RAW Image Format

Rawesak Tanawongsuwan
ccrtw@mahidol.ac.th
A RAW File

A record of the data captured by the
camera sensor

Unprocessed sensor data
RAW image file
File extension: .raf (Fuji)
.crw .cr2 (Canon)
.kdc .dcr (Kodak)
.mrw (Minolta)
.nef (Nikon)
.orf (Olympus)
.dng (Adobe)
.ptx .pef (Pentax)
.arw .srf (Sony)
.x3f (Sigma)
.erf (Epson)
Digital Camera

Most digital cameras sample an image with
red, green and blue sensors arranged in a
photoreceptor array
Digital Camera

The purpose of the microlens array is
to focus the light onto each pixel

The color filter array changes the
color responsivity of each pixel

Finally, the sensor array captures the
light and generates the electrical
signal
 Mosaic Sensor / Color Filter Array
(CFA) Camera

A 2D array to collect the photons that are
recorded in the image

Made up of rows and columns of
photosensitive detectors (CCD or CMOS)
to form an image

Each element of the array contributes on
pixel to the final image
Color Filter Array (CFA)

The sensors count photons, produce a
charge that’s directly proporational to the
amount of light that strikes them

The raw files from color filter array cameras
are grayscale

Grayscale to Color
 Each element in the array is covered by
a color filter, so that each element
captures only red, green, or blue light
A Bayer filter pattern

A mosaic of red, blue and green filters in alternating rows of
RG and GB

Twice as many green filters are used as red or blue because
our eyes are most sensitive to green light
Filter patterns

RGB or CMY or 4-color-mix are possible

Each element in the sensor captures only
one color

The red-filtered elements produce a
grayscale value proportional to the amount
of red light reaching the sensor

Same as the green-filtered and blue filtered
elements
Info in the RAW files

The image pixels themselves

The image metadata (“data about
data”)
 Records shooting data such as the
camera model, serial number, shutter
speed, aperture, focal length, flash
 Additional information that might be
needed to convert into an RGB image
RAW Converter
Demosaicing

To display the image, we must create
an image that has a red, green AND
blue pixel at each location

Interpolate the missing sensor values
Demosaicing Illustration

This is the original image, made with

Adobe Illustrator
 Demosaicing Illustration

A simulated sampling taken by a Bayer

filtered sensor array

Each pixel only has a value of either R
or G or B
Demosaicing Illustration

A zoom-in version
Demosaicing Illustration

An example reconstruction
Demosaicing Illustration

A zoom-in version

original reconstruct
Demosaicing Algorithms

Nearest Neighbor Replication
 simply copies an adjacent pixel of the correct color
component

Simple interpolation
 Bilinear, Bicubic, Spline, Laplacian interpolation

Synthetic field based interpolation
 Compute an alternate representation
 Hue interpolation, Log hue interpolation

Adaptive
 Adapt their method of estimation depending on features
of the area surrounding the pixel of interest

Proprietary
 Commercial products
Raw Conversion

In addition to demosaicing
 White balance
 Colorimetric interpretation assigns the correct,
specific color meanings to the “red,” “green,”
and “blue” pixels, usually in a colorimetrically
defined color space such as CIE XYZ, which is
based directly on human color perception
 Gamma correction is done to redistribute the
tonal information so that it corresponds more
closely to the way our eyes see light and shade
 Noise reduction, antialiasing, and sharpening
 Benefits

Finer control is easier for the settings
 For example, the white point can be set to any value, not
just discrete values like "daylight" or "incandescent"

The settings can be previewed and tweaked to obtain the
best quality image or desired effect

Camera raw files have 12 or 14 bits of brightness
information

JPEG loses fine details and is ill-suited for major color or
brightness changes

The working color space can be set to whatever is desired

Different demosaicing algorithms can be used, not just the
one coded into the camera
Drawbacks

Camera RAW files are typically 2-6 times larger than
JPEG

Fewer images can fit on a given memory card

It also takes longer for the camera to write raw images
to the card
 fewer pictures can be taken in quick succession (a sports
sequence)

No single widely-accepted standard raw format
 Adobe's DNG format has been put forward as a
standard, but is not adopted by major camera
companies

Specific software may be required to open RAW files on
some systems, as opposed to JPEG or TIFF

Time taken in the image workflow
Software Supports

Dcraw

Adobe Photoshop / Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Microsoft's Digital Image

Mac OS X
 added raw support directly to the system
 which adds raw support automatically to the majority of
Mac OS X applications (such as Preview, Mac OS X's PDF
and image viewing application)

Helicon Filter

Bibble Pro

Picasa
 a free image editing and cataloging program from
Google, but only limited tools for RAW processing

UFRaw is free software based on dcraw
References

Adobe.com

Wikipedia.org

http://www.imageval.com/public/Products/ISET/ISET_Manual/Demo
saicing.htm

http://photo.net/learn/raw/

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/RAW-file-format.htm