I've been shooting professionally for eight years, and the advice "always shoot in RAW" has never felt right to me. Last month I compared 200 JPEGs against their RAW counterparts at a wedding gig—clients couldn't tell the difference in 95% of the shots, and I saved four hours of editing time. JPEG's in-camera processing often gives more pleasing colors straight out, which matters when you're delivering fast. So is RAW truly necessary for professional results, or is it just a safety net that slows us down?