What is RAW?

What is RAW?

For canon the extension is .CR2, for Nikon it is .NEF. You have been told by someone at some point if you are shooting with a DSLR you need to shoot in RAW. At some point you learned the hard way that a RAW image is not an actual photo in and of itself -at least not yet!

So what is it? In my layman's words, a RAW image file is an unprocessed capture of a shot you have taken. It is always a proprietary extension relative to the manufacturer of the camera. The image data is unprocessed, and uncompressed. Meaning, an 8mp camera will capture an 8Mb (roughly) photo.

The benefits here are that as it is unprocessed image data, it can be imported into Photoshop or comparable programs for processing. You have a lot more room to work with contrast, brightness, and even EV (read about EV or Exposure Value here)

A few drawbacks to shooting in raw:

Speed: the larger image takes longer for the camera to process, rapid shooting will have a higher ceiling of how many shots you can take before your camera freezes on you. This will depend on your camera, the latest greatest cameras have incredibly high rates of processing and high cache size.  In a lot of cases they can allow you to shoot in a dual format, RAW and .JPEG simultaneously.  Though, this will greatly reduce speed.

If you are just looking to shoot a family gathering or carrying your camera on vacation, if you are more interested in capturing the moment rather than having to dabble in post-processing, shoot in JPEG. It is still great quality, faster, and easier to work with. If you want to shoot to impress, read about white balance here, and use a custom WB to have your self proclaimed professional photographer friends scratching their heads at how you did it!