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View Full Version : What's RAW?

DonONoel
October 14th, 2008, 03:18 PM
I've periodically been getting a notice than an update (4.5) to the RAW function is ready. I click OK, do it, and get a notice that RAW can't be found. Today i got a new notice that 4.6 was available; same result.
I take it RAW is a format like JPG, TIF etc, although I don't think I've used it. Should it be part of Elements 6.0?
dj_paige
October 14th, 2008, 03:59 PM
Depends on your camera. If you camera can be set to take raw photos, you might want to consider using raw, although many people are quite happy to shoot .jpgs. If your camera doesn't shoot raw, don't worry about it.

Turn off the auto-update feature, as that never works to update things. If you want the latest raw software from Adobe, go to the Adobe website and download it and install it. (Google: Adobe Camera Raw 4.6)
DonONoel
October 14th, 2008, 04:11 PM
That explains it. And by turning off Auto Update, to I risk not getting updates other than the RAW add-on that I haven't added on?
baycruisers
October 14th, 2008, 04:23 PM
RAW is the uncompressed, raw pixel data captured by your camera's sensor. Each manufacturer's RAW format is proprietary and therefore must be decoded by the software (ACR) before it can be processed in PSE or CS3. Every so often Adobe releases a new version of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) to accomodate new camera releases.

RAW requires more processing by the photographer, processing that is ordinarily done inside the camera after each exposure before the image is saved to a JPG (usually) file. ACR can also open and process JPG files. RAW files also have slightly more exposure latitude. Because they do not discard data, as JPG files do, you have more flexibility and editing options. All things considered, I think it's worth getting familiar with RAW and ACR once you get comfortable with your image processing software. On the other hand, some folks never use RAW and never miss it and are perfectly happy, so your mileage may vary.

Still, ACR is a must-have. It's free and very powerful.
Juergen D
October 14th, 2008, 05:19 PM
That explains it. And by turning off Auto Update, to I risk not getting updates other than the RAW add-on that I haven't added on?No worries, there are practically never any updates for a current version of PSE. Any updates and fixes come with the next version.
You can, of course, occasionally run the updater manually, just to be sure.

Juergen