Most modern cameras give you the option to shoot in both JPEG and RAW formats. When you shoot in JPEG, the camera processes the image for you, applying adjustments like color correction and sharpening, and then compresses the file to make it smaller and ready to use straight out of the camera. This is great if you want quick, easy-to-share photos and don't plan on doing much editing later.

RAW photos capture all of the data from the camera sensor without compression. This gives you a lot more flexibility to adjust things like exposure, white balance, shadows, and more in editing. However, RAW files are much larger and require more post-processing to look their best.

As a general rule, you'd use JPEG for speed and convenience, and RAW when you want more control over the final look of your images.

JPEG Photos:

• Compressed files with some data removed during in-camera processing.
• Smaller file sizes and ready to use straight out of the camera.
• Less flexibility in editing since details are harder to recover, especially in overexposed or underexposed areas.
• JPEG photos are ideal for quick, minimal edits or posting straight out of the camera.

RAW Photos:

• Uncompressed files that retain all the data captured by the camera’s sensor.
• Offer more flexibility in editing, especially when adjusting exposure, white balance, and recovering details in highlights and shadows.
• Larger file sizes but ideal for professional editing.
• Requires post-processing before you can use or share them.

Understanding how these three settings work together helps you capture better photos, especially when editing later on.

Shutter Speed:

• Controls the amount of time the camera's sensor is exposed to light.
• A fast shutter speed (for example 1/1000) freezes motion, while a slow shutter speed (for example: 1/30) creates motion blur.
• Shutter speed affects how sharp or how blurry moving objects are in the photo.

Aperture (Also known as F-Stop):

• Controls how much light enters the camera through the lens.
• A lower aperture (for example: f/2.8) creates a shallow depth of field, blurring the background and focusing on the subject.
• A higher aperture (for example: f/16) keeps more of the scene in focus but allows less light to enter.
• Aperture affects how much of the image is in sharp focus (depth of field).

ISO:

• Controls the camera sensor's sensitivity to light.
• A low ISO (for example: ISO 100) is great for bright conditions and produces the least amount of noise.
• A high ISO (for example: ISO 3200 or more) is useful in low light but can introduce grain/noise to the image.
• ISO affects the brightness of the image and the amount of digital noise.

Exposure: Adjusts the overall brightness of the image. Increasing exposure brightens the entire image, while decreasing it darkens the photo.

Contrast: Enhances the difference between the dark and light parts of the image. More contrast makes the image look more dramatic, while less contrast softens it.

Temperature: Adjusts the color temperature of the image, making it warmer (more yellow/orange) or cooler (more blue).

Tint: Balances the magenta and green tones in the image. This is useful for correcting color shifts from different lighting sources.

Highlights: Adjusts the brightness of the lightest areas of the photo. Lowering the highlights recovers details in bright areas, while raising them can add more brightness to these areas.

Shadows: Controls the brightness of the darker parts of the image. Increasing shadows brings out details in darker areas, while decreasing shadows makes these areas darker.

Whites: Affects the pure white parts of the image. This slider can add brilliance to whites without affecting other tones in the image.

Blacks: Adjusts the darkest parts of the photo. Increasing the blacks makes dark areas lighter, while decreasing them makes those areas even darker.

Saturation: Increases or decreases the intensity of all colors equally. Higher saturation makes colors more vivid, while lower saturation makes them more muted.

Vibrance: Adjusts the saturation of the less intense colors in an image. It's useful for boosting color without over-saturating skin tones.