Raw format

[Tony Gander]

In an article 'Understanding Digital Raw Capture' on Adobe's website I read the following: 'When you shoot raw, the only on-camera settings that have an effect on the captured pixels are the ISO speed, the shutter speed, and the aperture. Everything else is under your control when you convert the raw
file . . . . '
As a comparative newcomer to digital photography and a novice in regard to the raw format I would be grateful if someone could clarify and/or confirm this. When shooting raw I can forget the plethora of image-related settings on my Nikon D80 so long as the above three are properly set?

[Doug Nelson]

The raw format stores all the unprocessed info captured by the sensor (hence the "raw" name, it's not an acronym it's an adjective). Anything besides the actual exposure is applied post-capture, and not to the actual raw data, which is never touched by the camera or any software. White balance, color effects, etc., can all be non-destructively changed or added (or removed) later.

[Swampy]

Camera Raw is wonderful. Now in CS3 you can use CRW on TIFFS and JPGS to tone and color correct. In addition to fill flash, recover blacks and clarity, I love the control in the Luminance tab per 6 channels. Wonderful stuff.

[Damo77]

Don't forget - nothing is better than a well-taken photo. Yes, it's great that you can do all these things later, but don't rely on it.

[DaveSpanton]

There's a video lecture about raw files and formats here,

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=0