iPhoto does an excellent job of breaking digital photography's chain of pain -- that is, as long as the independent links are JPEG, TIFF, Photoshop, PNG, or a handful of other formats. But RAW files are tugging at our easygoing workflow. As you probably know, iPhoto doesn't support RAW files, at least not directly. So at first glance, it appears that the pain is returning once again.
Fun-loving shooters everywhere need not worry. By definition, RAW files are unprocessed images. To manage them, you simply need to add a few easy steps to your existing workflow to keep misery at bay. And I'm going to show you how to do that today.
These techniques are not for high-volume professional environments (where pain is an inevitable side effect of production cycles and deadlines). Rather, these steps are designed to get the serious hobbyist's feet wet with RAW without destroying his or her comfortable workflow -- all while staying within a reasonable budget.
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Not all cameras can capture images using the RAW format. Normally, you'll find RAW offered on advanced amateur and pro models. You can check your camera by going to its menu of options and seeing if RAW is listed along with the various JPEG selections under Image Resolution.
RAW is not a standardized format (and oddly enough, RAW doesn't even stand for anything). Each camera manufacturer offers their own version of it, and they even give it a unique extension. Canon denotes RAW files as CRW, Nikon calls them NEF, Olympus refers to them as ORF, Fuji labels them as RAF, and so on down the line. This creates a tricky situation for developers trying to support this functionality in their software packages.
While I was researching this article, I contacted Thorsten Lemke, who is the creator of Graphic Converter. I had a few questions for him about GC's support of RAW files. During the exchange, he remarked:
"The RAW format presents some difficulties for the independent developer such as myself. Each manufacturer has its own version, and none of them publish much in the way of the format details. I spend a lot of time guessing what's in there."
One thing that all of these files do have in common is that they're essentially unprocessed images until you load them into your computer and do something to them. Unlike JPEGs, where your camera settings are applied to the image data in-camera, RAW files enable you to fine-tune characteristics, such as white balance, later on the Mac, and without image degradation penalties.
This is both the great advantage and disadvantage to RAW. As a photographer, you don't have to select the perfect white balance setting when you make the exposure, because you can adjust the white balance any way you want later, while looking at an enlargement on your laptop. So why not leave your camera set on auto white balance when shooting RAW? Your images will be in the ball park, and if you need more correction, do it later on the computer. The bad news is, you can't just connect your camera, upload the day's shoot into iPhoto, and enjoy your images right away. You have to add another step or two. Of course for some people, this kind image manipulation is the fun part!
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In fact, many photographers will insist that you shoot RAW all of the time. I don't quite see it that way. To me, that's like saying, "Shoot print film all the time and never use slides."
But if your camera does have RAW capability, I recommend that you peruse this article and become familiar the basic ins and outs. There are times when RAW is the smart way to go: in tricky lighting conditions, or when you need to squeeze every drop of quality out of your camera. Here's a handy reference table that provides you with a few pros and cons of RAW and JPEG.
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I'm working with Canon cameras for this article, and will use the PowerShot G2, Digital Rebel, and EOS 10D as my examples for RAW image capture options. Nikon, Olympus, Fuji, Contax, Kodak and others also provide excellent models with their support for their versions of RAW. So even if you're not shooting Canon, this discussion will help you understand what your existing camera may have to offer, and what you might want to look for in your next purchase.
Canon EOS 10D: Of the three models listed above, the Canon 10D provides the most flexibility for RAW capture. The image quality is outstanding, and it enables you to embed a JPEG within each RAW file. As you will see later, this accelerates the workflow considerably. Plus, under the Custom Menu option, you can even select the quality setting for the embedded JPEG. I really like this option and use the highest quality settings for my embedded images.
Canon Digital Rebel: Rebel owners will be happy to read that this affordable digital SLR handles RAW files quite well, and provides outstanding quality. The Rebel also embeds a JPEG within the RAW file. The only limitation is that you don't have a Custom Menu option to set the JPEG's quality or resolution. Canon has preset these controls around "medium."
