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By Root 1825 0

that I have been writing this series of books, the photography industry has changed out of all recognition. When I first began writing about Photoshop, most photographers were shooting with film cameras, getting their pictures scanned, and only a few professionals were shooting with high-end digital cameras. In the last few years the number of photographers who shoot digitally has grown to the point where it is the photographers who shoot film who are now in the minority. I therefore reckon that the vast majority of photographers reading this book will be working with pictures that have been shot using a digital SLR or high-end digital camera that is capable of capturing files in a raw format that can be read by Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop. This is why I have devoted a whole chapter (and more) to discussing Camera Raw image processing.

DNG file format

In the slipstream of every new technology there follows the inevitable chaos of lots of different new standards competing for supremacy. Nowhere is this more evident than in the world of digital imaging. In the last 15 years or so, we have seen many hundreds of digital cameras come and go along with other computer technologies such as Syquest disks and SCSI cables, and in that time I have probably encountered well over a hundred different raw format specifications. It would not be so bad if each camera manufacturer had adopted a raw format specification that could be applied to all the cameras they produced. Instead we have seen raw formats evolve and change with each new model that has been released and those changes have not always been for the better.

Whose data is it anyway?

If photographers think it is a good thing for the industry to move towards a standardized raw file format, then the DNG format deserves to succeed. It will also encourage other software manufacturers to support DNG and give the camera user even more choice. The only sticking point appears to be those camera manufacturers who have adopted a protective stance about the raw file processing. One gets the impression that there is a certain amount of irritation within some camera companies whenever outsiders have managed to ‘crack the code’ and successfully reverse engineered their proprietary raw file formats. One manufacturer once went so far as to devize a method of encryption that would defeat any attempts to make the file format more widely accessible. Photographer and Photoshop expert Jeff Schewe raised an important point here: ‘After I have taken a photograph and captured an image as a raw file, whose data is it? It's my damn data, and not anyone else's!’ Which neatly brings us back to the whole raison d’être of the DNG file format, which is to make raw shooting more accessible for all. The opportunity is there for everyone to gain. Photographers have a file format that will enable them to archive their raw captures with confidence for the future. If the camera manufacturers support the new DNG format they can make their customers happy too. The real choice is down to the consumers. They will decide which camera choice to make and support for DNG should be regarded as an important decision when making future purchases of camera equipment.

The biggest problem is that with so many types of raw format being developed, how reliable can any one raw format be for archiving your images? Twelve years ago, Adam Woolfitt and myself conducted a test report on a range of professional and semi- professional digital cameras. Wherever possible, we shot using raw mode. I still have the CD of master files, and if I want to access those images today, I am in some cases going to have to track down a computer running Mac OS 8.6 in order to load the camera manufacturer software that is required to read the data! If that is a problem now, what will the situation be like in 60 years' time?

It is the proprietary nature of all these formats that is the central issue here. At the moment, all the camera manufacturers appear to want to devize their own brand of raw format. As a result of this, if you need to access