using RAW or Jpeg shot

[Teddylon]

Hello, everybody, I a recent Lightroom user. As I take a double version of my pictures (Raw + Jpeg, ) which one should I use if I have no important work to do on it, (except minor operations as cropping, or horizontal alignment) I feel as Jpeg give "beautiful " results, and it is a lot of work to realize the same result coming from RAW...It seems to me that in that case, working with Jpeg can be better?

Thank you very much for answers, and have a nice sunday afternoon! Pierre Gommeaux

[dj_paige]

JPG can have a more pleasing appearance because the camera does editing on the photo to get you to the JPG image you see, whereas the RAW is unedited.

JPG can have quality problems, particularly in sky (highlight) or shadow areas if banding happens.

RAW can be better because the image will have higher quality, and can have a different appearance than the JPG that your camera created that might be more pleasing to you.

It's up to you which you should use.

By the way, this has nothing to do with Lightroom.

[GoldingD]

I am not aware what  camera you have, so the following may or may not apply as Adobe may have not created camera matching profiles for your camera..

That caveat said, moving on

Profiles can be key in getting the best starting point in post processing, The profile is the bit if code that converts all that RAW data into colors in a certain way. The default Adobe profiles may not be what you want. Instead use a camera matching profile. The camera matching profiles are created by Adobe to mimic in camera settings, 

Starting with the desired profile can get you a better initial image.

My general first steps, select desired camera matching profile, adjust WB, auto adjust just Exposure, Whites, Blacks, (to set white/black point)  (hold down shift key, double click on slider name) select a tone curve. then continue.