I am trying to figure why my picture EXIF data is shown and sometimes not shown. I have my camera's set to save pictures in Jpeg + RAW When I open the folder, they are saved in Jpeg and NEF. I realize NEF are Nikon files but when I open these kinds of files no EXIF data is preserved with the programs I like to use anyway. So only being able to use Jpeg files am I losing better opportunities for file editing? I understand that no data is lost during RAW file manipulations but data IS lost with Jpeg's. So how do I keep files in RAW format, at least until I'm ready to save them in Jpeg and post them?
Saving RAW Files
- Thread starter adot45
- Start date
Does the software recognize the specific Nikon raw files from your cameras? Not all Nikon raw files are the same. Raw files from each camera model have variations, and software must have the ability to read them.
Perhaps you need to update your software. It should be free.
Perhaps you need to update your software. It should be free.
Yes, I can open the NEF files with my program but I was wondering if it would bet able to work with RAW format....*or is RAW just a term and NEF is a type? The bottom line for me is I just want to make my pictures as good as I can without going the Photo$hop route.
Maybe RAW is just a term used for a file that hasn't been altered? Is what I'm saying. And NEF is a true format?
Maybe RAW is just a term used for a file that hasn't been altered? Is what I'm saying. And NEF is a true format?
Raw is a word. Not an acronym. Raw is an adjective, like raw fish. NEF is an acronym and stands for Nikon Electronic Format.
All .NEFs are raw files, but not all raw files are .NEFs. Different manufacturers use different extensions. Canon uses .CRW and .CR2, for example.
Raw merely denotes the information as saved by the camera, with as little in-camera processing as possible. Yes, you can edit and save a raw file. Most programs do not over-write the file when you save it, and save your edits in what it called a 'side-car' file. Some programs, like Nikon's Capture NX2, ADD your edits to the file and save everything all over.
All .NEFs are raw files, but not all raw files are .NEFs. Different manufacturers use different extensions. Canon uses .CRW and .CR2, for example.
Raw merely denotes the information as saved by the camera, with as little in-camera processing as possible. Yes, you can edit and save a raw file. Most programs do not over-write the file when you save it, and save your edits in what it called a 'side-car' file. Some programs, like Nikon's Capture NX2, ADD your edits to the file and save everything all over.
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OK, got it. Thanks very much.
I guess the program I want to use for these file is just not "powerful" enough. I'll just continue to use Jpeg's......at least I will be able to show the file data.
There are a few questions here.
Exif: Exif data is without doubt in the Nikon images, both JPG and NEF raw. However, in many cases, after a program edits and re-saves a JPG, it omits much, or some, or all, of the Exif. Adobe for example does not output any of the Manufacturers data section, which is where the good stuff is.
There are vast amounts of Exif data there, and in some cases the Exif format has been changed over time, which obsoletes old Exif viewers. Your D40 is old enough to not be affected, but the D3200 might be (my D300 is not, but my D800 definitely is).
If the goal is to see the Exif data, all of it, this describes the best easy free solution: Camera Exif data
Editing: I cannot tell if your program supports raw files or not, but its web site certainly makes no mention of it. It seems certain that it is not a raw editor. Certainly there is zero reason to assume it is a raw editor. They would be bragging all over their web pages if it were. It is a standard image editor.. perhaps a very good one (I am not familiar with it), but it performs standard editing procedures.
Raw files do incidentally contain an embedded JPG image in them, and while some simpler (non-raw) editing programs (like Irfanview and Faststone) can open raw "files", they cannot use the raw "image data". They only open the embedded JPG version. They are NOT raw editors. They do not have raw tools.
Raw is a very major philosophy change, day and night differences, which must be treated with the respect it deserves.
Your PhotoFiltre editor is a RGB editor (for regular RGB images, like JPG, like any photo image we can look at --- Raw images cannot even be looked at on our computer monitors). The reason raw files embed a JPG copy is to show on the cameras rear LCD, which cannot show raw data. Also the camera histogram is from this JPG copy. Raw is very different.
The standard RGB editors (most any image editor) provide ways to manipulate the image, like filters and layers and masking and brushes and red eye and conventional stuff like that. That is NOT what raw editors do.
Raw editors for raw files (Nikon NEF), don't do so much of that standard edit stuff (some are adding small amounts of it now). The purpose of raw images is instead to bypass (ignore) the camera settings other than exposure. Raw file data ignores (does not contain) the effect of camera settings like white balance and gamma and contrast and color profile, whatever. Raw means raw, uncooked.
