Term of the Moment
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Redirected from: camera RAW
Definition: RAW image format
A proprietary digital camera format that contains all the pixel information captured by the camera's sensors. RAW formats give the photographer complete flexibility and artistic control to create the best result. Although the camera processes the captured image based on the ISO, shutter and aperture settings, the sensor data have not been interpolated, encoded and compressed into a standard such as JPEG or TIFF (see Bayer pattern).
Post Processing Advantages
Because the format processing is bypassed, photographers have the freedom to make their own adjustments in the studio later on. Attributes such as hue, saturation, white balance and contrast can be adjusted using a RAW editor before the sensor data are turned into RGB pixels. Even the exposure can be altered with better results. RAW formats also offer 12 or more bits of color depth, and changes can be applied to the full color range before they are reduced to 8 bits in JPEGs and TIFFs.
RAW Adjustments
Post Processing Advantages
Because the format processing is bypassed, photographers have the freedom to make their own adjustments in the studio later on. Attributes such as hue, saturation, white balance and contrast can be adjusted using a RAW editor before the sensor data are turned into RGB pixels. Even the exposure can be altered with better results. RAW formats also offer 12 or more bits of color depth, and changes can be applied to the full color range before they are reduced to 8 bits in JPEGs and TIFFs.
RAW CAMERA FORMATS Vendor File Extensions Adobe DNG Agfa MDC Arriflex ARI Canon CR2, CRW Casio BAY Epson ERF Fuji RAF Hasselblad 3FR, DNG Imacon FFF Kodak DCR, DCS, DRF, KDC, K25 Konica MRW Leaf MOS Leica RAW, RWL, DNG Logitech PXN Mamiya MET Minolta MDC, MRW Nikon NEF Olympus ORF Panasonic RAW, RW2 Pentax PEF, PTX Phase One CAP, LIQ, EIP Ricoh DNG Samsung SRW, DNG Sigma X3F Sony SRF, SR2, ARW
This illustration combines two dialogs from Photoshop Elements to show the many adjustments that can be made to RAW images.