RAW translates from English as “raw, unfinished.” If in ordinary life this quality cannot be considered as a plus, then in digital photography the “raw” format is the most perfect. Only the most serious digital cameras allow you to save images in RAW to save some important settings before the processing stage and get the most out of your photographic equipment.

What is RAW

If the universal image formats JPEG and TIFF can be considered the digital equivalent of a slide (or final print), then RAW is an analogue of a film negative. “Semi-finished product”, which involves various options for further processing, during which one or another result will be obtained.

To understand the meaning of the “raw” format, it’s worth going backwards. When using JPEG, an image goes through five stages: capture of an analog signal by a matrix, conversion to digital form (analog-to-digital converter), color interpolation, processing in accordance with camera settings, compression with loss of quality. Half of the settings are found in any camera, including film cameras (exposure, ISO sensitivity, metering method, autofocus operation). The remaining settings are related to the JPEG format: * Color rendition. Various options (“live”, “saturated”, “natural colors”). Monochrome shooting modes. Correction of RGB color components. * White balance. If the photo comes out blue or red, the wrong White Ballance setting was selected. * Brightness and saturation. * Micro contrast. Appears under the English word sharpening or Russian “sharpness,” although it has nothing to do with real sharpness. * Compression ratio. Various options like “super-fine” in fact only mean that losses are minimized.

The digital “negative” is written to the card immediately after the analog signal digitization stage. Its use allows you to defer all these settings until the processing stage on the PC.

Color interpolation

A typical digital camera matrix consists of cells located on the same plane that respond only to brightness, forming a monochrome image. To obtain color information, Kodak engineer Bruce Bayer 20 years ago proposed installing in front of each cell a filter of one of three colors - green, red and blue, which together give the desired shade. This technology is still used today. For every cell with red and cyan filters, there are two with green filters, since this color contains basic luminance information.

Once converted to digital form, the image consists of red, green and blue pixels. Such an intermediate image is unsuitable for direct work. To ensure that each output pixel has a natural hue (that is, includes all three color components), the camera processor or RAW converter sums the color of neighboring pixels, for which a complex color interpolation algorithm is used.

Depending on the manufacturer and specific model DFC, RAW file can contain data both before interpolation and after (before the final processing stage). Most modern digital cameras use the first approach, since RAW conversion programs almost always offer more advanced algorithms. In addition, they are constantly being improved, and the camera processor can be changed by purchasing a new one. Improvement of in-camera JPEG algorithms is developing in parallel with the improvement of matrices. It is this that often determines the advantages of new models over their predecessors - for example, the Nikon D40 DSLR over the D70.

Same sensor, but the D40 is a newer model and therefore produces better JPEG quality. But even better quality can be achieved by shooting on the D70, if you abandon the JPEG format altogether!

"Raw" quality

There is always potentially more information in a RAW file than in the final file. RAW converters use this data in various ways. Some are better suited for processing underexposed images, while others “squeeze” the most out of those taken with optimal settings.

Typically, an ADC (analog to digital converter) provides a color depth of 12 bits. There are more advanced exceptions: Canon 40D (14 bit), Fuji S5 Pro (14 bit x 2), Pentax K10D (22 bit). When shooting in JPEG format, we get regular 8-bit files that are immediately printable. “Excess” information is used by the processor to compensate for the shortcomings of the matrix digital (narrow brightness range, noise). But even in the most powerful and advanced models, the “extra” information is not used 100%. RAW stores all the information provided by the ADC block, including the original bit depth (color depth).

Once the files are copied to your computer, you decide what to do with the 12-bit data. 12-bit RAW allows safe exposure compensation within two exposure stops in each direction. Using the exposure compensation tool in the RAW converter (simply moving the slider), you shift work area final file (8-bit). If your camera gets the exposure slightly wrong, this will allow the shadows and highlights to be pulled out without any of the tonal distortion or other side effects that occur with heavy tone correction.

If the exposure is initially determined accurately, due to the higher bit depth you can get deeper, more detailed images by converting “raw” files to TIFF format with 16-bit color. The RAW bit depth allows you to use this format to obtain photographs with an extended dynamic range - High Dynamic Range (HDR).

Variety of formats

If the RAW format were the same for all manufacturers, it would be very convenient from a compatibility point of view software. There have been attempts throughout history to create a universal digital negative standard similar to JPEG and TIFF. The most successful of them is the Digital Negative (DNG) format from Adobe, which has found application in some modern digital digital cameras (Leica M8, Pentax K10D, Samsung GX-10). However, this is an exception to the general rule.

