Question 6

Can you edit raw files?

ANSWER (C) Score 1 Sorry, there’s always at least one trick question in a good quiz – and here, the correct answer is (C)! It might look as if you’re editing a raw file when you work on it in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom, but in fact you’re only adjusting its on-screen appearance – the original raw file remains unaltered throughout. The big adjustments we’ve made to this image are simply processing instructions, ready for the time when we convert it into a regular image, such as a JPEG or a TIFF file. These processing instructions are saved alongside raw files as processing ‘metadata’ or ‘sidecar’ files. (Adobe uses .xmp files.) You can’t save an edited version of your raw file over the original.