Can GIMP handle RAW photos? How GIMP users can take advantage of RAW.Ĭan you use RAW files as a GIMP user? Yes.Ĭan you work with RAW files directly in GIMP? No. Because changes to RAW images are only stored in a side car file, you can go back and re-edit the original RAW file at any time without loss of image quality. In fact, if you delete the RAW Sidecar file, the RAW image will go back to its original state when you open it in the RAW editor, because there’s nothing to tell the RAW editor which settings should be applied. Even then, the original RAW file is still untouched. This file tells the RAW editing program what settings to apply every time you open the RAW file, but it doesn’t permanently apply the settings until you export the file to a format like JPG. Instead, the changes you make in a RAW editor (like UFRAW, Adobe Camera RAW, or RAWTherapee) are stored in a ‘side car’ file. The original RAW file itself is never really edited. You can go back to the original at any time. The best part is, these changes are non-destructive. You can change white balance after you take the picture to make colors more accurate, and you can adjust the exposure of the image really easily. Taking pictures in the RAW format opens up a lot of opportunities. What that means for you is that you can open that same photo in a RAW editor and literally change the white balance of the photo after you’ve taken it. But all of the information the camera had about the light hitting the sensor in that moment is in there too.
The RAW file also contains information about the settings in your camera when you took the photo, so when you open it in a RAW editor you can see the way the photo would look as you shot it. It’s literally the raw information about the light that your camera recorded with very little interpretation imposed. Hence, the gray blob.īut a RAW file is totally different. It just sees a group of black pixels that you want to make lighter. But if you’ve ever tried to brighten super dark shadows in a photo only to end up with an indistinct blob of gray, you know that those dumb pixels are missing a lot of critical information. If pixels in the shadow of your image are totally black, no amount of adjustment is going to bring details back because GIMP and Photoshop don’t know anything about what was actually in the shadow. Sure, you can use something like GIMP or Photoshop to adjust the pixels in your JPEG. It doesn’t contain any information about the way the light was hitting the sensor when you hit the shutter button. When your camera records a JPEG photo, the way your camera decided the light should be transformed into pixels is locked into that JPEG. Whether you chose a white balance setting like “daylight”, or “cloudy”, or let the camera guess the light by setting the white balance to “auto”, the camera will do its best to make everything the right color. Here’s an example: The white balance of a picture isn’t a matter of a physical transformation of light, but the the camera decides what color to render pixels in the photo based on its interpretation of the scene. Those physical limits are set in stone as soon as you snap the photo.īut, there are a lot of ways in which your camera interprets the light that hits its sensor that aren’t a matter of physical limitations. The shutter speed also limits the amount of light hitting the sensor, and effects whether moving objects blur or stay sharp.
The lens aperture limits the amount of light that hits the sensor and determines how much of the scene is in focus.
In some ways, the camera physically limits or transforms that light. When your digital camera takes a picture, it’s really just recording the light that hits its sensor. What’s RAW and why should I use it? How A Camera Records Light
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How to install RAW converters for Mac OSX and Windows.Can GIMP handle RAW photos? How GIMP users can take advantage of RAW.Skip to the sections you’re interested using these links, or read the whole post to take it all in. But if you just want to know how to work with RAW files as a GIMP user, this post will be helpful for you too.
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