Not only does each manufacturer promote its own standard of “raw” files (CR2, NEF, PEF, variations with the RAW extension), but also within the line of one manufacturer the formats do not match: as a rule, a software update is required for each new generation of digital digital files.

The formats differ not only in terms of data structure. Sometimes manufacturers save space on memory cards by using raw data compression (for example, as is the case with Nikon Electronic Format). In theory, such compression could result in a slight loss of quality. In practice, there are no even minimal losses. The only drawback is that the compression process itself takes up resources and can affect the speed of recording images. Pentax Raw Format (PEF) embodies the opposite approach.

When not to shoot in RAW

The RAW format provides the best quality and the ability to make something pleasing to the eye even from not the most successful photographs. But there are several situations when shooting in RAW is impractical: insufficient memory card capacity, continuous shooting (on some “slow” cameras), household shooting, direct printing, lack of personal time for image processing.

Due to frequently asked questions On the topic of the influence of various in-camera settings on the original RAW file when developing it in third-party converters, I decided to conduct a small test and dot all the i’s.

First you need to disable all kinds of settings on the camera designed to improve the image. These include various noise reduction, auto-brightness correction, highlight priority, etc.

The test was carried out using a Canon EOS 6D camera and Canon EF 24-70L f/2.8 II USM and Canon EF 100L f/2.8 Macro IS USM lenses.

To open RAW, we used the Adobe Camera Raw converter.

Now we can begin. To see the difference (if any), hover your mouse over the image.

1. Light priority.

D+ or D-Lighting, there may be other names, depending on the manufacturer. We adjust the exposure so that we get some clipping in the bright areas of the image. If the settings do have an effect on the original RAW file, then turning on D+ should give us a lot more detail in the highlights. Let's see what happened.

It's clear that this setting has virtually no effect on the image (if third-party converters are used). It is there, but very insignificant.

2. Noise reduction at high ISOs.

For this test I set it to ISO 6400. If the noise reduction settings have an effect on the original RAW, then turning it on should give us a significant reduction in noise. What's really going on?

It can be seen that the noise level has not changed, therefore, this setting is not read by third-party converters.

3. Long exposure noise reduction.

With this setting we should be able to remove noise that occurs during long exposures (noise from dark currents). In this case, the camera takes another frame without exposing the matrix, with the same shutter speed, so the time required to take the picture doubles. The noise from that frame is then subtracted from the original one. This noise should not be confused with that which occurs when increasing ISO.

Let's check if Camera Raw will read this data. I set the shutter speed to 10 seconds, adjusting the lighting accordingly.

As you can see, the frames are absolutely identical, that is, third-party converters will not be able to read this setting.

4. Auto brightness correction.

When this option is enabled, the brightness of the pixels is redistributed so as to reveal more detail in the shadows.

As can be seen from the test results, no correction occurs when working with third-party converters.

5. Image styles.

For this test, two photos were taken with identical settings, but one using the standard Picture Style, the other I turned up the contrast, saturation, sharpness and color tone settings to maximum.

As you can see, the pictures remained absolutely identical.

General conclusion: when using third-party software, and these are any RAW converters other than those supplied on CD with the camera, the above in-camera settings (and similar ones) have virtually no effect on the original RAW file, or this effect is extremely weak.

When using the proprietary software supplied with the camera, all settings will be read when opening the RAW file and applied during conversion.

Select an option to specify where settings are stored. Using XMP files is useful when you need to move or save an image file and want to retain the settings of the raw photo. The Export Settings command can be used to copy settings from the Camera Raw database into accompanying XMP files or embed settings into Digital Negative (DNG) files.

After a raw image file is processed using Camera Raw software, the image settings are saved in either a Camera Raw database file or an accompanying XMP file. Settings specific to DNG files are typically saved directly to the DNG files, similar to settings for TIFF and JPEG files.

Note. When you import a sequence of raw image files into After Effects, the settings applied to the first file apply to all other files in the sequence that do not have their own accompanying XMP files. After Effects does not check the Camera Raw database.

You can set an option to determine where settings are stored. When you reopen a raw image file, all settings default to the settings that were in use when you last opened the file. Image attributes (target color space profile, bit depth, pixel size, and resolution) are not stored with settings.
1 In Adobe Bridge, choose Edit > Camera Raw Preferences (Windows) or Bridge > Camera Raw Preferences (Mac OS). Or, in the Camera Raw dialog box, click the Open Preferences Dialog button.
2 In the Camera Raw Preferences dialog box, choose one of the following Save Image Settings To menu options.

