raw image viewing

billozz

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bill
Edit My Images
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hi all id like to view some raw images i took without using lightroom or photoshop is there an easy way to do this, i dont want other software to edit them i just want to look at them , i have a windows pc running windows 8.1
thanks
Bill
 
Windows Photo Viewer or whatever it's called in the later versions of Windows might. It depends how new your camera is compared to Win 8.1. That app on my Win 10 laptop displays the raw images from my old Canon 550D quite happily. Oddly enough the same app on my XP desktop won't..................
 
hi all id like to view some raw images i took without using lightroom or photoshop is there an easy way to do this, i dont want other software to edit them i just want to look at them , i have a windows pc running windows 8.1
thanks
Bill
You can use Dcraw to view raw files (Google it) but it won't be very useful. Raw files are either 12 bit or 14 bit held in a 16 bit file. This means you lose two or four bits of brightness (max brightness of of the file will be 1/4 of max brightness of the display.) and the image will be very dark. It will also be very green as the unprocessed raw file has twice as many green pixels as either red or blue pixels.
 
You can probably download drivers for windows from your camera manufacturer (or get them off the CD that came with your camera) which enable windows photo viewer to view raw files. It works on my PC
 
Windows Photo Viewer or whatever it's called in the later versions of Windows might. It depends how new your camera is compared to Win 8.1. That app on my Win 10 laptop displays the raw images from my old Canon 550D quite happily. Oddly enough the same app on my XP desktop won't..................
That is displaying a processed file, probably the embedded jpeg.
 
It's impossible to view a RAW file. It has to be processed quite a bit, making some assumptions, in order to be viewable. All you can do is to choose between different varieties of default RAW processing, such as the parameters you set (or defaulted to) in your camera settings, which some editors will pick up as the initial starting parameters with which to process the RAW, or the standard default set for your particular camera, which some editors will know, or a generic "fix this image" set of automated adjustments which will make good guesses as to what white balance to choose, what dynamic range, what sharpening, etc..

When people talk about displaying an unprocessed RAW image what they mean is one that they haven't knowingly applied any adjustments to. Why can't a RAW image be displayed directly? Several reasons, just one for example is that the dynamic range of a RAW image can be 14 stops, whereas your computer can display at best 9 stops, and a good print maxes out at around 7 stops.

If you want to make visible the full dynamic range, colour gamut, etc., captured in your RAW image, the only way of doing this is to push the image in various different adjustment directions, such as varying the colour temperature, pulling in highlight detail, lifting up shadow detail, changing exposure, to see how far it can be pushed before it deteriorates. Even then what you see is just relative, comparative to doing the same things to other images of yours, because "before it deteriorates" is only partly a property of the RAW image. It's also partly a property of your skill and understanding, and partly a property of how well your particular editor does those various transformations.
 
You can probably download drivers for windows from your camera manufacturer (or get them off the CD that came with your camera) which enable windows photo viewer to view raw files. It works on my PC
ive tried to download "dpp" but it wont download keeps asking me to put the cd in ??
 
It's impossible to view a RAW file. It has to be processed quite a bit, making some assumptions, in order to be viewable. All you can do is to choose between different varieties of default RAW processing, such as the parameters you set (or defaulted to) in your camera settings, which some editors will pick up as the initial starting parameters with which to process the RAW, or the standard default set for your particular camera, which some editors will know, or a generic "fix this image" set of automated adjustments which will make good guesses as to what white balance to choose, what dynamic range, what sharpening, etc..

When people talk about displaying an unprocessed RAW image what they mean is one that they haven't knowingly applied any adjustments to. Why can't a RAW image be displayed directly? Several reasons, just one for example is that the dynamic range of a RAW image can be 14 stops, whereas your computer can display at best 9 stops, and a good print maxes out at around 7 stops.

If you want to make visible the full dynamic range, colour gamut, etc., captured in your RAW image, the only way of doing this is to push the image in various different adjustment directions, such as varying the colour temperature, pulling in highlight detail, lifting up shadow detail, changing exposure, to see how far it can be pushed before it deteriorates. Even then what you see is just relative, comparative to doing the same things to other images of yours, because "before it deteriorates" is only partly a property of the RAW image. It's also partly a property of your skill and understanding, and partly a property of how well your particular editor does those various transformations.
mabe i havent explained it very well, i have raw files in windows explorer and i want to see what they are , simple as that really but i donw want to use ps or lightroom. thanks
 
Google the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack for windows 8.1
 
FastStone Image Viewer
is what I use, it supports RAW format for most major manufacturers. I use it to view images on the memory card so I can delete the crap before importing the remaining images into Lightroom.
 
hi all id like to view some raw images i took without using lightroom or photoshop is there an easy way to do this, i dont want other software to edit them i just want to look at them , i have a windows pc running windows 8.1
thanks
Bill
Bridge, if you have Lightroom and Photoshop you can easily get this download from Adobe, is a great tool too much to say here but its my goto for all my work.
OR just download the cameras Codec from the maker of your camera. and you will see it in Windows
 
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