OpenRAW, Bill Biggart
Today I have two photographic topics again. OpenRAW is an initiative that lobbies for open documentation of so-called RAW file formats for digital photos. In a nutshell, RAW is different from other formats such as JPEG or TIFF which represent fully “developed” pictures, so to speak, and which can be processed only minimally after taking the picture. RAW files, on the other hand, merely store the “raw” image information seen by the camera sensor and allow for post-processing modification of all parameters which can be changed in the camera (and sometimes even more than those). For instance, this lets you change the so-called color temperature of the lighting without sacrificing image quality. Also, RAW files offer a higher dynamic range, that is, more tonal values, which equates to more headroom for brightness and contrast changes. Two examples (the left half of each image is uncorrected, the right half corrected):
This is why I now shoot exclusively in RAW. The problem with RAW is that there is no standard as with JPEG or TIFF. Every camera manufacturer has their own, sometimes partially secret format, which may even differ across camera models. In a sense, photographers lose their power over and ownership in their pictures since they are dependent on software from specific vendors in order to view and edit their images. In the long term, looking at several decades, this is a dangerous dependency and limitation. Classic negatives, slides and paper prints do have their advantages …
The following story made me think, completely transcending all those technical discussions we may have. Bill Biggart was a photo journalist who stepped into the events around the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. When the second tower crumbled, he lost his life in the rubble, but his camera was found and his last pictures survived. More about this on the good but sometimes shocking website digitaljournalist.org.