Camera Raw Database Saves settings in a Camera Raw database file located in the Documents and Settings/[username]/Application Data/Adobe/CameraRaw (Windows) or Users/[username]/Library/Preferences (Mac OS) folder. This database is indexed by file content, allowing you to retain the image settings of a raw photo even if the image file is moved or renamed.

Accompanying files.xmp Allows you to save settings in separate file, in the same folder where the raw image file is stored, with the same base name and .xmp extension. This save settings option can be used for long-term archiving of raw snapshot files with associated settings, as well as for sharing raw snapshot files with associated settings in multi-user workflows. The same XMP accompanying files may store IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) data or other metadata related to the raw image file. Before you open files on read-only CD or DVD media, be sure to copy them to HDD. The Camera Raw plug-in will not be able to write the XMP file to read-only media and will instead write the settings to the Camera Raw database file. It is possible to view XMP files in the Adobe Bridge application; To do this, select the "View" > "Show hidden files" menu.

Important information. If version control is used to manage files and settings are saved in XMP accompanying files, please note that in order to make changes to raw images, you must have input and output control of the accompanying files; Likewise, XMP accompanying files should be managed (eg, renamed, moved, deleted) along with their corresponding raw image files. Such file synchronization is provided by the Adobe Bridge, Photoshop, After Effects and Camera Raw applications themselves, if you work with files locally.

If your raw photo settings are stored in the Camera Raw database, but you decide to move the files to another location (burn to a CD or DVD, transfer to another computer, etc.), you can use the Export Settings to XMP command to export the settings to XMP accompanying files.

3 If you want to save all adjustments you make to the DNG files directly in the files themselves, select Ignore Accompanying .xmp Files in the DNG File Handling section of the Camera Raw Preferences dialog box.

Series: Camera RAW Secrets

We continue to study the chapter from the book “ Secrets of RAW. Full color edition. 2nd ed."Alexandra Efremova, today we will look at adjusting images in Camera Raw.

Some professionals who are used to working with curves in Photoshop may find that this tab is where they need to adjust their images in Camera Raw. This is the wrong approach. The Curve tab works in conjunction with the Basic tab. First, you should make all the necessary settings on the Basic tab, and then, for more precise correction, go to the Curve tab.

The curve on the Parametric subtab is used to adjust values ​​in specific tonal ranges of the image: Highlights, Lights, Darks, or Shadows. The middle region properties (Dark and Light) primarily affect the middle region of the curve. The properties of Highlight and Shadow primarily affect the extremes of the tonal range.

To adjust the curve, move the Highlight, Lights, Darks, or Shadows sliders on the Parametric tab. Thus, the areas of the curve affected by the sliders expand or contract. Another correction method can be to move any point on the curve in the Point subtab. As you drag this point under the tone curve, the Input and Output values ​​change.

When working with the parameters of this tab, you should view the image at a scale of 100% or larger, since in a small image such details of the image as sharpness or noise are simply not visible.

Sharpening(Sharpening). Some of the sharpening settings are similar to the parameters of the Usharp Mask filter in Photoshop.
Amount(Degree). A value of zero does not sharpen the image. When you open an image, Camera Raw calculates the value to use based on the camera model, ISO value, and exposure compensation.
Radus(Radius) specifies the radius of the outline in pixels. For photos with a high degree of detail, you should choose the lowest values. For photos with low detail, the radius can be increased. If the radius is too large, the image quality will decrease. By default, the Preview Only option is enabled to allow further processing of the image in Photoshop. If you do not plan to process the image in Photoshop, you should activate the Sharpening option in the Preferences dialog box (more about these settings later in this chapter).
Detail(Detailing). At low values, sharpens high-contrast edges without affecting flat areas of the photo, such as the sky. Higher values ​​increase the clarity of image textures.
Masking(Masking). This option creates a mask and specifies where sharpening will be done. With a zero value, the sharpness is the same throughout the entire image. At a value of 100, sharpening increases mostly near strong edges. By pressing Option (Alt) while dragging this slider, you can see where the sharpening will be the white areas and where it will not be the black areas. The gray areas will have an intermediate value. Attention! The option works when displaying 100% or more.

Noise Reduction
Luminance(Brightness). Luminance noise increases when shooting at long shutter speeds and even more when the photosensitivity increases. In these cases, the image appears grainier, especially noticeable in the shadows.
Color(Color). Visually, colored noise is similar to colored snow and tends to appear in the shadows, especially in the blue channel. In some camera models, color noise increases with increasing light sensitivity. Adjusting the Noise Reduction parameters is always a compromise between preserving image details and reducing noise.

The parameters set on this tab allow you to adjust individual color ranges. For example, if a subject looks too bright and distracts from other elements in the photo, you can lower the saturation in the Saturation tab.

