{"id":81,"date":"2005-03-17T11:25:25","date_gmt":"2005-03-17T16:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/?p=81"},"modified":"2014-03-17T13:23:11","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T18:23:11","slug":"raw-files-a-digital-tower-of-babel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/?p=81","title":{"rendered":"RAW FILES – A DIGITAL “TOWER OF BABEL”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Eye
\nEye surgery. Canon 10D “RAW” file converted with Photoshop.
\nPhoto copyright (c) Jim Doty, Jr.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have a love-hate relationship with “RAW” digital camera files. I love the capabilities inherent in RAW capture, but processing the files is such a pain. Several things have happened, no thanks to the camera manufacturers, to improve the situation.<\/p>\n

to continue, click the page links at the right<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

If your digital camera can write files in RAW or Jpeg, I’ve covered the differences in the RAW vs JPEG<\/a> article at my primary photo website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first problem is that the software that camera manufacturers provide to convert RAW files is usually, slow, clunky, and inadequate. Many photographers have resorted to buying some kind of aftermarket conversion software. That is a step in the right direction but it shouldn’t be necessary. Fortunately, RAW conversion now is built into Adobe Photoshop CS and Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0. Bravo for Adobe!<\/p>\n

The second problem is that each brand of camera has its own version of RAW files. There is no guarantee that the RAW files you can read today will be readable 10 years from now. The proprietary format may change and current software may no longer be available to read your old RAW camera files. Mike Johnston calls this a digital “Tower of Babel”. Jpeg, psd (photoshop) or tiff file formats are virtually universal and will be readable long into the future. Not so with your camera’s RAW files.<\/p>\n

Once again, Adobe to the rescue with the new DNG file format<\/a>, which should, if manufacturers were at all sensible, become the new universal RAW file standard. Adobe provides the conversion software to change your camera brand RAW files into DNG files.<\/p>\n

But you shouldn’t need to go through all of this hassle. Cameras should write in the DNG file format to begin with. I was going to write about this, but Mike Johnston did just that and did it well. Mike gave me permission to reproduce the entire article on this blog. Thanks Mike.<\/p>\n

*** *** ***<\/p>\n

One Part of the Future is Now<\/em>
\nby Mike Johnston<\/p>\n

DNG stands for “Digital NeGative.” It’s a standardized RAW format.
\nUntil now, each of the manufacturers has had its own proprietary RAW
\nformat (“RAW” simply meaning direct capture, the state of the digital
\ndata before any processing is applied). What this means is that each
\nmanufacturer has to provide its own software for converting its own
\nproprietary RAW format.<\/p>\n

It also means that independent software must provide a whole array of
\nconversion capabilities in order to claim to be practical. Adobe
\nrecently added a program called “Adobe Camera Raw” (ACR) to Photoshop
\nCS and Photoshop Elements 3. ACR can convert RAW files from a number of
\ndifferent cameras (as can Phase One C1 and a few others). But,
\nobviously, it complicates matters a lot for the software developers
\nwhen they have to constantly work to add more cameras to their
\n“supported” list. Plus, there’s a delay between new cameras appearing
\nand independent RAW support appearing.<\/p>\n

What DNG promises to do is to make a universal RAW standard so that any
\nRAW file can be downloaded into any raw converter application, with no
\ncompatibility problems.<\/p>\n

Here’s a link to the Adobe page.
\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.adobe.com\/products\/dng\/main.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The next camera I buy, regardless of whether it’s a “digicam” or an
\nSLR, will be native DNG. As a general observer of the photography
\nscene, including the industry, the retail level, the profession, and
\nthe hobby, I think DNG is the single most crucial development in
\ndigital photography so far in this century. Well, maybe that’s
\nhyperbole. But, to my mind, it’s critically, critically important that
\nthe industry as a whole moves away from the “Tower of Babel” approach
\nin which we’re very rapidly getting mired.<\/p>\n

Adobe is simply the perfect company to lead the way to a standard.
\nAdobe controls the TIFF and PDF standards, and has done great things
\nfor the world’s technical culture by making those standards free and
\nopen. It has also, by those precedents, proven its trustworthiness with
\nregard to its motives. It may not be widely known yet, but Adobe has
\neven offered to turn over the DNG standard to an independent standards
\norganization if need be.<\/p>\n

DNG has far too many advantages for any of us to be anything but
\ntraitors to our love of photography if we fail to support it. (Possible
\nhyperbole alert again.) We will, on the one hand, reap numerous direct
\nrewards: just to list a few, new cameras will be immediately adaptable
\nto our existing workflows; software companies will be free to innovate;
\ncameras will be cheaper because camera manufacturers won’t have to do
\ndouble-duty as software developers; and pro cameras won’t have to waste
\nvaluable CPU power on processing \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they can simply be designed to
\ncreate small JPEGs for LCD display and rough editing, and otherwise
\njust shunt a DNG as quickly as possible directly to storage. And no,
\nyou can’t do that with proprietary raw standards because you can’t
\ncount on everybody being able to handle proprietary raw! If every
\nprogram made can handle DNG, on the other hand, it becomes possible.
\nFor consumers, DNG will mean the return of viable commercial photo
\nprocessing (even if it’s kiosks).<\/p>\n

The long-term indirect advantages are compelling, too. Greater
\naccessibility for files; more robust development of the standard;
\nimproved viability for smaller, less dominant camera makers; the list
\ngoes on.<\/p>\n

Personally, everything I shoot will be DNG from now on. And as I say, I
\nwill not be buying another digital camera that doesn’t write directly
\nto raw using DNG. I am even, as of now, throwing away the proprietary
\nraw files of my pictures, and keeping only the DNG files. Silly? Maybe.
\nCall it a “photopolitical commitment”…to the future.<\/p>\n

*** *** ***<\/p>\n

A shorter version of Mike’s article appears toward the bottom of this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Visit Mike’s website at The 37th Frame<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eye surgery. Canon 10D “RAW” file converted with Photoshop. Photo copyright (c) Jim Doty, Jr. I have a love-hate relationship with “RAW” digital camera files. I love the capabilities inherent in RAW capture, but processing the files is such a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-photo-storage-and-backup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5216,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/5216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}