I’ve heard about wedding photographers shooting in ‘Raw’. What does this mean and can I get these ‘Raw’ images? This is something that wedding photographers get asked quite a lot!

You may have heard the term ‘raw’ being discussed by friends with cameras. You may even have read in a wedding magazine that you should ask for the ‘raw’ files because you might need them. But what exactly are they?

A raw digital file is the modern equivalent of an old-fashioned negative.  Unprocessed and unfinished.  When a digital camera takes a picture, the light captured by the sensor needs to be translated into something that can be easily viewed on your phone or computer etc.  The most user-friendly format is JPEG.  A camera that puts a jpeg image directly onto a memory card is actually doing the ‘processing’ such as applying colour temperature, exposure compensation, contrast, colour corrections etc.  A professional photographer doesn’t rely on the camera to automatically make these decisions, and a jpeg will actually discard a lot of information captured by the sensor.

So professional photographers tell the camera to store the actual data from the sensor in a format called Raw. This ‘Raw’ file is exactly that – RAW. There is no editing done at all. It’s just a copy of what the sensor recorded.

This means that all the processing now needs to be done later by the photographer.  But its ok – we’re professionals!  It’s a lot of work, and a lot of digital storage is needed because raw files are massive, but it’s essential to the individual style and workflow of professional photographers.

The photographer will then manually edit each raw file using specialist software (we have mad skills!) and finish off the creative process that began when they visualised the image and pressed the shutter.  The end result is a high quality JPEG that can easily be printed and shared by the bride & groom.

So, do we give away these unprocessed and unfinished RAW images?  The short answer is no.  They are literally our raw material, and you wouldn’t ask a painter for their brushes and tubes of paint would you?  Our wonderful couples choose us because of our style and hire us to provide a full professional service – our vision of how their wedding should look.   Fully edited and with our signature Iconik style & polish!

Move the slider on the image below to see the difference.