RAW format

RAW is the unprocessed sensor data from your camera. When you shoot JPEG, the camera applies sharpening, noise reduction, colour correction, and compression before saving the file — and throws away the data it didn’t use. When you shoot RAW, the camera records everything the sensor captured and saves it with minimal processing. You make the decisions later, in software.

Why RAW gives you more editing latitude

A RAW file from a modern camera typically contains 12–14 bits of data per colour channel. A JPEG contains 8 bits. At 12 bits, you have 4,096 possible values between black and white. At 8 bits, you have 256. That difference is most visible in the shadows and highlights — recovering a blown-out sky or lifting crushed shadows in RAW is often possible; in JPEG the data simply isn’t there.

When you increase exposure in Lightroom on a RAW file, you’re asking the software to interpret more of the captured photons as “brighter.” When you do the same on a JPEG, you’re stretching the 256 available values and generating visible banding and noise. The RAW recovers information; the JPEG approximates it.

RAW formats by manufacturer

Every camera manufacturer uses a proprietary RAW format:

Manufacturer	Format	Extension
Canon	CR2, CR3	`.cr2`, `.cr3`
Nikon	NEF	`.nef`
Sony	ARW	`.arw`
Fujifilm	RAF	`.raf`
Leica	DNG, RWL	`.dng`, `.rwl`
Panasonic	RW2	`.rw2`
Olympus / OM System	ORF	`.orf`

Most editing software (Lightroom, Capture One, DxO, Affinity Photo) supports all of these. Check compatibility before upgrading your camera — new camera models often require software updates before their RAW format is supported.

DNG: the open RAW alternative

Adobe’s Digital Negative (DNG) format is an open standard designed to be readable by any software, indefinitely. Some cameras (Leica, DJI, certain Ricoh/Pentax bodies) shoot DNG natively. You can also convert any proprietary RAW to DNG using Adobe’s free DNG Converter — useful for long-term archiving when you’re uncertain whether .cr3 or .arw files will be readable in 20 years.

What RAW editing software actually does

A RAW file is not an image — it’s data. To view it, software (Lightroom, Capture One, DxO, Affinity Photo) must “develop” it: demosaic the colour filter array, apply a base tone curve, add a colour profile, and render pixels. Different software applies this pipeline differently, which is why the same RAW file looks different in Lightroom vs Capture One vs DxO — they each make different default choices in the development pipeline.

This is why Capture One’s rendering of Fujifilm X-Trans files is considered superior to Lightroom’s — the demosaicing algorithm Phase One uses for Fujifilm’s unusual pixel array produces better detail at the same ISO.

Practical advice

Shoot RAW if: You print at A3 or larger. You edit in challenging light (golden hour, concerts, indoor without flash). You want to recover highlights from a blown-out sky. You want to change white balance after the fact without quality loss.

Shoot JPEG if: You need the smallest file size and fastest workflow. Your camera’s JPEG rendering (especially Fujifilm Film Simulations, Canon Picture Styles) is the look you want. You don’t edit photos at all.

Shoot RAW + JPEG if: You want fast-to-share JPEGs in the field and RAW originals for the shots worth editing properly.