A raw picture is an unprocessed picture captured with a digital camera. The raw file contains all the picture’s original image data captured by the camera sensor. Using image editing software, you can make alterations to the raw picture file, such as exposure, coloring, etc. Once these changes are made, you have the option to save it as a JPEG or another desired file extension.

Raw file extensions

A camera raw file could be saved as any of the following file extensions.

.3fr, .ari, .arw, .bay, .crw, .cr2 .cr3, .cap, .data, .dcs, .dcr, .dng, .drf, .eip, .erf, .fff, .gpr, .iiq, .k25, .kdc, .mdc, .mef, .mos, .mrw, .nef, .nrw, .obm, .orf, .pef, .ptx, .pxn, .r3d, .raf, .raw, .rwl, .rw2, .rwz, .sr2, .srf, .srw, .tif, .x3f

Photoshop RAW files

Raw pictures are completely unrelated to the Photoshop RAW file format (.RAW). Photoshop RAW is a proprietary format developed for the Adobe Photoshop image editor. RAW files are utilized when a user wants to read unencoded or uncompressed image data. In a .RAW file, there is no header information in the photo file. Only the pixels are shown, and must be recorded. If you don’t record the pixel information, you cannot recover the photo accurately. Unless you are confident in what you are doing, do not save a file in the RAW format.

Camera Raw Filter, Camera terms, Digital camera, File extension, Photoshop terms, Pixel, Sensor, Software

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