Canon PowerShot G2: I included this camera for those who own older models but are still interested in this workflow. The G2 captures RAW, but doesn't embed a JPEG. This definitely adds time to the management of these files. Plus the G2's RAW files aren't quite as spectacular as those produced by the Rebel and 10D. Of course, the G2 has a four-megapixel sensor using older technology.
The main thing I want to point out here is that the embedded JPEG option provides you with much-needed flexibility when working with RAW files. You'll see why later when I outline the actual workflow. The more I work with RAW files, the more important I think it is to have embedded JPEGs, and ideally, the ability to set options for them. The other thing I'd pay close attention to is the bundled software for managing RAW files. Make sure it's workable. To put things in context, here's an overview of some of the options available on Mac OS X, in addition to the software that comes with your camera.
Since I'm not gearing this article for the professional shooter who may use RAW much more often than hobbyists, the actual techniques I outline use software that keeps the price down for managing these files. That being said, I'm also listing a few high-end offerings, just in case you already own them or do have the budget to add them to your workflow. Here are some of my favorite applications for Mac OS X for managing RAW files.
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Photoshop CS with Camera RAW Plug-in 2.2: Adobe has done a great job of incorporating RAW file management within the Photoshop workflow. You can look at an entire folder of RAW images with the File Browser, review all of the metadata, open a file and edit it with the Camera RAW plug-in, and save it to any format that's available in Photoshop. Outstanding software for these tasks. $649 (upgrade $169).
Extensis Portfolio 6.1.2: The current version of Portfolio is built from the ground up for Mac OS X and helps you manage your digital images via folder monitoring, database management, thumbnail previews, and streamlined cataloging. The current version supports RAW for selected cameras from Nikon, Olympus, Kodak, and Canon. Portfolio is robust and very professional. $199.
iView MediaPro 2.0.3: This venerable Mac app (now available for Windows, too) also enables the browsing of RAW files and includes some nice image-editing tools. The processed RAWs I produced with iView looked great. This app also provides excellent digital shoebox capability. And unlike iPhoto, iView lets you store your QuickTime files right alongside your JPEGs. Robust and professional. $160.
iPhoto 4.0.1: Even though you can't import RAW files directly with iPhoto, it complements your bundled RAW editor (every camera that offers RAW includes software to edit the files), or works nicely with Graphic Converter or Photoshop. The advantage to iPhoto is that it's convenient for how you shoot most of the time, and can adapt to handling RAW files, too (as I'll explain in a minute). I think iPhoto has some of the best output options, including direct uploading to .Mac web sites, exporting to QuickTime, online print ordering, and easy hard-bound book production. Included in the iLife suite. $49.
Graphic Converter 5.1: I'm impressed with the sheer variety of file types that GC can handle (it can import images in 175 formats), and the great selection of tools included. You can open and edit RAW files, and then save copies to just about any image format on the planet. You need to tweak the preferences to get the best results. Plus, Graphic Converter is optimized for Mac OS X and is AppleScriptable. It's an affordable, versatile editor for all formats, including RAW. $30 (for download version).
Canon File Viewer Utility 1.3.2 (Example of bundled software. Olympus, Nikon and others offer similar apps): The File Viewer allows you to view RAW thumbnails, process the images, and extract embedded JPEGs. One of the things I find handy about this app is that it lets me batch-extract JPEGs from a folder of RAW images. This really speeds up the workflow for RAWs. It isn't beautiful, but it's free, and it does work.
dcRAW-X 1.5.3: A shareware batch converter that Mac OS X photographers can use to post-process digital pictures shot in RAW format. Its interface is simple: you drag the RAW files to the open window and click the Convert button. dcRAW-X can process RAW files from a variety of cameras made by Canon, Nikon, Casio, Contax, Olympus, Pentax, Minolta, Fuji, Kodak, Rollei, Sony, and Sigma. It's simple to use and is efficient. $15.
