographers shoot in RAW.  I don't because I'm just shooting for emails and an occasional club trip report.  I realize I'm giving up the ability to do more with the editing software, like bringing out details in highlights and shadows.

But the choice isn't just between RAW and JPEG.  There is more than one JPEG option.  I've been shooting at the top JPEG, but what am I giving up, if I shoot at a lower JPEG?

Am I just losing pixels and limiting image size or am I losing some ability to "fix" my photos on the computer?

[Pieter]

If you're only publishing small-sized photo's or viewing on a phone / computer screen, 12-ish MP should be more than enough for your needs. Since with JPEG, the ability to 'fix' stuff on the computer is very limited anyway, you're not giving up much except the ability to crop/recompose after taking the shot. If you tend to crop often or might print large, shoot fine quality instead as JPEGs don't take up a lot of space anyway.

I tend to shoot RAW+JPEG. After a trip/shoot, I download my photos to my computer and quickly scan through my JPEGs to select my keepers. The JPEGs are fine for 90% of my needs but at times there are one or two 'WOW'-shots that I might one day print large. I'll edit the RAW of these photos to my hearts content, generate a JPEG, then delete all RAWs to clear up space.

[Cameratose]

If you set up some basic presets in your processing software and use batch processing, you don't need jpeg at all.

I shoot RAW only, use (free) Faststone Image Viewer which will view any type of image file to cull my shots, and batch process in Darktable. I can start with 2000-3000 shots and in a matter of a few hours have them culled, processed, and posted. A handful of shots, say a couple hundred from a photo walk, are done in minutes. 

This saves card space, computer space, and upload time. 

The results are very good for posting online. When someone wants to buy one or I decide to print it, I can then return to the RAW file and process it individually for optimum results. 

I never delete a RAW file. Sometimes I'll return to an old shot I processed several years ago and reprocess it. I have been very surprised how much better they look as my processing skills improved.

 

[XKAES]

I'd suggest you start by running a simple test.  Take pictures of a typical scene/subject and each of the JPEG settings your camera offers.  Then compare them in the output that you normally produce.  You may or may not see a difference.  I normally shoot at the highest JPEG level and save that file -- but make a smaller file (lower resolution) for normal/typical use.

There's plenty of editing that you can do with JPEGs on your computer -- depending on your software -- and there are features in your camera that can help out, as well.  That depends on your camera.  Put them together, and it might meet your needs.  For example, your camera probably has several bracketing features that will take the same shot with different settings with one press of the button.  Then you can select the best JPEG to work with on your computer. 

I frequently use this feature to control contrast.