Eachpixelisabletorecordtheinformationofoneofthe
channels,eitherR,GorB.Thedatafromeachpixelcannot
produce the colours independently, and must draw the
information recorded from all the red, green, and blue
values. The camera sensor will decipher all of this
informationandwithitproduceacolourimage,theRAW
file.
ThisRAWfilecannotbeprintedinitsoriginalformat,and
will most likely not resemble a correct final image. To
processthisRAWfilethephotographerwillneedtoutilize
a programme designed to see these larger and more
complexfiles.ThemostwidelyusedcurrentlyareCamera
RAWin AdobeBridgeorLightroom.Cameraswillalso
have their ownunique RAW software available to use;
however manymay not havethewide range ofoptions
available for the more creative forms of image
manipulation.
RAW files,correctlyexposed and straight from camera,
will generally look dark, flat and with little contrast,
sometimesnoisy,andhaveanappearanceofbeingunsharp
and with inconsistent colour balance, especially if the
photographer has been shooting in varying lighting
conditions.
Inthesamewaythatthefilmnegativewouldhaveneeded
developing and processing, theRAW file requires extra
manipulationandprocessingtomakeitprint-worthy.This
areaofskilltakestimeandknowledgetoexecutecorrectly;
goodcleanprocessingandmanipulationcanmakeorbreak
agoodimage.WhenusedtoitsfullpotentialtheRAWfile
is the tool of the true photographic craftsman.