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Position:Home>Visual Arts> Why does Photoshop deal differently with RAW files?Question: Why does Photoshop deal differently with RAW files!? When I take a photo in RAW on my camera most photo packages whon't open it and Photoshop seems to have to deal with the format before it is opened in the main and then won't save in RAW!.
What's so different about Raw compared to JPEG or BITMAP!?Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Raw tends to be a proprietary (manufacturer linked) format, associated with a chip type and a software process - so it's a recording method that is pretty much unique to the model of camera you are using!. Adobe pushed the DNG (digital negative) format as a universal Raw standard and managed to persuade manufacturers that a more standardised file type was required, or photographers would all have massive archival headaches, not being able to open our Raw images when a camera model or software package changed!. Multiply that by 100 years and you'll see where they were coming from in terms of an 'industry' problem!. So, you're right, the image first has to be translated from its native format into the DNG format - and to answer your second question the difference is that the Raw file is linear information you get off the chip!. So, no filters, a much wider density / exposure range (up to 11 stops), unlike tiff or jpeg which are 3!.5 stops, and a very flexible format for post processing, adjusting white points - and recovering (in particular) highlight details!. Those are the main differences you are looking for!. Put together this means, when you process an image in Camera Raw (via Bridge) you are maintaining the integrity of the original image data and writing out the adjustments (to curves, density, white points, etc) as a series of 'filter instructions' to a sidecar XMP file - which can be subsequently adjusted, so you are not eroding the original data!. In a way this is similar to working on a Smart Object, where your image adjustments are retained as adjustable layer filters!. As you know, in Camera Raw this includes spotting retouches and other info which can be applied optionally (via tick boxes) when you copy and paste your developing settings to other images!. NB - Lightroom and Aperture Lizzie, be careful when using Lightroom or Aperture!. There is a known issue with writing XMP metadata to image files and transferring it between products - these products can ditch almost your entire metadata set at present, including copyright information(!)!.!.!. it's early days for the new XMP metadata standard!. It's best to check images made with these products for metadata integrity afterwards, or you could end up with an 'orphan works' problem, i!.e!. someone else taking posession of some of your images (on the web for example) and making money from them!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Every raw file is different for every camera, so the software needs to be updated regularly to cope with this!. Adobe has a special plug-in called ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) which keeps track of all the new RAW formats, most other software does not!. A RAW file is the original data straight from the camera, therefore you can't save things back in this format as it would no longer be 'original' you have to open a RAW file and then work on it and save the result as sometthing else such as a JPG or TIFF which are formats that can be modified multiple times!. Wedding Photography by Pixcellence http://www!.pixcellence!.co!.ukWww@QuestionHome@Com This is something I have wondered about but never bothered to ask, so thank you!. I don't know but will star and hope someone reveals the mystery!. This is my guesses on it: JPEG and Bitmap are standard formats and the same code et cetera (I just pay a guy to speed my machine up, know nothing about computers!.!.!.), RAW seems to be coded or recorded or written differently by the different manufacturers!. Lightroom is the one for bulk processing of raws I'm told if that helps!. Thats all i got!. aWww@QuestionHome@Com The amount of information in the file!. RAW has a lot more information!. Try Adobe Lightroom!.Www@QuestionHome@Com not too sure about that one sorryWww@QuestionHome@Com RAW formats differ between camera makes and are proprietary!. Windows does not carry licenses to properly view them, you must use a RAW editor that supports the file extension native to your cameras RAW output!. Most cameras that output in RAW also supply a converter, but most that are free do not include the editor needed to adjust the images the way the camera does before it compresses the file into a JPEG!. The advantage with RAW is lossless editing with an image processing engine more powerful than what can be found in a camera (your computer and photoshop)!. Your camera applies certain parameters to an image before it is written to the media card as a JPEG!. These parameters include sharpening, the application of a tone curve, and adjustments to contrast, color, and hue (for most cameras, depending on capture settings)!. A RAW file does not get these adjustments!. So when working with a RAW image, those adjustments need to be done by a program or plug-in that will allow for these adjustments to be made native to that program as a RAW file!. A plug-in like camera RAW for adobe photoshop is used for this and aside from the proprietary software provided by the camera manufacturer is the only way the adjustments can be made to a RAW file!. But a plug-in can only serve to either adjust baseline image parameters or convert!. You can't perform any advanced editing like layer adjustmetns to the image unless it is made into a PSD or DNG file from the RAW plug-in!. So, it will eventually need to be converted!. DNG is the format photoshop uses as a standard RAW format, as mentioned by The Violater in his answer!. Usually, any image correction performed that is meant to enhance the image without adding layers can be done in camera RAW, so if added image latitude is needed to correct an image, RAW is still the best format to use as any corrections will be done in a non-compressed state (meaning, you have more to work with)!. The difference between RAW and JPEG is compression!. All cameras capture in a RAW state, but not all output in a RAW file!. The camera compresses the image to save space by deleting redundant information from the image, this reduces the image to about half it's RAW size!. The images are identical, only not as much data is kept from capture!. also, I have had more luck with Adobe Lightroom than The Violater can give credit for, and I'm using version 1!.0!. I have never lost any metadata from NEF (RAW) files captured from my nikon D80!. If you need to work with RAW images I recommend two things!. Get photoshop with the latest camera RAW plug-in or an equivalent RAW editor that supports your cameras proprietary file extension!. And, learn the RAW workflow needed to organize your work!. If you don't need to use RAW, don't!. JPEG carries enough information to allow for most anything you will ever need in editing an image!. Personally, I never really use RAW anymore!. I've found that JPEG-fine works better for me!. If you're not a pro with a studio and the need for archiving and workflow, you don't need to use RAW!. That's my opinion!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |