It may seem like a lot of work, but this development process will always give you a better photo than you can generally get directly out of the camera as a JPEG file. It also gives you endless flexibility. You still have your RAW digital "negative", and you can always re-develop the picture in different ways if you need to.

Once you get comfortable with your workflow, you can get pretty adept at getting pictures ready for conversion, and you'll be truly thankful when that perfect moment you accidentally underexposed can be saved.

RAW converters
Any camera that can shoot in RAW will come with some type of viewer and conversion program. Examples include Canon's Digital Photo Pro shown in Figure C, EOS Viewer, and Nikon's NikonCapture.

FIGURE C

Canon's Digital Photo Pro 1.6.1 Click picture for a larger image.

Canon's software is free with the camera, while Nikon's program is free for a trial period and then $100 after that. If you want to shoot in RAW, make sure you research the software that comes with your camera. The right software may be an important factor on which camera you choose to purchase.

Alternatively, you can use one of the many third-party programs available for purchase or online download. Some notables include CaptureOne, Bibble, RawShooter Essentials, BreezeBrowser, DxO Optics Pro, and the Adobe Camera RAW plug-in for Photoshop. Programs vary widely in workflow, features and most importantly, price. There are some very good free or low cost programs that may fit your needs perfectly. Make sure to check out any free trials, as it will allow you to compare programs without shelling out your hard earned cash first.

One format to rule them all
As I stated earlier, pretty much every digital camera that allows you to shoot in RAW has its own proprietary RAW format. So for example, a RAW file from the Canon Digital Rebel is not the same as the RAW file format in the Canon 20D. This causes headaches for a myriad of reasons.

The first is compatibility. When a company releases a new digital camera, all of the RAW software converters have to be updated to support the new formats. This takes time and effort on the part of software developers. It can also be problematic for you. What happens when five years from now there are no programs that will process RAW files from your perfectly good camera? Are all of your old "negatives" suddenly useless?

Well, you could convert your RAW files to 16-bit TIFF as an archival solution, but Adobe hopes you'll start converting your RAW files to DNG, or Digital Negative format. DNG, seen in Figure D, was released by Adobe as an open, license-free RAW format they hope will be adopted as an industry standard for RAW archival.

FIGURE D

Adobe's DNG Converter. Click picture for a larger image.

The DNG converter supports most cameras available today, and is available free of charge from the Adobe Web site. Adobe hopes camera manufacturers will start building DNG support into their own software and possibly even cameras.

Obviously Adobe has something to gain by this, but I applaud their efforts anyway. A single RAW standard will do good things for the industry, and will keep software developers from having to add support for every camera that gets released. This should allow for more software functionality going forward.