Do I need RAW format for mobile photos?

About whether it's worth to mess with images without compression or standard JPEG is quite enough when shooting on a smartphone.

To make a cool shot, you do not need to prepare for a long time and carry a bunch of equipment. The smartphone is always at hand and ready to shoot. You can immediately process the resulting photo and share it with your friends. For this millions of people also like mobile photography.

In this material, let's talk about the RAW format on smartphones. What is it and what use is it in mobile photography? Now we'll figure it out.

What is RAW?

Literally RAW is translated as "raw" or "raw". Its feature is that it allows you to take photos without loss in quality and detail. Any other format (the same JPEG) compresses the picture, which reduces its size, but at the same time deprives it of detailed information about color and light.

"It's great, of course," you will say, "but why do I need this information?" I shoot in JPEG, and everything is beautiful."

And you will be right: you do not need RAW, if you do not plan postprocessing. However, it should be noted that this format allows you to "squeeze" out of the same frames much more than JPEG.

Due to the wide possibilities of working with dynamic range RAW is able to "pull out" even hopeless images. After sitting in the editor, you can adjust the exposure separately for light or dark areas, get rid of overexposures and achieve the correct color rendition.

With a JPEG photo, you can not get such results. Be sure to lose in detail, there will be noises and artifacts.

Take off in RAW all modern smartphones. On most Android devices, this format can be selected in the standard Camera application. iPhone has learned to work with RAW since iOS 10. True, you need to install a third-party application, for example Adobe Lightroom CC or ProCamera.