You’re engaged!!! YAY! So exciting, and a little overwhelming. There is so much
information online these days it can sometimes create unnecessary stress. You
have never been married and do not know where to begin to choose yours
wedding photographer. Wedding websites have put together lists of questions you
should ask, but honestly half the questions are not necessary. One question in
particular really confuses couples. Raw Photos.
What is a raw photo? Think of a raw file like a digital negative for film. You aren’t
going to hang them on yours wall. You do not have the tools to turn a digital negative into a print on your own. Raws work in a similar way, but for digital cameras.
Another way to think of it is as a baking ingredient. If you want to bake a cake you need flour, sugar, eggs, etc. All of those items mixed together would not be tasty. Now, in photo
terms you have your camera, lens and light to capture the uncompressed data.
Those are you “ingredients”. When you click your shutter those are your
ingredients mixed together, a raw file. It’s not until you put the cake in the oven
that it actually comes out delicious. For photographers, our editing software is our
oven. It’s not until we edit the photos and export them before they are done and
useable.
After the photographer loads the photos onto their computer they open a
special program to read the raw files. Raw files are very large, unlike photos
captured with your phone or jpeg images, and will only open with programs like
Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom, Photoshop, etc. These programs are designed
specifically for photographers and creatives to edit raw photos and more.
The simplest way to explain it is imagine an overcast, gloomy day. The colors
appears slightly muted, there is no contrast. Everything just seems
dull and flat. That is what a raw photo looks like. It isn’t until after we sprinkle a
little sunshine that the photo becomes vibrant and alive.