Raw is what the camera sensor saw, omitting whatever the camera settings might do to it. Raw files do contain the Exif which shows all of the camera settings, but the camera settings have NOT been applied to the raw data. It has been applied to JPG data, including the embedded JPG in raw.
The raw plan is to add the settings that we want IN THE RAW EDITOR (like white balance). AFTER we can actually see what the deal is. And it is a pretty big deal. Instead of having to shift data around to correct bad settings, we just hold off until we can actually see what it needs, and fix it right then. It is a philosophy, there is no half way.
Qualification: some raw editors can extract some of the camera setting info from the file Exif, and might be able to apply some of it to their processing. Nikon raw editors do more of this, others are pretty much white balance only, if that. But the whole idea of raw is to ignore those camera settings, and then the raw programs have the same white balance menu that the camera has, after we can see it, and even better, also instead have better WB tools to actually fix it right.
If we had wanted the camera settings, we should have shot JPG images.
The idea of raw is that then after we can actually see the image in the raw editor (which shows us a RGB conversion of it on our monitor screens, which cannot show raw), THEN we can apply whatever white balance and other corrections we can see it needs (instead of wishful guessing in advance of taking the picture). So raw editing is about improving on the camera settings (is not about brushes and masks and layers and graphic manipulation).
We can improve the image in raw to be a really good best ever photo, by adjusting the same things that the camera could have adjusted, but after we can see what is needed, and see how it works, and have better tools to do it. Even image brightness (still called exposure). Even the vivid Landscape color profile, but AFTER we can actually see if it turns out to be a good plan or not.
But then, after this, to be able to use that raw image, we must output a standard RBG copy, JPG or TIF, etc.. so that other programs and uses can see it. Then that regular copy can be regularly used like any image, it has just been improved by the raw process. But if we want subsequent changes to the camera aspects of it, we discard that temp copy, and edit it again in raw, and output a new temp RGB copy. When and if we do want more conventional manipulation, then we take that improved RGB copy to a standard photo editor (brushes and masks and layers, etc).
How do we keep raw files? Simply just keep them. A raw file is never changed, it is always the original raw file from the camera. Raw is different, we don't even have tools to change a raw file. We cannot even view a raw file. What a raw editor does is to ALSO store and keep a LIST of the changes we make (like white balance or crop or brightness, whatever), and it applies those changes to any RGB output of that image. If we subsequently want other changes, we just go back and change the LIST of changes, which is all that gets edited. We do not shift the image tones around EXCEPT the one final time at RGB output of a copy. This is called Lossless Editing, and is also considered a strong feature of raw.
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Untrue. Some apps do alter the original raw file. Nikon's own Capture NX2 is one. Once I edit an image with it, I cannot send it back to the camera and view it. It saves the editing steps in with the original image data and saves the whole thing as one file... NO sidecar. Even if I delete all my edits and save the file, it's still not the same as what came out of the camera.
True, I can simply change my post workflow and save the edited image under a different filename, thus 'preserving' the original file that's SOOC.
Over the years, I have found this to be true with other apps, but I don't recall what they were as I deleted them off my 'puter.
What may be happening is the OP's app is trying to open a .NEF, when if finds an imbedded .JPEG image within it and opens that. That imbedded JPEG will not have any attendant EXIF with it, however.
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There can be ifs and buts, but certainly more true than not.
The concept is certainly true.The edited raw change LISTS (the xmp data) might be saved in the original NEF file, Adobe has that option too. The raw data is not changed, it is an entirely different format, and the Bayer process is sort of a resampling anyway, it cannot be undone. And there would be no point of it, we have the LIST.
It would NOT be a lossless edit if the raw data could be changed. Lossless is a great advantage, but it's more nearly a requirement instead of a planned feature.
This sidecar file manipulation might make the file format incompatible with the camera, not expecting that.
We cannot put edited JPG back in the camera either, it won't be accepted.
There would really be no point of it, but even if we could, and even if we did put revised raw back in it, the camera shows the embedded JPG, it does NOT show the raw data.
The actual question is probably if the raw editor also bothers to change, or even keep, the embedded JPG? How could it change it? Is its Exif data updated to reflect it?
The embedded JPG is full size (for the LCD zoom feature), and Adobe saves its own thumbnails.And the embedded JPG and the raw data share the same one set of Exif, but only the JPG data is affected by it.
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