Photoshop® CS5 Bible

Chapter 7. Camera Raw Basics

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Benefits of camera raw

• The Camera Raw workspace

• Setting preferences

• Creating snapshots

• Exporting RAW images

Many of the higher-end digital cameras support a file format that is commonly called camera raw. If your camera supports this format and you are serious about creating great photographs, you probably want to be shooting in camera raw.

Is camera raw really all that? Well, when you capture a picture in the standard JPEG format, the camera takes the image from the image sensor and processes it before saving it to your memory card. This reduces the file size, but it discards image information that could have been used to refine your photo.

The camera raw format, on the other hand, saves the unprocessed file, preserving all the image data, so you can process it manually later. It's like being able to process your own negatives, tweaking them to get the color and lighting just right.

This chapter introduces you to the camera raw format, explaining why camera raw is superior to JPEG and the advantages and disadvantages of using it. I also explain what a DNG file is and introduce you to the Camera Raw workspace, explaining the tools and showing you how to set preferences.

Benefits of Camera Raw—More Is Better

Camera raw formats have been around for a few years now, and many photographers won't shoot in anything else. The ability to use all the image data captured by the camera's sensors, which amounts to trillions of colors, is a heady feeling. The ...