The raw-versus-JPEG debate usually assumes you have time on your side, and a lot of my work doesn't give me that luxury. Some events need a curated gallery live within a couple of hours of doors closing, and that constraint changed my actual capture strategy in a way the standard advice doesn't account for.
Raw plus JPEG isn't a compromise, it's a different tool for a different moment
I shoot raw plus JPEG simultaneously on most event work now, not because I don't trust raw processing, but because the camera's in-body JPEG processing with a well-tuned picture profile gets me close enough to final look that a same-day highlight selection can go out from lightly adjusted JPEGs while the full raw edit happens later on a longer timeline. Two different deliverables, two different urgency levels, matched to two different files from the same shot.
Tuning the in-camera profile actually matters here
This only works if the camera's JPEG output is actually close to your finished look, which means spending real time dialing in a custom picture profile rather than trusting a default. I built mine around slightly reduced contrast and a specific white balance bias that matches how I typically grade afterward, and getting that dialed in took genuine trial and error across a few events before it was reliable enough to trust for same-day delivery.
- Raw plus JPEG simultaneously for events with tight delivery windows
- Invest real time tuning the in-camera picture profile to match your usual grade
- Full raw edit still happens for anything beyond the same-day highlight set
Where this strategy doesn't apply
For anything without a genuine same-day delivery requirement, brand work, campaigns, portfolio pieces, I shoot raw only and skip the extra card space and processing overhead of dual capture, because there's no actual deadline pressure to justify the trade-off. This is a solution to a specific, real time constraint, not a universal recommendation to abandon raw-only capture.