What is the difference between RAW image Capture and JPG image Capture? And why should I care?

[anon(7901790)]

Thanks! I'm running WP8.1 DP so I gave Rawer a try. It seems to work decently. My daughter and I are going camping out in Waimanalo this weekend, so that will be a good chance to give it a good try.

Edit: The camping trip was postponed due to a hurricane. So first week of December we're heading out. As long as God doesn't decide to throw another hurricane at us again...

 

[Kasey Pierce]

Could you recommend any good photo editing applications for my PC? I know of Light room and Adobe of course, but i don't want to pay a zillion dollars to edit a few photos. Know of any?

 

[drewman77]

It doesn't have to cost a zillion dollars.

You can get a subscription to Lightroom/Photoshop for $10 a month. For my purposes, that is a steal. For others, it would be a waste of money.

https://creative.adobe.com/plans/photography

But if you want free there is Able RAWer

Free RAW editor. Free RAW corrector. Free RAW converter.

 

[Ed Boland]

Great post by the OP! Should be a sticky in the photography section of the forums.

 

[DavidinCT]

Here is a little tool that I found where you can view thumbnails on RAW files in Windows 7 X64 (not sure about 8)

It's free too

Visual Bakery - Ollis Photo Tools

 

[JamesPTao]

Raw is literally the raw sensor data. Raw files are archiveable, in that they don't degrade over time with multiple move copies (think back up) like jpgs do. They give much more leverage in editing when compared to jpgs. Also when you edit a raw the raw remains untouched the edits are saved as notes and shown on the thumbnail. Allowing you to go back and forth. And no matter what you do the original file is always there. Jpg is a compressed raw usually altered by the algorithms of the camera depending on the settings. Think jpg for output and raw as the negatives to store.

 

[Airlid]

Raw is literally the raw sensor data. Raw files are archiveable, in that they don't degrade over time with multiple move copies (think back up) like jpgs do. They give much more leverage in editing when compared to jpgs. Also when you edit a raw the raw remains untouched the edits are saved as notes and shown on the thumbnail. Allowing you to go back and forth. And no matter what you do the original file is always there. Jpg is a compressed raw usually altered by the algorithms of the camera depending on the settings. Think jpg for output and raw as the negatives to store.

Are you saying that each time you move a jpeg file that it is decompressed, copied and then re-compressed at the new location?

 

[Ed Boland]

I'm pretty sure that if you copied a jpg file (in it's compressed form) from one directory to another (or moved it) without actually opening it (decompressing), the copy should be exactly the same as the original. Yes, when you open one, and then save it again, it recompresses the image, and thus degradation occurs. Correct me please, if I am wrong.

 

[Ed Boland]

Are you saying that each time you move a jpeg file that it is decompressed, copied and then re-compressed at the new location?

Negative

 

[Airlid]

Then the previous statement about loss is false.

 

[drewman77]

Just copying files from one location to another does not change the content of the file. JPEGs won't degrade by just moving them around.

Opening up a JPEG, editing it and then resaving it as a new JPEG will compress it again introducing changes which could lead to artifacts that lower image quality.

But, if you open up a RAW image, and edit it and then re-open it, edit again, and save again, you don't lose image quality because you don't actually edit the RAW image itself.

Instead you have the original RAW image plus all of the adjustments which are saved as a sidecar file or inside the file in the case of the DNG. Whenever you re-open the file, the program you are using pulls up the RAW image and then paints all of your adjustments over it in realtime.

 

[JamesPTao]

Then the previous statement about loss is false.

When you copy it over and over again such as in doing backups it does degrade. Slowly but over time it will degrade the image

 

[arbyjr]

With a plan jpg image, if I open that in PhotoShop and edit it for hours, then save as a copy or as a different file altogether. Then when closing the original image, I close the original with out saving, The original jpg file will remain unaltered and there will be no image degradation at all to the original file...

also, just moving a jpg file from one location to another will not degrade said file.

 

[Ed Boland]

When you copy it over and over again such as in doing backups it does degrade. Slowly but over time it will degrade the image

Copying over and over again, and doing a backup are two completely different things. A copy is just that.. a copy. The exact same binary data.. Nothing has changed = no image degradation.

A backup, by most common methods, use some sort of compression, like a Zip file does. Binary data has changed = possible image degradation, yes.

But there's no "copying over and over, such as a backup" - two different things...

 

[Kevin Rush]

Thank you.

 

[Ed Boland]

The ONLY exception would be that if you were copying a file from a non compressed drive or folder, to a compressed drive or folder in certain file systems. (Fat32, NTFS, etc) Where the copied file would take on the target (destination) drive/folder's compression attributes as explained here:

Effects of Compression on Moving and Copying Files

 

[etphoto]

Could you recommend any good photo editing applications for my PC? I know of Light room and Adobe of course, but i don't want to pay a zillion dollars to edit a few photos. Know of any?

Yes, I can. ACDsee is a great, inexpensive program that has been around for years. I use it all the time and is a very good photo management program. ACDsee does just about everything including simple editing (although I will admit I rarely use it for editing). I use it as part of my workflow and it always open on one of my monitors no matter what image task I am involved in at the moment.

http://Www.acdsee.com

 

[JamesPTao]

Adobe PhotoShop elements is a good mix of lightroom and PhotoShop for much cheaper.

 

[anon(7901790)]

Could you recommend any good photo editing applications for my PC? I know of Light room and Adobe of course, but i don't want to pay a zillion dollars to edit a few photos. Know of any?

Here is a list of free RAW processing apps.

Free RAW Editing Software | PhotoLuminary