Save changes to RAW file?

[PeaPicker]

I can't seem to get this straight. I open camera Raw file and edit with PhotoShop CS2. Do I save the changes to the RAW file then save as TIFF or JPEG or whatever?
Many thanks for any help.

[JMA]

I perssonally would not touch anything of the RAW files, and save all the changes at PSD format (or TIFF if you perfer). The beauty of PSD or TIFF is the ability of keeping all different layers untouched, so that I can easily make changes in the future without lossing the original picture qulity. For JPEG, I will only use this compressed format for e-mail purpose.

[tim]

You *can't* save in RAW format, you have to save in PSD or TIFF, or whatever other format you like.

[PeaPicker]

Thanks. That helps a lot.
Jon

[DaveG]

I can't seem to get this straight. I open camera Raw file and edit with PhotoShop CS2. Do I save the changes to the RAW file then save as TIFF or JPEG or whatever?
Many thanks for any help.

You can't actually save he changes to your RAW file as a CR2 file. As you know your camera makes a RAW file and if its a 20D the RAW file's name is something like _MG_1234.cr2.

When you do your adjustments in Camera Raw and send it over to PS proper, you will want to save it at some point. Well .cr2 (or the older .crw) is not a format that PS will let you save in. You must save it as a .psd, .tif, .jpg file (or others).

This is a very good thing since you can't overwrite the original RAW file although you CAN delete it (duh). But other than deleting there's no fear that you acidently change everything from 24 meg .psd files to 200K jpegs and have no originals to go back too.

Now you can rename the RAW file from _MG_1234.cr2 to say X1234.cr2 but it's still the original RAW file with all of the information preserved intact.

[slin100]

While you can't save a RAW file, Photoshop will save the settings in Camera Raw to a sidecar .xmp file. The next time you open the RAW file in Camera Raw, Photoshop will reapply the settings saved in the .xmp file.

[PeaPicker]

I wondered what that little .xmp file was for. So this file should be backed up with the original RAW file. Ain't these little computers somethin' nowadays! :)
Thanks everyone.