RAW File Format and the Importance of RAW Shoting in Photography

What does RAW Photo mean as a file format?

Raw photo or image file, refers to the crude photo or unripe photo. What is the crude photo as much as I addressed the question ‘What is RAW?’ It is also important to focus on the question. After taking photographs in jpeg format with cameras or mobile phones for years, it is difficult to accept a mind that did not know the raw before. I will use an analogy to explain the raw photo. In this way, we will understand the raw-jpeg difference.

Become a cook and make a perfect meat dish. You get 2 different refrigerators. 1 st; Let there be a huge refrigerator, where you can easily buy any material you want. All kinds of meat – all kinds of vegetables – all kinds of spices. 2. In the refrigerator, 500gr minced meat, 1 tomato, 2 peppers, a pinch of thyme. In which refrigerator ingredients would you like to decide the quality, content or taste of the meat dish you will make in this animation?

In the scenario I have described above, we can compare 1. Refrigerator to raw photo and 2. Refrigerator to jpeg photo. You have a very good chance of intervening with the photo and formatting it according to your wishes. Jpeg is deprived of many features and its formatting is limited. In this analogy, it will be very pleasant to use the materials of 1 refrigerator. but will there be enough space to store the ingredients for soup? 🙂

Let’s not go without specifying Raw is not a file extension. The common name of the raw photo file. I mentioned a little below. Raw data has many extensions.

RAW-JPEG Difference

1. One of the main differences between Raw and Jpeg exists in the dynamic range. While jpeg photos usually store 8 bits of data, Raw photos can store 12, 14 or 16 bits of photos. While mathematically there are 16 million colors in 8 bits, there are 281 trillion colors in 16 bits. this means that 16 bits contain 16 million times more color than 8 bits.

2. When the dynamic range data is high, it will be more comfortable to recover overexposed or underexposed areas in the photo. Raw will make a big difference here. It is especially important to take overexposed photos in raw format to save them. Otherwise, it is almost impossible to recover data from overexposed or underexposed regions in jpeg format.

3. Another important difference emerges in the white balance. It does not hide the white balance definition in the raw format photo. jpeg stores the preselected white balance in the photo. which means we can easily select the white balance we want when editing raw. It does not differ from the original. But since jpeg stores the selected white balance, the corrections to be made will make it feel. The changes will mean compromising quality.

4. We said that raw files are lossless. This losslessness means extra space in the body compared to raw jpeg. In other words, raw files take about 3-4 times more space than jpeg. Let’s not forget that this size will also be reflected on the extra memory cards. Likewise, the amount of time it takes to copy and move will increase raw.

5. Raw files cannot receive information again due to their nature. So it cannot be renewed once it is created; Additions cannot be added or existing information cannot be removed or lost. But jpeg is open to changes. It can be overwritten. Changes made while editing raw will be saved as a new file.

Raw Photo Editing:

Editing the raw photo is much easier and more professional as I mentioned above. You can adjust the colors, contrast, temperature sharpness. In fact, you can also make such settings in jpeg format. But in raw, your freedom and quality will be much better. In my example above, you can also cook meat from the 2nd fridge, but your alternative will be very limited. 1. You can take masterpiece menus according to your ability from the refrigerator. Likewise, you can make serious digital interventions to the photo in Raw format, according to your ability.

The subject of editing to raw photo is very wide. I will not be able to explain in depth, since our topic is not subtle. I will briefly explain what can be interfered with.

First of all, you can direct the exposure of the photo. You can turn on or dim the almost incomprehensible light at +5 and -5 house ratio. Similarly, you can affect the contrast. You can only turn on shadows or dim areas of highlight. You can crop your photo and shape it for yourself.

In RAW files, you can adjust the brightness without disrupting the texture of the photo. In the photo above, the original left (jpeg) version is the +0.50 house in the middle and the +1.0 house in the far right. You can easily make these kinds of brightness changes in RAW without any loss in quality.

You will have the freedom to do all this in the photo as well as in only the areas you choose. You can even apply it in gradient form.

In RAW photos, you can largely remove noise or noise in the image and get sharper images at a professional level. Similarly, you can mute foggy photos. These Fixes can also be made in jpeg, but not as good as raw.

You can also play with colors. For example, you can easily turn a yellow item to green. You can also edit the saturation and lightness of the colors.