Even though I really like high-end apps such as Photoshop CS and iView MediaPro, I'm going to now focus on using bundled software, Graphic Converter, and iPhoto for the rest of this article. The idea is how to add RAW files to your existing iPhoto workflow, and the most cost effective way to do so.
Again, this is not a procedure that Sports Illustrated photographers would use who manage thousands of RAWs. Rather this is for the predominately JPEG-based photographer who likes to shoot RAW in certain situations.
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As iPhoto users, we're quite spoiled when it comes to workflow. We take pictures, upload to iPhoto, play with them to our heart's content, and back them up to optical media. Pretty sweet.
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We now need to add a few steps in order to incorporate RAW into this flow. First, if you're shooting with a camera that provides settings options for embedded JPEGs, I recommend that you record those JPEGs at the highest quality available. It doesn't add that much more data to the overall file size (RAW files are huge to begin with), but it does give you lots of output flexibility up the road.
When I connect my camera that's full of RAW files, or insert the memory card into the card reader, iPhoto springs to life thinking that I have new pictures for it. I don't. At least not for the moment, so I minimize iPhoto. I'll get back to it later.
Instead, I copy the files from the memory card to my Mac's hard drive. Then I open the Canon File Viewer Utility (or the comparable bundled software that came with the camera, if I were shooting with another brand), and navigate to the folder that contains the newly uploaded RAW files. They are viewable as thumbnails.
Once I see that everything is there, I usually return to the Finder and create a new folder titled something like, MyPhotoShoot Converted RAWs. This will be the destination folder for the JPEGs that I extract from the RAW files. I then return to File Viewer, select all of the thumbnails, and go to File -> Save File -> Extract and Save JPEG.
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I tell File Viewer to save all of those extracted images in the specified folder, and I don't modify their file names. I want to be able to correlate my extracted JPEGs with the original RAW files.
Now I return to iPhoto and drag the folder of extracted JPEGs into the Album pane of iPhoto (far left). iPhoto will import my images and create an album by the same name of their folder. I can now either discard those extracted JPEGs, or archive them. But I'm careful not to trash my original RAW files! I keep those safe and sound. In fact, now would be a good time for me to archive them on optical media or a second FireWire drive. I'll get back to them in a bit.
It's time to go back to iPhoto and review the embedded JPEGs I just imported. How do they look? Eh, not too bad. I like to assign ratings to the images via the slideshow so I can mark the winners in the batch. Sometimes I run a few test prints, export to web pages, make QuickTime movies, or just stare at them with great pleasure. Photos are fun, aren't they? For the most part, these images are just like the high quality JPEGs I normally capture with my digital camera -- with an exception or two.
The biggest difference I notice is that some metadata is missing or incorrect from these embedded JPEGs. On the 10D, much of the exposure information was stripped out. The embedded JPEGs from the Rebel suffered the same fate.
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Of course, I still have all of the metadata available in the original RAW files. And I noticed that when I actually processed an original RAW file and saved it as a JPEG or TIFF with Canon File Viewer, much more metadata was retained. To keep the most metadata during conversion, however, I had to use Photoshop CS with Camera Raw 2.2. I had problems retaining metadata with export from iView and Graphic Converter. So if metadata is important to you for your exported images, be sure to test the RAW conversion applications you have available.
Aside from the partial loss of metadata during extraction, I was very pleased with the quality of the embedded JPEGs, especially from the Canon 10D, where I had control over the size and the quality setting. Set at the highest quality setting, I got embedded JPEGs (3072 by 2048) ranging from 1.5MB to 3.8MB, depending on how much fine detail was in the shot. With the Rebel, where I had no control over quality settings, files typically ran between 650KB and 750KB for embedded images at 2048 by 1360 resolution.
How Big is Big?When I say that RAW files fill up your camera's memory cards and computer's hard drives faster, I'm not kidding. Here is some file data for a RAW portrait I shot.
