RAW photos

[David Quesnel]

Hi everyone,

I have never taken RAW photos but I was asked to take both JPEG and RAW so I did So. The JPEGs are great but the RAW photos are not. They look grainy and of poor quality. Is this normal pkease?

Thank you!

 

[Thomas B]

Be sure you’re looking at the actual RAW file. If so it may be the monitor screen or CPU/video card capabilities of your device. RAW images are 10x the size of jpeg.

 

[4wd]

It could be the lower resolution (JPG) thumbnail you are viewing, you need some kind of RAW editing software, a basic one which can view and crudely edit them is faststone image viewer.

 

[David Quesnel]

Yes, unlike JPGs you need to process raw files. Otherwise they're going to look flat.

Whether the juice is worth the squeeze is your call.

Thank you everybody. I am sure I am looking at the RAW files. My computer is a six month old HP with i5 processor. Hopefully that is goid enough. I will attach a sample shortly. Thanks again!

Be sure you’re looking at the actual RAW file. If so it may be the monitor screen or CPU/video card capabilities of your device. RAW images are 10x the size of jpeg.

 

[sar104]

Thank you everybody. I am sure I am looking at the RAW files. My computer is a six month old HP with i5 processor. Hopefully that is goid enough. I will attach a sample shortly. Thanks again!

I suspect that you are actually looking at the low-resolution JPEG image that is embedded in the RAW file so that photo editing programs that are not able to read RAW can show something. Your computer is not the problem - it's the editing program - what are you using?

 

[David Quesnel]

I suspect that you are actually looking at the low-resolution JPEG image that is embedded in the RAW file so that photo editing programs that are not able to read RAW can show something. Your computer is not the problem - it's the editing program - what are you using?

Thanks sar104. I am just opening the file from my sd card on my computer. Windows 10.

I have two images. One is the JPEG and the other is the raw I would think.

I just don't want to give these people an 8mage which is defective.

 

[anotherlab]

Thanks sar104. I am just opening the file from my sd card on my computer. Windows 10.

I have two images. One is the JPEG and the other is the raw I would think.

I just don't want to give these people an 8mage which is defective.

If they have asked for the raw file, then it's safe to assume that they have the software that can process it.

 

[sar104]

Thanks sar104. I am just opening the file from my sd card on my computer. Windows 10.

I have two images. One is the JPEG and the other is the raw I would think.

No - from your description, one is the full-resolution JPEG and the other is the low-resolution JPEG preview embedded in the RAW image.

 

[David Quesnel]

Well thank you everyone. You are a great, kind, community. I will give him the files and report back on the result.

Best wishes to you all, and thanks again.

David

 

[EricJT]

Well thank you everyone. You are a great, kind, community. I will give him the files and report back on the result.

Best wishes to you all, and thanks again.

David

What software program are you using to try and look at them? If the software viewer cannot handle RAW then, as Sar104 said, the image displayed will be a sample JPEG. Once you do open the RAW file it will need to be processed/edited in an applicable program like Adobe Lightroom otherwise it may look poor.

 

[dylanthecat]

Most people around here use JPG as an acronym and pronounce the word. Is it different in other areas?

 

[Harold Morgan]

I would like to suggest you try out the program "Air Magic". If you plan on doing a lot of RAW it will be well worth the investment. The free download should convince you. It is made specifically for drone footage. I use it myself. Be the first one to try AirMagic, the world’s first fully automated Drone Photos Enhancer.

 

[sar104]

FWIW it's raw, not RAW. While JPG/JPEG is an initialism, raw isn't.
Check the file extension. If it's .dng then it's the raw file. If it's .jpg... well, you know.

Firstly, RAW is commonly capitalized - that doesn't imply that it is an initialism.

Secondly, just to clarify, while checking that the file extension indicates a raw format guarantees that it contains the raw image data, it doesn't guarantee that the image presented by the software is the raw version - and that appeared to be the problem in this particular case.

 

[EricJT]

And it's commonly wrong. It's Raw, if it starts a sentence or raw. Raw image format - Wikipedia - you don't capitalise raw.

If he sends them the dng file then they're getting a raw image. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume they will know the difference between the JPG preview and that, right?

If he sends them the dng file, would you say that is a raw deal?

 

[sar104]

And it's commonly wrong. It's Raw, if it starts a sentence or raw. Raw image format - Wikipedia - you don't capitalise raw.

While I agree that it doesn't need to be capitalized, you can capitalize words as you wish - they don't need to be initialisms. It's neither grammatically incorrect nor technically incorrect.

If he sends them the dng file then they're getting a raw image. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume they will know the difference between the JPG preview and that, right?

Absolutely - I was just making sure to separate the issue of what is in the file from the original question regarding why it appeared to have low resolution when displayed.

 

[sar104]

If you want to randomly capitalise words then all the power to you. It doesn't matter if I think it's WRONG or not

/moving on now.

That's correct - it doesn't make it wrong.

 

[sar104]

I was being disingenuous - of course it is [orthographically] incorrect.

I'm generally pretty picky about style, grammar and spelling but I have no idea why you chose to start this argument. Capitalization is used for all kinds of reasons. RAW, as applied to raw image format, is probably capitalized in use more than it is not.

 

[EricJT]

I'm generally pretty picky about style, grammar and spelling but I have no idea why you chose to start this argument. Capitalization is used for all kinds of reasons. RAW, as applied to raw image format, is probably capitalized in use more than it is not.

We may have touched a raw nerve.....anyway, I have always capitalized RAW when it relates to digital photography to differentiate it as a noun as opposed to an adjective or adverb.

 

[sar104]

We may have touched a raw nerve.....anyway, I have always capitalized RAW when it relates to digital photography to differentiate it as a noun as opposed to an adjective or adverb.

That seems to be the most common reason for doing it.

 

[Harold Morgan]

That seems to be the most common reason for doing it.

That's why I did it originally. Wow, some people get so bent over such insignificant stuff.