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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneF" data-source="post: 324851" data-attributes="member: 12496">I use Photoshop, but Lightroom would seem the good entry path to Raw.PNG does use lossless compression (Zip method, royalty free), but it is not lossless editing.   I am skeptical Raw software will write PNG.  Plus PNG can be 8 or 16 bits, you would want 16 bits.  And of course, it would already have White Balance (and gamma) done, so changes have to shift old changes back and forth, which is not good, and not lossless.    Lossless Raw editing never shifts the data at all, except the one final last time.So PNG would not be the same philosophy as Raw.Frankly, seems unnecessary, your original Raw file is the best archive.Sure, just put a white card (Porta Brace or WhiBal are good) card in the scene, at the image edge to be easily cropped out, but in the same light.  No problem.   Maybe stamp size, certainly wallet size,  it should be large  enough to be able to click on it.  Or what I do for studio sessions (many pictures, same lighting), with Raw, it can be in the first test picture, and same WB easily applied in one click to all images in the session (same lighting).Cheap copy paper might be better than glossy photo paper, because the excessive brighteners might appear bluish (it is not a big problem, but it can be present).  Or an envelope or a business card, etc.  Nothing fancy.   Anything is probably vastly better than nothing.  Just in the same light.If you have a few minutes, see the video at <a href="http://www.scantips.com/lights/flashbasics1g.html" target="_blank">Why shoot Raw?</a>     It is about Raw, but frankly, it is mostly about white balance. Many snapshot scenes do often have white things in them.  They are not always perfect white, can be off color, but many white things are intended to look white, and many things are not bad.    It is common to see postings of beginner images with terrible white balance, when simply clicking the wall white baseboard in the scene, or a piece of white paper in the scene, etc... will make it very vastly better color.  Perhaps not 100% perfect, but generally overwhelmingly better than it was, and better than 90%  <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />    I find picket fences, church steeples, envelopes, white dresses or T-shirts, to be vastly better than no try at all.  Try it, and in the few cases not so, then click Undo, at least you tried, no harm done.But something known to be a neutral color reference is best and reliable, and not hard to plan on.I'd say no problems at all. Newer cameras may have advantages, but in regard to white balance, raw is raw.</blockquote>

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