Hue(Chromaticity). Shifts the color to one side or the other of the color wheel (Fig. 3.34).
Saturation(Saturation). As the name suggests, it changes the color saturation. For example, you can change the color of the sky from a faded gray to a rich blue or cyan.
Luminance(Brightness). Changes the brightness component of the color tone. When Covert to Grayscale is checked, a single Grayscale Mix subtab is displayed.

More details about converting photographs to grayscale, or more precisely, to black and white, will be discussed in the chapter “RAW and black and white photography.”

The settings on this tab allow you to color a black and white photo in one or more tones. (Toning pictures will be discussed in detail in the chapter “RAW and black and white photography.”)
By applying these settings to a color image, you can, for example, simulate a cross-process.

Lens Corrections Tab

The settings of this tab (Fig. 3.23) allow you to remove or minimize chromatic aberration, which primarily appears on low-quality and/or wide-angle lenses. Chromatic aberration is more noticeable on matrices with small pixels.

Fix Red/Cyan Fringe Options(Remove Red/Cyan Fringe) and Fix Blue/Yellow Fringe (Remove Blue/Yellow Fringe) help reduce chromatic aberration to a minimum.
Defringe(Elimination of border). To remove chromatic aberration for all edges, including abrupt color changes, select All Edges. If thin gray lines or other unwanted effects appear near the edges when using All Edges, you should select Hightlight Edges to correct the color fringing of only the edges of the highlights. To disable fringe removal, select Off. In this case, you can change Fix Red/Cyan Fringe and Fix Blue/Yellow, but eliminating chromatic aberration is only possible for one corner of the image.

The parts of the tab related to Vignetting make it possible to reduce (rarely increase) the darkening of the corners of the frame, which primarily appears when shooting with wide-angle lenses.
Amount(Effect) - the degree of lightening or darkening of the corners of the frame.
Midpoint(Midpoint) determines the scope of the Amount parameter.

Presets Tab (Fig. 3.24)

Settings for any parameters can be saved as specific presets, and then applied to specific images either through Bridge or through Camera Raw. When saving the settings (the first button in the lower corner of the tab), a window will appear in which you should set a friendly name and indicate the parameters used (Fig. 3.26).

Snapshots Tab

While working on a specific image, you can save settings for the current session (Fig. 3.25). You just have to remember that states, unlike presets, are saved only for a specific photo and during the current session.

Camera Calibrate Tab (Fig. 3.27)

The controls on this tab are designed to fine-tune the profile of a specific camera model. In this case, you can calibrate colors for different lighting conditions: for daylight, pulsed illuminators (flashes), incandescent lamps, etc. On the Adobe website (Adobe Labs page) you can download profiles corresponding various cameras and standard subjects, such as portrait or landscape. And Adobe Standard profiles significantly improve color reproduction, especially in red, yellow and orange colors. When you install an update to Camera Raw (5.3 at the time of writing) or Lightroom, such as version 2.2, the profiles are installed automatically. The conversion profile for a specific image or group of images should be selected from the pop-up list (see Fig. 3.27). In order for this profile to be applied to all photos, after selecting it, you must save the settings. To do this, select the Save New Camera Raw Defaults menu item. This operation must be performed for each digital camera model.

If these profiles are not enough or there is a need to build profiles for specific standard lighting conditions, you can use free program DNG Profile Editor (Fig. 3.28). To edit any profile in the program, you should open an image saved in DNG format and edit it. To create a profile, you need to photograph the Color Checker scale and build a profile based on it (Fig. 3.29). The latest beta version of DNG Profile Editor was released on October 22, 2008.

To load profiles, you need Camera Raw 4.5 or Lightroom version 2.0 or later. Profiles can be used in any Raw converters that support the DNG 1.2 standard.

Please note that the various profiles only work with RAW files. Profiles do not support images converted to, for example, TIFF or JPEG.

You can also use the Camera Calibrate tab to creatively transform your RAW file.

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This article will introduce you to the Adobe Camera Raw module.

First, about what Raw is and what it is eaten with. To understand, let’s briefly recall how a digital camera works (it doesn’t matter whether it’s a digital camera or a professional SLR camera, everything is absolutely the same everywhere). Light passes through the lens onto a light-sensitive sensor, which consists of millions of sensitive elements. Initially, a black and white image is obtained, which is then divided into color pixels using unique gratings called Bayer filters. At the output from the matrix we have a Raw file (from English “raw”), which is then compressed, corrected and converted into the familiar Jpeg using special algorithms of the camera’s microcomputer. At the same time, a significant part of the information is mercilessly discarded.

