Again this month, I walked by a pro photographer on a mission to convince everybody to use (Roger, you know who you are!)

Even though the story is rather simple and fast becoming simpler.

What’s a RAW file?

When a digital camera catches a photo it takes raw data from the image sensor. If it does not do much, it stores them in a RAW file (easy, eh?) If it tries to handle them, it will try an improve them, reduce their size reasonably and it will store them in a different file format (99.99% as JPEG format).

Except in specific cases (entry-level smart-phones), all cameras are able to store a RAW file (if you ask). All cameras will know how to give you a JPEG file.
Except in specific cases (e.g. Linux), all common Operating Systems (MacOS/OSX and Windows) are able to read RAW files as well as JPEG. But even on Linux, it’s easy to find cheap (or free) tools reading RAW Files.

Advantages of JPEG

Really! All! tools can use it.

Files are compressed: They are as small as reasonably possible, use as little memory space as possible on the memory card or on the hard drive.

Drawbacks of JPEG

Compression is at the origin of some issues more or less perceptible depending on the original image:

Advantages of RAW

A RAW file contains all the range of informations captured by the sensor. On the real photo cameras (not smartphones), there is often a wide margin because the sensor is much more sensitive than what is normally needed by the snapshot. But tis is exactly what is needed to “save” some pictures which came out over-exposed or grossly under-exposed, where a JPEG has already lost the important information.

You probably noticed that some picture taken inside a building can come out very yellowish or that some landscapes can appear quite blueish. It comes from the color management automatically applied by the camera on the JPEG photo. For a RAW file, the color management is always kept as an external option that you can modify or choose at the last minute if you are not 100% happy with the engineers choice. You can decide in RAW while a JPEG will forfeit your possibility of choice.

Drawbacks of RAW

RAW are bigger than JPEG files (roughly ten times). So, you can store less pictures on a given memory card, or on a given hard disk drive. But, let’s recognize than this is getting negligeable in front of the permanent progress of capacities/sizes (and the corresponding plumetting prices).

Recommendation from YLovePhoto

Most cameras allow you to store both formats at the same time. Do it!

Then, you will choose which one to use according to the application. I recommend to start working on the JPEG (after all, engineers worked their head off to cover most situations). But, in some few cases, you will be happy to use the RAW version.

• to save an over-exposed picture
• to refine the details of a large size print
• to correct color shift on a tough picture (inside building with complex lighting, high in the mountain, sunset)

You’ll get the most of both worlds at the only (minimal) cost of size. But looking at Amazon prices for memory cards…

Sources and information complements

• PetaPixel: Why you should shoot in RAW
• These Are the Advantages and Disadvantages Of Shooting Raw (LightStalking)
• The Online Photographer: JPEGophobia
• Should you shoot in RAW or JPEG? (DIY Photography)
• RAW Software: What is Available and What Should You Use? (LightStalking)
• A RAW Feast on the Linux Darktable (Photo Editor)
• Photoshop CS6 et le RAW par la pratique : comprendre les courbes

Roger Pimenta on Facebook.
Roger Pimenta’s side company RejectionMedia web site.

• Install digiKam 1.6 on Ubuntu 10.10
• RAW Magic In Digikam: Understanding RAW Photo Settings
• Process RAW Files in digiKam
• New Features in digiKam 2.0: Geolocation
• New Features in digiKam 2.0: Face Recognition
• Work with Photo Metadata in digiKam
• How to find duplicate images on Digikam
• Geotag Photographs with Open GPS Tracker and digiKam
• Sieve through Photographs with digiKam’s Light Table Tool
• Batch Process Photos in digiKam

But Digikam is not the only tool in Linux photographers life… Particularly, if you are looking for software programs to handle the RAW files from your digital photo camera, the choice is still quite large and diverse enough to have you fooling around for quite some time:

• Editing RAW Photos on Linux with Rawstudio 2.0
• Convert RAW Files to DNG with DNGConverter
• Process Raw Image Files for Free with RawTherapee
• Process RAW Files with Rawstudio

The most recent release of Capture One (version 6.3) now supports the new RAW files grnerated by the most recent Sony products using the huge 24 MP sensor:

• Sony Alpha 77
• Sony Alpha 65
• Sony NEX-7
• Sony NEX-5n

We should also list the support for the most recent Olympus:

• Olympus E-P3
• Olympus E-PL3

• Windows Explorer (thumbs and gallery)
• Windows Live Photo Gallery

The new Microsoft codec brings new compatibility with the following impressive list of cameras:

