What exactly is happening to a Raw photo when it becomes a JPEG and what about Raw photos are so preferable for photo editing
In: 239
A RAW photo contains all the information collected by the camera sensor, before any processing decisions have been applied.
So this means a RAW image editor can more easily change things like the white balance and exposure levels of the image.
But RAW photos take up a lot of memory, so once you are happy with the image you can convert it into a much more lightweight JPEG image.
A RAW photo contains all the information collected by the camera sensor, before any processing decisions have been applied.
So this means a RAW image editor can more easily change things like the white balance and exposure levels of the image.
But RAW photos take up a lot of memory, so once you are happy with the image you can convert it into a much more lightweight JPEG image.
A RAW photo contains all the information collected by the camera sensor, before any processing decisions have been applied.
So this means a RAW image editor can more easily change things like the white balance and exposure levels of the image.
But RAW photos take up a lot of memory, so once you are happy with the image you can convert it into a much more lightweight JPEG image.
Nobody is trying to actually ELI5 so:
Imagine you make a painting. When it’s finally dry, you can see all the bumps from the paint! You can even count the brush marks. You can feel em. The color is juuuust right!
Now take a photo of that painting. It looks the same, but you can’t feel the bumps anymore. When you look very close, some of the colors aren’t the same anymore. The photo is flat. You’ve lost some of those very small details.
Good thing you have the (raw) original painting!
Nobody is trying to actually ELI5 so:
Imagine you make a painting. When it’s finally dry, you can see all the bumps from the paint! You can even count the brush marks. You can feel em. The color is juuuust right!
Now take a photo of that painting. It looks the same, but you can’t feel the bumps anymore. When you look very close, some of the colors aren’t the same anymore. The photo is flat. You’ve lost some of those very small details.
Good thing you have the (raw) original painting!
Nobody is trying to actually ELI5 so:
Imagine you make a painting. When it’s finally dry, you can see all the bumps from the paint! You can even count the brush marks. You can feel em. The color is juuuust right!
Now take a photo of that painting. It looks the same, but you can’t feel the bumps anymore. When you look very close, some of the colors aren’t the same anymore. The photo is flat. You’ve lost some of those very small details.
Good thing you have the (raw) original painting!
Barely anyone used an explanation that anybody non-photography related would understand.
Let’s compare it to a book. You have a 1000 page book and a 50 page summary of that book. The summary is the perfect balance between detail and length. It is detailed enough for you to understand the plot of the book, it mentions every character in it, but short enough that it doesn’t take multiple days of reading, due to cutting out details that might not be too relevant. This summary will be enough for most use cases, if you however want to look for a very specific conversation between character A and B from page 781 §2, it might not be there in the summary, and you have no chance of restoring this conversation through the summary.
Raw book = Heavier, more detailed
JPEG summary = smaller, less detailed
A raw photo is like a raw cooking ingredient: it isn’t enjoyable as it is, but it can become infinite kinds of other, more enjoyable things if you cook it properly.
* If you’re a pro chef, you will prefer raw ingredients because you have the skill and patience to turn them into something nice. This means more effort is required, but you get to make the meal exactly the way you like.
* If you’re a consumer, you just want to eat something nice without much effort. So you’ll prefer the ingredients to be cooked and prepared for you. This means you can’t choose how exactly the ingredients will be prepared, but you don’t mind.
* However, if as a consumer, you are given a cooked, prepared meal and want to alter it, you will find that pretty difficult because you can’t “uncook” it.
In technical terms, this means that a raw photo is unprocessed, it contains all the data that came out of the sensor. Like a block of marble before being sculpted. Once you process it, you remove information to shape it to your liking, like sculpting and carving the marble. It gets improved in the process, but it can also get ruined, and once these decisions are made, there’s no going back (you can’t turn a black and white JPEG back into a color photo).
Barely anyone used an explanation that anybody non-photography related would understand.
Let’s compare it to a book. You have a 1000 page book and a 50 page summary of that book. The summary is the perfect balance between detail and length. It is detailed enough for you to understand the plot of the book, it mentions every character in it, but short enough that it doesn’t take multiple days of reading, due to cutting out details that might not be too relevant. This summary will be enough for most use cases, if you however want to look for a very specific conversation between character A and B from page 781 §2, it might not be there in the summary, and you have no chance of restoring this conversation through the summary.
Raw book = Heavier, more detailed
JPEG summary = smaller, less detailed
Barely anyone used an explanation that anybody non-photography related would understand.
Let’s compare it to a book. You have a 1000 page book and a 50 page summary of that book. The summary is the perfect balance between detail and length. It is detailed enough for you to understand the plot of the book, it mentions every character in it, but short enough that it doesn’t take multiple days of reading, due to cutting out details that might not be too relevant. This summary will be enough for most use cases, if you however want to look for a very specific conversation between character A and B from page 781 §2, it might not be there in the summary, and you have no chance of restoring this conversation through the summary.
Raw book = Heavier, more detailed
JPEG summary = smaller, less detailed
Latest Answers