Why more and more people prefer to shoot in Raw format? The answer is simple:
1. There is no need to think about the camera settings (sharpness, saturation, contrast, etc.) - they are always in the middle position.
2. There is no need to adjust white balance. It can always be adjusted later with an accuracy of 1K, or to any neutral point, without loss of quality.
3. If you make a mistake with the exposure, you can correct it later without losing quality, up to 4 stops, which is absolutely impossible to do with Jpeg files.
4. It's easy to make jpeg or tiff files of any quality from Raw, while you still have the original. This is why Raw files are often called digital negatives. The original color depth is 12 to 16 bits, versus 8 in jpeg, so it's easy to recover information in highlights or deep shadows.
5. In jpeg, each subsequent conversion of the file leads to a loss of information, that is, a deterioration in quality. This doesn't happen in Raw.

The disadvantage of the format is the large file size (about 2-3 times larger than a similar jpeg file).

Let's briefly go through the module interface. For example, I took Adobe Camera Raw 4.6 for the Russian version Adobe Photoshop CS3. The module consists of 8 tabs, the switch buttons of which are indicated by the number 1.

The first tab presents the main adjustments (2).

The top line shows icons of tools that will be easy to understand for those who already know the basics of Adobe Photoshop (without this you should not start getting acquainted withCameraRaw). When you hover your mouse over them, tooltips appear. By clicking on the bottom line (3) you can open a dialog box for setting the color profile and resolution of the source image.
The second tab shows the master curve of the composite RGB channel

You can customize (in professional jargon, “bend”) the curve either with sliders (parametric curve) or by setting and moving control points (point curve)
On the third tab, you can adjust the sharpness of the image, and you can also reduce color and monochromatic noise. To observe changes in the image, you must increase the size to 100%

The fourth tab provides greater color management capabilities; adjustments are much more precise and varied than in Adobe Photoshop. Can be done fine tuning saturation, brightness, shift certain colors along the color scale. Also, if desired, you can achieve a wide variety of fantastic effects and cross-processing effects.

Here you can mix color components in grayscale, that is, convert the image to black and white.
The fifth tab will help eliminate extraneous shades in shadows or highlights if the shooting was carried out in difficult lighting conditions and the color balance in highlights and shadows is different. Here you can also achieve certain effects.

The sixth tab is used to eliminate chromatic aberrations (the appearance of colored halos around bright objects) and the vignette effect when shooting with flash.

Using the next tab, you can create your own camera profiles for different shooting conditions.

On last tab You can select a profile you created, the settings of which will be applied to the image.

Those wishing to thoroughly study the Camera Raw module can do this with the help of the appropriate specialized literature, since detailed description All functions and settings take up a book of decent format.

Step 1. Let's open the file in Adobe program Photoshop. This automatically launches the Camera Raw module.

Let's analyze the image to present the plan further actions. We need:
1. Change the white balance towards warmer tones. Typically, the eye perceives warm tones better than cool tones.
2. Adjust exposure.
3. Bring out detail in dark areas of the image.
4. Make the colors of the image more saturated and varied. In this case, we will already use Adobe Photoshop and the Lab color space, which has no equal in expanding the color range.
5. Remove unnecessary noise and enhance sharpness. Here we will also turn to Photoshop, since its arsenal of methods in this matter is much richer.
We will work in this direction.

Step 2. Setting the white balance.
It’s as easy as shelling pears – just move the slider a little Temperature towards the yellow region of the spectrum.

In each case you need to act individually, sometimes it all comes down to a single mouse click in the neutral area, but in most cases you have to adjust two sliders. With a little practice, you will understand how simple it is.

Step 3. Setting up the exposure. Everything is also very simple - move the corresponding slider to the right to increase the exposure, to the left to decrease it.

Step 4. Let's bring out the details in the dark areas. To do this, move the parameter slider Fill with light a little to the right

Step 5. Now let's open our image in Adobe Photoshop. To do this, simply click on the button “ Open image." Our file will open in a program familiar to us.
We transfer the image to Lab mode: Image – Mode – Lab (Image – Mode – Lab).
Create an adjustment layer Curves(Curves). We give the desired shape to the curves, in each case it will be individual, in this case I got the curves shown in the pictures.

The advantage of an adjustment layer is that you can change the shape of the curves, the opacity of the layer, its blending mode, and apply styles at any time. Here is the result of applying curves.

Now merge the layers by clicking SHIFT+CRTL+E.
Step 6. We remove noise and sharpen the image. I will not go into detail on these operations, since the site has many lessons on these topics.

I wish you easy and enjoyable work in Adobe Photoshop!