52 DIGITAL CAMERA^ APRIL 2020 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
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How to unlock all that plentiful data in your raws for detail-rich images
here’s a reason why raws
are sometimes called ‘digital
negatives’. Like an old film
negative, a raw is a pristine
version of your photo as your
camera captured it. Impossible to save over
or accidentally crop, it’s an impenetrable data
file that can only ever be added to with other
tiny bits of ‘sidecar’ data. This extra data sits
alongside the original data, and defines how
the file should look when opened in Camera
Raw, Lightroom or your chosen raw editor.
This method of photo editing is sometimes
called ‘parametric editing’. Rather than
altering the pixels that make up the image,
you instead alter a set of parameters – savedin that tiny sidecar file – that affect how the
image is presented. The beauty of parametric
editing is that every single change you make
is completely non-destructive. You can tweak
a setting, change a crop or alter the look of
the image at any time. What’s more, you
can copy edits from one image to another- or an entire set – with ease.
Image editing is rarely a straightforward
journey from A to B. Raw brings creative
freedom to that journey, as you’re able
to try out different treatments or retrace
your steps whenever you choose. With
parametric editing, the journey can take
as many diversions as you like before
you settle on the destination.
T
Before
After
THINGS TO CONSIDER
When you edit a raw file in
Camera Raw, the changes
are saved as a tiny ‘.xmp’ file
alongside the original image.If you use Lightroom or another
catalogue-based raw editor, raw
edits are saved in the catalogue.Consider converting your
image to Adobe’s universal
DNG raw format. DNGs are
slightly smaller in file size
and don’t need sidecar files.