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<ul class="navigation"><li class="prev"><a accesskey="p" class="prev" href="WSBD0EDB3C-9472-48d2-A3B1-7C06FABF0A2B.html" title="Introduction to Camera Raw"><img src="images/blank.gif" alt="Previous" width="17" height="17" /></a></li><li class="next"><a accesskey="n" class="next" href="WS2CB27D80-91BE-42ce-A0E7-2A908D6F2C8B.html" title="About Camera Raw"><img src="images/blank.gif" alt="Next" width="17" height="17" /></a></li></ul><div class="hierarchy" id="hierarchy"><a href="WSB5C0E258-66DE-4089-9CB0-42F396E2B814.html">Camera Raw</a> /
     <a href="WSBD0EDB3C-9472-48d2-A3B1-7C06FABF0A2B.html"><b>Introduction to Camera Raw</b></a> 
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                <h1>
                    About camera raw files
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                <div><p>A <dfn class="term">camera
raw</dfn> file contains unprocessed, uncompressed grayscale picture
data from a digital camera’s image sensor, along with information
about how the image was captured (metadata). Photoshop Camera Raw
software interprets the camera raw file, using information about
the camera and the image’s metadata to construct and process a color
image.</p>
<p>Think of a camera raw file as your photo negative. You can reprocess
the file at any time, achieving the results that you want by making
adjustments for white balance, tonal range, contrast, color saturation,
and sharpening. When you adjust a camera raw image, the original
camera raw data is preserved. Adjustments are stored as metadata
in an accompanying sidecar file, in a database, or in the file itself
(in the case of DNG format).</p>
<p>When you shoot JPEG files with your camera, the camera automatically
processes the JPEG file to enhance and compress the image. You generally
have little control over how this processing occurs. Shooting camera
raw images with your camera gives you greater control than shooting
JPEG images, because camera raw does not lock you into processing
done by your camera. You can still edit JPEG and TIFF images in
Camera Raw, but you will be editing pixels that were already processed
by the camera. Camera raw files always contain the original, unprocessed
pixels from the camera.</p>
<p>To shoot camera raw images, you must set your camera to save
files in its own camera raw file format. </p>
<div class="note"><span class="notetitle">Note:  </span>The Photoshop Raw format (.raw) is a file format for transferring
images between applications and computer platforms. Don’t confuse
Photoshop raw with camera raw file formats.</div>
<p>Digital cameras capture and store camera raw data with a linear
tone response curve (gamma&#160;1.0). Both film and the human
eye have a nonlinear, logarithmic response to light (gamma greater
than&#160;2). An unprocessed camera raw image viewed as a grayscale
image would seem very dark, because what appears twice as bright
to the photosensor and computer seems less than twice as bright
to the human eye. </p>
<p>For a list of supported cameras and for more information about
Camera Raw, see <a href="http://www.adobe.com/go/learn_ps_cameraraw" target="_blank">www.adobe.com/go/learn_ps_cameraraw</a>.</p>
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