What RAW Format Actually Is
A RAW file is the unprocessed data straight off a digital camera's image sensor — before sharpening, color correction, white balance, or compression have been applied. Think of it as a digital negative: every photosite on the sensor recorded a raw brightness value, and the RAW file stores those values largely untouched, along with metadata about the shot (lens, exposure, camera settings). Nothing has been decided for you yet, which is exactly the point.
RAW vs JPG: The Core Tradeoffs
A JPG is what you get when the camera takes that same sensor data and finishes it for you — applying sharpening, contrast, color, and white balance automatically, then compressing the result into a small file that's ready to view anywhere. A RAW file skips all of that processing, which creates a direct set of tradeoffs.
| Feature | RAW | JPG |
|---|---|---|
| What It Contains | Unprocessed sensor data | Compressed, finished image |
| File Size | Large (20-100+ MB) | Small (2-10 MB) |
| Editing Latitude | Wide — recover highlights/shadows | Narrow — baked-in processing |
| Ready to View? | No — needs decoding software | Yes — opens everywhere |
| In-Camera Processing | None applied | Sharpening, color, compression applied |
| Color Depth | 12-14 bit per channel | 8 bit per channel |
The upshot: RAW gives you the maximum possible material to work with in editing software, at the cost of a much bigger file that isn't viewable until it's been processed. JPG gives you an instantly usable image, at the cost of editing headroom you can never fully get back.
Common RAW Formats by Camera Brand
Unlike JPG, RAW isn't one single standardized format — nearly every camera manufacturer uses its own proprietary extension, since the internal structure reflects that brand's specific sensor hardware. The most common ones you'll run into:
- ARW — Sony's RAW format, used across its Alpha and Cyber-shot cameras.
- CR2 — Canon's RAW format, used in most Canon DSLRs and mirrorless bodies.
- DNG — Adobe's open, published "Digital Negative" format, either shot natively by some cameras or produced by converting a brand-specific RAW file into a more standardized container.
- NEF — Nikon's RAW format, used across its DSLR and mirrorless lineup.
Because each brand's format is proprietary, software support varies — which is a big part of why DNG exists: to give photographers a documented, cross-brand alternative for archiving.
Why Photographers Shoot RAW
The entire case for RAW comes down to post-processing flexibility. Because nothing has been discarded or compressed away, a RAW file lets you recover detail from blown-out highlights or crushed shadows that would simply be gone in a JPG, adjust white balance after the fact as if you'd set it correctly in-camera, and push color grading much further before banding or artifacts show up. That extra room matters most in high-stakes or difficult lighting — weddings, landscapes at sunset, anything shot under mixed light sources — where getting every setting perfect at capture time isn't realistic.
Once editing is done, most photographers export a finished JPG (or other standard format) for actually viewing, sharing, or printing the photo, and keep the RAW file as the untouched original to go back to if needed. If you need to make that jump yourself, our RAW to JPG converter handles ARW, CR2, DNG, NEF, and other common camera RAW extensions entirely in your browser, with nothing uploaded to a server.