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To put things into print perspective, you can make a decent 8 by 10 inch print from the Rebel's embedded JPEGs, and a whopping 14 by 20 inch enlargement from the Canon 10D's embedded images. Chances are you will be working with the original RAW file for creating these enlargements -- that's why you have it in the first place! But this does help us understand the character of the embedded JPEGs with these two cameras. By the way: the original RAW files from these cameras are about 18MB when saved as TIFFs.
Which brings us back to the actual workflow. The idea here is to have the embedded JPEGs with the same file numbers as the original RAWs, neatly organized in iPhoto. Chances are these embedded images will satisfy most of your photo needs. When you need the highest quality for print output, refer to the file number of the embedded JPEG, and then open the original RAW file in your processor of choice.
This implies that you have all of your RAWs safely tucked away on a hard drive (and hopefully) archived on optical media, too). These are your master negatives! Take good care of them.
Once I've finished processing my favorite RAW files, I often export them to a lossless format, such as TIFF, or as a Photoshop file. That way, I can maintain the highest quality through the entire production process of the image. Typically, I only process a handful of RAWs from an entire shoot -- just my very favorites. For everything else, I work with the JPEGs neatly organized in iPhoto.
After I've made prints from my processed RAWs (probably saved as TIFFs), I store those TIFFs in iPhoto in a special album of processed RAW files. (This would be in addition to the master RAW image I have archived on optical media.)
By keeping my processed TIFFs in iPhoto, they are easily retrieved for additional printing or viewing on large monitors. The quality of these files can be absolutely amazing.
So to recap, here is the basic workflow I'm describing:
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To be honest, this workflow bogs down a bit with older cameras that do not support embedded JPEGs. For example, with the Canon G2, I had to actually process all of the RAW files (in File Viewer Utility) to convert copies of them to JPEGs to add to iPhoto. I could do this en masse by selecting all of the thumbnails, then choosing "Convert and save in file..." in File Viewer, but the processing time was pretty long, even with my 1.33GHz G4 PowerBook.
Plus, after looking at the beautiful RAW conversions from the 10D and Digital Rebel, I found the RAWs from the G2 a little disappointing. They were still good images, just not as stellar as from the cameras with more modern electronics.
Generally speaking, I don't think working with RAW is practical with cameras that don't embed JPEGs. at least not for me. I recommend that either you invest in a new camera, or spend some money on more sophisticated software that enables you to browse and process RAWs without having to change applications. iView Media Pro is a good option at $160.
I am by no means a RAW fanatic. But I do appreciate the potential beauty and quality that this format can produce, especially with modern digital SLRs. And I think that we're just seeing the dawn of what's possible. For example, Sigma's SD 9 and SD 10 DSLRs support RAW using a Foveon X3 direct image sensor. Photoshop CS Camera RAW plugin 2.2 can process these files producing stunning image quality. And by no means is Canon, Nikon, Kodak, Fuji, Olympus, and others going to sit on their hands while these technologies move forward. It's a great time to be a photographer.
The RAW workflow I've outlined here is for those of you who like iPhoto and want to continue using it as your digital shoebox. You may be wondering, "Well, since Canon File Viewer Utility displays thumbnails, why not just work in it and forget iPhoto?" There are lots of reasons, speed being the primary one. Enlarging, rotating, and managing JPEGs in iPhoto is much faster than doing the same with RAWs in File Viewer, and that's with a fast computer. The few minutes you spend extracted the embedded JPEGs and dragging them into iPhoto will come back to you many times over in time savings. Not to mention all of the fun things you can do with the pictures once they're in iPhoto.
As you experiment with the RAW format, you may decide that you want to shoot in it more often -- be prepared to buy more storage cards, hard drive space, and a faster computer. But the control this format provides may be worth the extra expense for you. In that case, you probably should also look at some of the more robust software options.
In the meantime, I think these techniques will get your feet wet. For many of you, they might be all you need to shoot, manage, and display the RAW images you capture when quality and control are the overriding factors. I recommend that you give this format a try.
Derrick Story is the digital media evangelist for O'Reilly. His current book is The Digital Photography Companion. You can follow him on Twitter or visit www.thedigitalstory.com.
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