Raw Digital Photography File Formats Information

1st Edition

Author: Edward Blake

This article explains raw digital photography formats and programming information.

Uses of Raw Digital Photography

Finer control over digital processing, etc.

What is Raw Digital Photography

Raw files concerned with photography are formats that tend to contain information that is closely tied with the state of camera's sensors, and different manufacturers have different formats for this. These formats are distinct from generic raw graphics formats in that the information is generally centered around a bayer pattern of cells prior to any DSP being applied to it instead of color channel values in some color space.

• http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-raw-files.shtml
• http://www.photo.net/learn/raw/

Programming Raw Digital Photography

For developers, there are some libraries available in various licenses to handle Raw camera data, which are listed below.

• Libraries\Source Code:
  
  • dcraw (for C\C++, cross platform, and supports a lot of cameras)
  • RawLib (for Java, supports several cameras)
• Formats:
  
  • Adobe Digital Negative (DNG)
  • Nikon (NEF)
  • Minolta (MRW)