Basic RAW file questions

KH
Posted By
kat_hayes
Oct 31, 2007
Views
367
Replies
4
Status
Closed

1. Are there any pros/cons between the different proprietary formats from Canon, Nikon, etc.?
2. What is the industry standard Digital Negative (DNG) file use for?
3. Is .RAW a universal format?
4. Does anyone know where I can download some raw files to work with?

Thanks.

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

RK
Rob_Keijzer
Oct 31, 2007

1. Not to my knowledge.
2. DNG is an open, documented Raw format. Comes in handy if your camera manufacturer decides to quit.
3. The .raw format has nothing to do with camera files.
4. From most DSLR’s, and even some digicams.

Rob

EDIT: Ok, here’s one (DNG). I shot it today. It’s a dull colourless piece of cr*p.

I expect to see what you made of it. It’s about ten Megabytes.

<http://www.faces-and-stuff.nl/Forum/Test-DNG.zip>

Rob
KH
kat_hayes
Oct 31, 2007
Hi Rob,

Thanks for your response!

1. How is the .RAW format used?
2. Is there any degradation to a RAW file from a digital camera if it is saved as a .psd after being imported into Photoshop? Are there any other drawbacks to doing this?
3. When making changes to a RAW file, are the changes always made to an external metadata file? Are they ever made to the actual file or acopy of it?

Thanks again!
DR
Donald_Reese
Nov 1, 2007
Your raw file remains just that. you can go back and redo any combination your heart desires. i work on my dngs and then save the photo as a tif,and also save the dng next to it,sort of like a negative in a sleeve used to be.
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Nov 1, 2007

1. RAW files are from digital cameras and can be "developed" with Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, software from the camera maker, and other third-party software. RAW files are the equivalent of the film negative (except they aren’t negative, of course) — they simply contain a record of the light that made it to the sensor. They don’t contain RGB images, like JPEG or TIFF files; they contain "raw" (unprocessed) data that needs to be processed to yield a viewable RGB or grayscale image. The filename extensions used for RAW files vary from camera to camera, including .CRW, .CR2, .NEF, and .RAW.

There is a different kind of RAW file — the Photoshop RAW file, which has the extension .RAW. These contain photoshop image data in a proprietary format. I have never had occasion to use these, nor have I seen any use for them mentioned online or in books; I expect they are for specialized purposes, such as testing.

2. The RAW file from a digital camera isn’t changed if it is saved as a .PSD, but the .PSD doesn’t contain all of the image data; some data is changed or omitted from the resulting .PSD in the process of developing the image in Camera Raw or Lightroom. The processes in Camera Raw and Lightroom do not change the image data in the RAW file itself; you can always go back and use the data in a different way. The particular ways in which the image is processed are typically stored as metadata in a "sidecar" .xmp file.

If you convert your RAW image files into DNG files, the DNG file is then used as a substitute for the RAW file. With DNG files, the metadata from processing is stored inside the file, instead of in a sidecar .xmp file, but the image data is unchanged within the file and be developed in the same or different way at another time, as with a RAW file.

There are no drawbacks to saving a developed image as a .psd (or .tif) file; this is highly recommended if you will want to make further prints or do more image editing later.

3. As stated above, the changes made while developing a RAW image file are stored as metadata in the .xmp sidecar (or stored internally, again as metadata, in a .dng file). The only exception to this of which I’m aware is that Lightroom currently stores a change to the date or time of the image within the RAW file itself. This is a serious bug, especially since the program doesn’t set the date correctly in some cases.

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections