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A Visual Explanation of RAW Files [Infographic]

November 28, 2012 9 Comments

Me: Should I shoot in RAW?

Everyone: Of course!

Me: Why?

Everyone: I don’t know…

A lot of people shoot in a RAW format but not everyone understands why they do. More importantly, those who shoot in JPEG don’t know what they are missing. Conceptually, the idea of a RAW file is not hard to understand. It’s simply an uncompressed version of the image and it will need to be processed by a computer in order to be used for most practical purposes. What exactly that means is often overlooked but it is worth spending a few minutes to learn about it. The definition is a bit technical, which is why I’m pulling from the excellent photography blog Cambridge in Colour:

The RAW file format is digital photography’s equivalent of a negative in film photography: it contains untouched, “raw” pixel information straight from the digital camera’s sensor. The RAW file format has yet to undergo demosaicing, and so it contains just one red, green, or blue value at each pixel location. Digital cameras normally “develop” this RAW file by converting it into a full color JPEG or TIFF image file, and then store the converted file in your memory card. Digital cameras have to make several interpretive decisions when they develop a RAW file, and so the RAW file format offers you more control over how the final JPEG or TIFF image is generated.

Read more here.

The infographic below goes into more detail and compares to the processing of both RAW and JPEG files. Which do you prefer? Let us know in the comments. Also, don’t forget to let us know your photography Pick of the Year on Google+.

RAW vs. JPEG Infographic

This infographic originally appeared on Visual.ly.

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About Jimmy Daly

Jimmy is a photographer and digital media editor in Washington, DC. Follow him on Google+ and Twitter.
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  • Alan Hale

    “Camera might apply noise reduction”. So if (say) long-exposure NR is switched on, is that applied to the RAW file?

    • http://www.jimmydaly.com/ Jimmy Daly

      Depends on the camera and the type of raw file. Nikon, for example, has been criticized for apply noise reduction to RAW files in camera: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_image_format#Processing

      • Jrsforums

        …but you are making a generic chart…

  • Todd Green

    My computer is much more powerful than the chip in my camera. So clearly, post RAW processes can be done better there, guided by my brain which is better than its algorithms. But for my mom, I still tell her to shoot in jpg. She won’t do the work anyway.

  • Victor Tribunsky

    With RAW file you have more opportunites to correct bad shot.

  • Prabawa

    I don’t mean to be a troll, but (we all know this is usually followed by some sort of trolling..) this is not a visual explanation, it’s a logical explanation presented through an image file. A visual information would depict, for example, the amount of data in an 8-bit JPEG file compared to the amount of data in a 14-bit RAW file. Visually, of course.

    And then there’s the case of the confusing legend. The color blue, white, and red is used in the diagram other than the designated legend. The (useless?) pictures along the “save as RAW” arrow are also in white-and-blue, and the “Camera saves xxx” are in red.

    This infographic might invite nods from the knowing photographers but would confuse those who don’t already understand the difference between RAW and JPEG.

  • Jrsforums

    In my opinion, all of your yellow/beige items are questionable…

    - how can you say camera may apply algorithm, without any facts
    - gain is usually only applied at higher iso, unless you are talking about standard amplification to get signal off the chip.
    - I know of no clipping of black point. Nikon might be accused of something similar in their treatment of he noise floor.
    - normally, no noise reduction is applied to raw file, except rumors, as noted above, about Nikon. Post processors at automatically apply some amount.

    I am not sure what you mean by negative destruction relative to raw file ( or tiff, for that matter). I could understand it for jpeg, but you already covered that with the compression item.

    I guess my net is….I am not sure the value or factual info in this graphic.

    John

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