Originally posted by nonpigliounoshoot I have always used and use jpeg with a neutral profile. It is undoubtedly the one that stores the most information and is easier to manage in PP.
The other profiles can make the image appear better immediately but maybe if you want to modify or retrieve information it is likely that it is lost. Obviously someone will say but why not use the raw for PP. I have always also evaluated the practicality aspects (light files, PP however not important, etc) and I have always found myself well. Now that I have a k1 I have a double card, a raw and a jpeg. The raw I never open them the same, at most I keep them, but I continue to work on neutral jpegs. I do first. But with the double card if you love other "ready" profiles there are no problems to recover data from the raw. Everyone has their own priorities. my two cents
I sort of 'get' what OP is after. I've never shot strictly RAW or jpeg. I shoot RAW+. Both my K-3 and K-1 store the RAW vs jpeg on separate cards. But I shot RAW+ even with my earlier Pentax cameras with a single card slot.
Here is what I have not seen in this thread... The RAW image includes a jpeg thumbnail, which is what is loaded by most RAW editors as a starting point. Yes, you can 'reverse' the starting point because the RAW image has it all - but I gather OP doesn't want to do that. To each their own.
I prefer to let my jpeg settings be my starting point. Where the jpeg is 'good enough' that is what I use (maybe with minor edits). For the few images that I think deserve more work, I load the RAW version - and do whatever I feel needs doing.