raw The road to
When you switch to capturing Raw files with your Canon, you unlock the door to better quality, control and images. Here’s our definitive guide to everything you need to know about Raw…
Raw files are often described as ‘digital negatives’ because they contain the information captured by the camera before it’s been processed into a JPEG. Each camera manufacturer uses its own Raw file format, and with Canon it’s either the CR2 format (existing DSLRS), or a newer CR3 format introduced with the EOS M50 and EOS R mirrorless cameras. This offers an additional ‘C-raw’ lossy compression format for smaller files. It’s like the difference between a film negative and a print you get back from a lab. With Raw, or CR2/3 files you can access the full range of tones, all the colours and all the digital data captured before it’s been ‘processed’.
JPEGS are fine for instant shareable pictures – and with undemanding scenes they can be decent – but if you need to work on your photos later, apply special effects or manipulate specific areas, then the cracks can start to show. If you edit a JPEG image, you’re re-processing a shot that’s been processed once already; when you edit a Raw file, however, you’re working directly with the photograph data captured by your camera.
Over the next few pages we’re going to explain exactly how Raw files work and what they enable you to do with your pictures. We’ll explain the practicalities of shooting Raw and how to use your camera differently.
But processing is also a big part of shooting Raw and an important phase if you’re really going to get the best from your camera. We’ll look at some of the key steps you can take to perfect your pictures, and also some of the key software tools for doing it. We tend to default to Adobe software for our image processing, but don’t overlook Canon Digital Photo Professional, which is a powerful Raw converter in its own right.
Indeed, although we talk about Raw files as being the ‘digital negative’, it might be more accurate to call them ‘undeveloped negatives’, because choosing your Raw processing software is just as important as choosing the right ‘developer’ back in the days of film. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started!