• Canon: EOS 1000D (EOS Kiss F in Japan and the EOS Rebel XS in North America), EOS 10D, EOS 1D Mk2, EOS 1D Mk3, EOS 1D Mk4, EOS 1D Mk2 N, EOS 1Ds Mk2, EOS 1Ds Mk3, EOS 20D, EOS 300D (the Kiss Digital in Japan and the Digital Rebel in North America) , EOS 30D, EOS 350D (the Canon EOS Kiss Digital N in Japan and EOS Digital Rebel XT in North America), EOS 400D (the Kiss Digital X in Japan and the Digital Rebel XTi in North America), EOS 40D, EOS 450D (EOS Kiss X2 in Japan and the EOS Rebel XSi in North America), EOS 500D (EOS Kiss X3 in Japan and the EOS Rebel T1i in North America), EOS 550D (EOS Kiss X4 in Japan, and as the EOS Rebel T2i in North America), EOS 50D, EOS 5D, EOS 5D Mk2, EOS 7D, EOS D30, EOS D60, G2, G3, G5, G6, G9, G10, G11, Pro1, S90
• Nikon: D100, D1H, D200, D2H, D2Hs, D2X, D2Xs, D3, D3s, D300, D3000, D300s, D3X, D40, D40x, D50, D5000, D60, D70, D700, D70s, D80, D90, P6000
• Sony: A100, A200, A230, A300, A330, A350, A380, A700, A850, A900, DSC-R1
• Olympus: C7070, C8080, E1, E10, E20, E3, E30, E300, E330, E400, E410, E420, E450, E500, E510, E520, E620, EP1
• Pentax (PEF formats only): K100D, K100D Super, K10D, K110D, K200D, K20D, K7, K-x, *ist D, *ist DL, *ist DS
• Leica: Digilux 3, D-LUX4, M8, M9
• Minolta: DiMage A1, DiMage A2, Maxxum 7D (Dynax 7D in Europe, α-7 Digital in Japan)
• Epson: RD1
• Panasonic: G1, GH1, GF1, LX3

If you want to download immediately the English version of the codec pack, just go to the special Microsoft download web site: Microsoft Camera Codec Pack (16.0.0652.0621).

• address compatibility with the iLife Media Browser
• improve reliability when upgrading existing Aperture libraries
• address issues with publishing photos to MobileMe, Facebook and Flickr

It should be complemented with the new update to Digital Camera RAW which adds RAW image compatibility for the following cameras to Aperture 3 and iPhoto ’11:

• Canon PowerShot G12
• Leica D-Lux 5
• Leica V-Lux 2
• Nikon D7000
• Nikon COOLPIX P7000
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2

Eiffel Tower, by night – Copyright (C) Yves Roumazeilles

Now, I would like to underline the quality of a full series of posts, published by Patrick Moll on Alpha Numérique, and dedicated to comparing as precisely as possible the various offers now on the market to develop and improve as much as possible the pictures that -sometimes- we must shoot using very high levels of ISO sensitivity (with the troubling levels of digital noise that come with big ISO levels).

The list of the software programs taken into account is quite respectable:

• Image Data Converter 3
• Lightroom 3 / Camera Raw 6
• DxO Optics Pro 6
• Aperture 3
• Bibble Pro 5
• Capture One Pro 5
• ACDSee Pro 3
• Silkypix 4
• Lightzone 3
• Raw Developer 1 (dcraw)

Not bad, eh!

Even if the comparisons done here are not only for Sony photo cameras, Patrick Moll applied its tests to a quite appreciable list of cameras too:

• A100
• A550
• A700
• A900
• A330 (not ready yet when I published this post)

Even if you are not reading French, I highly recommend checking these (most of the posts are made of image comparisons using the yellow buttons to select the software program results you want to see). Even if you are equipped with Pentax, Canon or Nikon gear, the lessons you will draw from this are applicable on all the photo camera brands, concerning strengths and weaknesses of each of these software tools.

To understand the review process and the methodology, I would recommend the reading of (here, all in French):

• Introduction
• Réduction du bruit et accentuation

With the tests, body by body, you will immediately recognize the excellent results of Lightroom 3/Camera Raw 6 (these two Adobe software programs share a single common RAW file management core). Just behind, comes DxO Optics Pro 6 which is a bit more violent (or more accentuation prone) and the (not famous enough) Bibble Pro 5.

From this point, you will always be able to get the best from the photos you were forced into shooting in poor lighting conditions which required big ISO figures.

For those of you who appreciate to be able to massage their photos from RAW format files, the excellent RAW conversion utility software, Bibble 5 Pro, goes to version 3, for now as a public preview (so, not officially supported but very near to the final version) bringing us:

• Support for 50 new photo cameras
• Improvements in the printing modes
• Improvements in the selective edition modes
• Better automation

Compatible with Linux Fedora Core 6 or later, Ubuntu 6.06 or later , Mac OSX 10.4 or greater, as well as Windows 7, Vista and XP.

Bibble 5 Pro preview.

The solution? GTKRawGallery is an open source photo manager and camera RAW files processor written in Python for Linux O.S. It is providing all the basic features of an Adobe Camera Raw, and then some. Actually, it is really a image file viewer (like Adobe Bridge) integrating the RAW management/development ability. Unusually well-balanced and totally recommended for all Linux-based photographers (I should also think that it would be a good solution for those whishing to use an ultra-portable notebook running under Linux OS, but I did not try this by myself).