It is possible to adjust the colors in RAW files without destroying the texture of the photo. Professionally modified versions of the same photo in different color tones … With the Raw arrangement, it is almost impossible to understand which photo is original.

We can also fix shooting errors caused by lenses in raw files. Some lenses may have vignetting, some may have chromatic aberration, and some may have an angle curvature. In the raw state, these lens deficiencies can be eliminated. In addition, we can normalize the fisheye photos.

Obviously, if we list the things that can be done in raw, we will come across pages full of options. Let’s go now since it is a different article topic.

Raw Image Formats of Camera Brands

Each camera manufacturer has derived its own raw format and uses them. I have tried to list the wide range of camera manufacturers’ raw formats in the list below:

Sony: .arw or srf or .sr2

Canon: .crw or .cr2

Adobe program: .dng

Nikon: .nef or .nrw

Olympus: .orf

Pentax: .pef or .ptx

Fujifilm: .raf

Panasonic: .raw or .rw2

Leica: .raw or .rwl or .dng

Samsung: .srw

Also, raw photos can be taken by phone recently. Especially in the android system, there are many programs that can draw and process raw. Since our topic is not mobile phones, I do not go into this issue.

Camera raw menu settings:

Many DSLRs, mirrorless and even compact cameras can take raw photos. If we want the captured image to be in raw format, raw format must be turned on in the camera menu settings. The raw format will usually be in the Image settings menu. Whether Canon raw, Nikon raw, or Sony raw are all in the image quality menu. In the image quality menu, there are raw and raw + jpeg options just above options such as jpeg low, jpeg medium, jpeg good, jpeg very good. In order for the photo you take to be raw, one of these last two options must be selected.

Only raw format photos are stored in the raw setting, while raw + jpeg option will store both the raw and jpeg versions of the photo. The main thing is to decide to shoot jpeg rather than decide to shoot raw. You may need to find a program that can open raw format if you just draw raw. If you will share the jpeg version on your phone, you will lose time by converting each photo to jpeg. But if you are going to be storing, not just sharing, you can just shoot in raw format. If Raw + jpeg is selected, it will be easy to share from the phone or PC as the same photo will be stored in jpeg form. However, this time it will take up more space than the other option and may cause your hard disk to be filled more easily.

There is another point to note in the Raw + jpeg option. The camera’s processing time for this data is also increasing, as double images will be created and take up more space. It is necessary to be careful, especially in places where serial shooting will be used, depending on the speed of the SD card.

Now, even though I have explained it so much, let’s answer the simple question indirectly: what is raw fine? Raw fine means raw + quality jpeg pulls together. Some cameras also have good or normal jpeg options in the raw + function. This will mean that raw and good jpeg image formats will be captured together.

The main computer programs that can open raw format are:

There is an important point that I would like to point out immediately under this title. Viewing raw photo and editing raw photo are very different things. Many programs cannot even show raw photos. Some of those who open raw photos cannot edit raw. There are certain common programs that can open and edit raw photos.

Adobe ligtroom and adobe photoshop raw are the most common programs that can open and edit the photo. It is necessary to purchase a license and they take up a lot of space on the computer. It is common to use by professional photographers or advanced photographers.

Apart from that, let me write a few more useful photo opening programs that can open raw and don’t crack your computer. Fast ston, which I also use, is Windows’ own photo viewer (for win10 and later), picasa, irfan view, gimp, paint shop pro, photoScape, acd see. The programs I listed above not only open the raw photo file, but also convert the raw file to jpeg.

What are compressed raw, lossless compressed raw, and uncompressed raw photo? What is the difference between them?

Raw files can now be compressed with one more click. Due to the improvements that need to be made to save space and speed of data processing, raw materials are now compressed by cameras. Of course, some loss of data is also possible in these compressions. There are some losses in the raw, even if it is not comparable to the jpeg format.

Apart from compressed raw, there is another lossless compressed raw; This is an option where the losses we mentioned above are minimized. The file size takes a value between uncompressed raw and compressed raw. I can say that Raw is the best option for amateurs working. (Canon and Nikon have this option, but unfortunately Sony does not.)

Uncompressed raw is used for file formats where data loss is almost never experienced. There is no data loss, but 1 raw file has an average of almost 50mb. It forces and slows the machine at the data processing point rather than the floor covering handicap. It seems to be an option that many professionals can choose.

Let your light be of good quality …