I've started to shoot with a Canon Rebel T7, and I've started doing editing in Darktable in Linux Mint. I suppose this picture is my first foray into real photography. To get this work into fighting shape, I first shot RAW (a format I didn't know about three days ago) and then I had to figure out what the base curve my camera would be inclined to generate would be (a concept I didn't know about three days ago), and then I adjusted the white exposure and black exposure separately until I had a fairly lifelike photo where all the texture of the clouds, water, and on the boat, all stood out.
Mostly I'm just frustrated because for two decades, the discoveries of all these things, plus more concepts like the whole exposure triangle, have been kept from me by my phone. And now that I know them, and can use them to shoot good pictures, my artwork will only improve from here.
I've learned a lot and I continue to grow as an artist.
Thanks for seeing my work!
Ah, I see the problem, I normally set my camera in RAW+JPG mode, so when I transfer the files to my phone I only get the JPGs, that does take up more space (looking at my current project at building my first NAS, which is more expensive than I thought...), and I don't really use the RAW files for anything, but I feel secure that they are a backup....
Yeah, I'm trying to shoot in RAW only, so I can figure out how to edit my photos and develop a style that wasn't predefined by Apple. I'm getting there!
Shoot both. The JPEG's take up negligible space and are good if you need something "at the moment" for a purpose or to share. You can also compare your finished product to what the camera would have done by itself.