RAW?

[baz]

Can someone explain RAW images to me please?

[petiot]

lol that a pretty cool question!!!!

i ll do my bit. RAW is a picture format which is uncompressed (unlike jpeg) and which consist in the raw data output from the ccd/CMOS sensor. advantages of RAW: you can adjust exposure, white balance, and virtually all shooting parameters AFTER you have taken the photo.

inconvenient of RAW. it is bigger than jpeg so you need bigger cards to store you photo. you need a specific application to view raw format (usually the software provided with the camera) but now photoshop, acdsee etc have raw capabilities. you need to convert raw into tiff or jpeg and therefore you need extra time effort and software. and not all software are equally good in doing so

i did my bit. i suggest that you look a bit on the net before you ask too general questions like this.

[scottbergerphoto]

If you do a search above on RAW, you will find volumes of opinions on Raw, and Raw vs. Jpeg.
Scott

[CanonUser]

The CCD in the camera sees a scene and converts the scene to binary data. The camera can convert this data to a format that a PC/Mac can understand such as JPG automatically for you. You also have the option of working with the "RAW" file, or unconverted data, if you wish. You tranfer RAW files to your PC and use a converting software to modify the image to your preferrence then turn them into TIF or JPG files.
The advantage is that YOU are the one who decide how the converted image should look, not the chip onboard the camera. You can have multiple or creative versions of the same image. Last but not least, you have ALL of the ORIGINAL data to work with. Once the RAW data turned into JPG, some data is discarded for compression purposes.

Regards,
Alan

[CyberDyneSystems]

Petiot and Canon USER have explained the science.. well done!

However, as we have several threads on the subject "in progress" and it is getting way to hard to keep up,.

I am going to link to the current thread,. that itself has links to many others on the subject..

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=29884&highlight=


..and lock this one. :wink: