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EVERYONE TELLS ME SHOOT CAMERA RAW - WHY?

Quick Guide
Written by Kent DuFault
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 Camera raw is a photo file format type developed by
Adobe and incrementally adopted into all the camera
manufacturers’ products. At its outset, camera raw
wasn’t universally compatible, so sometimes you may
hear the designation .dng file. DNG stands for digital
negative.

Over time, as the camera companies began

incorporating camera raw technology into their
cameras, they all came up with their own proprietary
camera raw file format, which led to a lot of confusion in
the early days.

Luckily, today, all camera raw formats that I’m aware of

are compatible with all camera raw processing engines.

The most popular and well-known camera raw

processor is Adobe ACR. If you use Adobe Lightroom,
you may wonder why you don’t see the Adobe ACR
processing window. The reason is that it is built into the
software without needing an extra step.

Key Lesson: To process a camera raw file, you

need a processing engine. The most well-known
processing engine is Adobe ACR. Other
processing engines include ACDSee Pro, Capture
One, Affinity Photo, DNG Viewer, DxO PhotoLab,
This list displays all the various image file formats, including the camera
and numerous others. When working with a
raw options. If you don’t know what type of file your camera creates, now
would be an excellent time to get your camera and manual out and figure camera raw-inclusive editing program like
that out. Some camera raw file format examples are .crw (Canon), .nef Lightroom, the camera raw processor is hidden in
(Nikon), .orf (Olympus), .ptx (Pentax), .raf (Fuji), and .rw2 (Panasonic). the background.

EVERYONE TELLS ME SHOOT CAMERA RAW - WHY? // © PHOTZY.COM 3

 Recommended Reading: Want a step-by- What you will learn in this guide:
step guide on photography skills with your
· What is camera raw?
DSLR? Grab a copy of our best-selling guide:
the DSLR Crash Course. · What are the benefits of the camera raw file?
One of the primary advantages of the camera raw · What are the drawbacks of the camera raw file
format is that any editing steps can be ‘undone’ at system?
any time.
· What happens to the camera raw file once it is
In Adobe ACR, the steps are saved as a file attached imported into or opened in an editing program?
to the image file. In Lightroom, the software saves
the editing steps in the background. · What software can open a camera raw file?

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 WHAT IS CAMERA RAW?

To understand what any ACR engine does

with a camera raw file, you need to grasp
what a raw file is and how it differs from
a standard (and more well-known) image
file format like a JPEG.

With a JPEG or TIFF image format,

attributes that make up the image file
are fixed when the file is saved to the
camera’s memory card. The values for
the exposure, white balance, color
saturation, contrast, and sharpening
are all embedded into the file and give
the picture a particular ‘look.’ Once
these attributes are embedded, the
original cannot be altered without some
degradation of the original.

Photograph by Ryutaro Uozumi

This image is a perfect example of a situation where the camera raw format is far superior to the more standard JPEG
format. The scene depicts high contrast with blown-out highlights and dense shadows that cannot be ‘fixed’ without
degradation. A camera raw file allows you to dial back the highlights and open up the shadows in post-processing.

EVERYONE TELLS ME SHOOT CAMERA RAW - WHY? // © PHOTZY.COM 5

 The embedded attributes of JPEG are set in the
camera menus.

They can include the following:

· Exposure

· White Balance

· Color Saturation

· Contrast

· Sharpening

· Dynamic Bias

With a raw file, all these values are ‘floating’ and

can be adjusted later rather than the fixed look
A sample camera menu displaying the various attributes for JPEG images. the camera delivers with a JPEG. If you make
a mistake while shooting the picture, you can
quickly resolve the issue in an ACR processor and
adjust your shot to be the way you intended.

Key Lesson: The JPEG format is fixed

at the camera level, and when post-
processed, degradation can occur. The
camera raw format is infinitely fluid, allowing
you to micro-adjust your image files and
even change your mind about those edits
for years to come. Camera raw equals
versatility.

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 BENEFITS OF THE
CAMERA RAW FORMAT

There are many advantages of using the

camera raw format:

· Many more shades of colors

compared to JPEG files; raw files
have 12 or 14 bits of information
per channel (4096-16384 shades),
compared to JPEG’s 8 bits (256
shades).

· Higher image quality because all the

calculations are performed in one
step on the base data, so the resultant
pixel values are more accurate and
exhibit less posterization.

· Bypassing of undesirable steps

in the camera’s processing,
Photograph by Loann-Mark Kuznietsov
including sharpening and noise
In the camera raw format, every set of flowers can be individually adjusted for tone, color, contrast, and sharpness!
reduction.

· JPEG images are typically saved using

a lossy compression format (although
a lossless JPEG compression is now
available). Raw format processors use
lossless compression or high-quality
lossy compression. (More on this in a
minute.)

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 · Finer control. Raw conversion software allows
users to manipulate more parameters with more
significant variability.

· The color space can be set to whatever is

desired after the fact.

· Different de-mosaic algorithms can be used, not

just the one coded into the camera.

· The contents of raw files include more

information and potentially higher quality. You
can dial back blown-out highlights and open up
dense shadows that would be lost in a JPEG file.

· All the changes made on a raw image file are

non-destructive; only the metadata that controls
the rendering is changed to produce different
output versions, leaving the original data
unchanged.

· To some extent, raw-format photography

eliminates the need to use the HDR technique,
allowing better control over the mapping of
the scene intensity range onto the output tonal
range.

Key Lesson: A camera raw file holds

significantly more data than a JPEG image file.
Photograph by Michele Caliani
This allows a photographer to recover clipped
Using the camera raw file format allows you to maintain detail in the delicate
tonal data.
highlight and shadow areas. These can quickly be recovered if clipped at
the time of exposure. In a JPEG file, those values are lost forever.

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 DRAWBACKS OF THE CAMERA RAW
FORMAT (YES, THERE ARE A FEW)

· Camera raw file size is typically 2–6

times larger than JPEG file size.
Fewer images can fit on a given
memory card. However, modern
memory cards’ large sizes and low
prices mitigate this. With raw, burst
mode shooting also tends to be
slower and shorter due to the larger
file size.

· Most raw formats implement lossless

data compression to reduce the
size of the files without affecting
image quality—but some others
use lossy data compression. Sony’s
lossy compression of raw data
causes posterization under certain
conditions. Several Nikon cameras
let the photographer choose
between no compression, lossless
compression, or lossy compression
for their raw images.

Photograph by Colin Lloyd

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 · The standard raw image format (ISO 12234- between raw and ready-to-use image formats.
2, TIFF/EP) is not widely accepted. DNG, With modern photo editing software, the
the potential candidate for a new standard additional time needed to process raw images
configuration, has not been adopted by many has been dramatically reduced. However, it still
major camera companies. In other words, every requires an extra step in workflow compared to
company has a proprietary raw format that may out-of-camera JPEGs.
not be compatible with every post-processing
software. Key Lesson: When the turnaround time is
· Because of the lack of widespread adoption of a important such as in photojournalism or
standard raw format, more specialized software weddings, the photographer can set up their
may be required to open raw files than for camera to shoot just JPEG images or both raw
standardized formats like JPEG or TIFF. and JPEG images. The only downside to the
latter is that it slows the camera down a bit to
· The time necessary to process raw camera files process both file formats.
is an essential consideration when choosing

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 WHAT HAPPENS TO THE CAMERA
RAW FILE ONCE IT IS IMPORTED
INTO AN EDITING SOFTWARE?

This one confused me at the beginning of my journey with

the camera raw file system.

The best way to explain this is to consider the camera raw file
the same as an old-school film negative.

The film negative was never the final step. You had to make a
print from it.

After taking the camera raw file into a camera raw processing
engine, it is the equivalent of making the print in film
photography. A darkroom technician would lighten areas
or darken other areas or adjust the contrast to provide the
Photograph by Leonard von Bibra
best print possible. Then the negative was returned to the
negative storage area and would not see the light of day
until it was again printed.

Key Lesson: You adjust your image file using a

camera raw processor. Once you import the shot into an
editing software suite such as Photoshop, the file
becomes a JPEG, TIFF, or whatever format you choose.
The original camera raw file remains unchanged and
waits until you open it again to ‘display’ the initial edits.
It’s important to note that some software packages, such
as Lightroom, do this in the background.

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 WHAT SOFTWARE CAN OPEN A CAMERA RAW FILE?

The great news is that the camera raw file format has with it. The easiest way to do this is via the Filter
been around long enough that virtually every photo menu in Photoshop (Filter > Camera Raw filter).
editing software can open a camera raw file, even
smartphone editing apps. Important: You won’t get the same tonal
depth and color fidelity as with an actual raw
But here is an important little addendum to the story: file, but if you’ve mastered the editing controls
in ACR, it provides an easy and more
Recently, the processing engine for camera raw has sophisticated way to make image adjustments.
been altered to allow a photographer to open and
process a JPEG. Recommended Reading: Want a step-by-
step guide on photography skills with your
Even if you haven’t captured the photo as a raw DSLR? Grab a copy of our best-selling guide:
file, you can still use the ACR interface and suite of the DSLR Crash Course.
controls. A regular file like a JPEG can also be edited

EVERYONE TELLS ME SHOOT CAMERA RAW - WHY? // © PHOTZY.COM 12

 Photograph by Leonard von Bibra and ACR processing by Kent DuFault

Look at the image on page 11. It is a JPEG file with color balance and contrast issues. Now study the above image. I imported the JPEG into Adobe
ACR and color-corrected the original. I also made minor contrast changes. It still has the appearance of a JPEG original that can’t be altered easily,
but I now have a shot that is better than what the camera initially produced and that matches the original scene better.

EVERYONE TELLS ME SHOOT CAMERA RAW - WHY? // © PHOTZY.COM 13

 CONCLUSION

In most situations, the benefits of shooting the detriment being a slight slowing down of the
camera raw format far exceed the pitfalls. A camera processing time. A camera raw file remains
photographer can choose to create both raw and unchanged and offers infinite editing options that are
JPEG files in the camera settings, with the only stored and can later be reversed.

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 Self-Check Quiz:

1) What company invented the camera raw format?

2) True or False: All camera raw formats are the same.

3) Name two other camera raw software processors that are not Adobe.

4) True or False: A downside to camera raw is that a JPEG file holds more color information.

5) Are all camera raw processors lossless?

6) Name two downsides to the camera raw format.

7) Name three photo file attributes that are fixed in-camera when a JPEG is created but are fully adjustable when a camera raw
file is created.

EVERYONE TELLS ME SHOOT CAMERA RAW - WHY? // © PHOTZY.COM 15

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understand the basics. photography back. everything you can imagine.

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Want quick photography tips?

Check out our friends at DailyPhotoTips.com they'll send you 1 solid photography tip
to your inbox, 5 days a week. So you can start your day right, with actionable tips to
help you on your creative journey. Subscribe now →
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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Congratulations! You’ve completed
this Photzy guide!

If you liked this photography tutorial, check

out our step-by-step guide on discovering
photography skills using your DSLR and start
creating amazing images: DSLR Crash Course.

Kent DuFault is a professional photographer and author.

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