DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Not correct.
You can set shutter speed, aperture, focus, ISO and anything else you like. Anything else will be used to generate the image on your camera's monitor and the preview in the raw file. There may be a couple other things that will affect the raw data, but no matter what settings you use, your camera can still produce a raw file. Or a raw file AND a jpg. There is some suggestion that the other settings will be written into the metadata of the raw file but I have no confirmation of that and the raw file format is not an open source thing. Even if they are written into the metadata, they are not used in the generation of the raw data contained in the raw file.

lmTrying Loc: WV Northern Panhandle

Thank you. I did not know that shooting and saving are considered to be a single act. I had been corrected years ago that shooting jpeg was a form of in camera post processing. So that has probably influenced my thinking.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

No problem.

No, incorrect. RAW is a file format the camera can save. No "settings" are applied to it. The settings are be applied to JPEGS (another save format for most cameras). Any difference one may see in an editor, which is simply a rendition of the RAW data, may be adjusted what your settings may have been. The RAW data itself is still the same, unaffected by the settings. The visual display in the editor of the RAW data may be adjusted in the editor display that one sees, but not the data itself. The settings used are also stored as part of the RAW data. That's how some editors "start" with creating the image your editor shows you, the editor may apply your settings when it creates your working view in the editor.
The white balance setting is used to create the JPEG in the camera, IF you save JPEGS.


Think of RAW as all the collected sensor data only. It has to be interpreted (the data processed) by the editor in order for the editor to show you an image that you can work with. At that point it is NOT a JPEG you are viewing, but a rendition of that data the editor created for you to see. (That's why an editor "save" option is "Save AS". That's when the editor does the conversion to JPEG, when saving the file. Cameras set to save JPEGS do the conversion IN THE CAMERA and save the JPEG file.

My RAW editor does a preliminary adjustment based on settings that the camera was set for. Some editors do not.

So what file format(s) do you have the camera save?

terryMc Loc: Arizona's White Mountains

To shoot raw you set your camera just like you would for any other exposure. The raw file is just the accumulated data recorded by the camera at those settings. It is not a "finished" picture, or a picture at all, really, and has to be "developed," which is where the analogy to a negative came from. You can instruct your camera (most of them, anyway) to produce only a raw file and no JPEG at all, except that the image you view on your camera back is a tiny JPEG just showing you a representation of your recorded image. This is NOT what your downloaded raw file will look like.

Choosing settings other than shutter speed and aperture does not "put you in jpeg." JPEG is a specific file format using lossy compression and is adjusted for color, tone, sharpness, and who-knows-what-else by the camera firmware. The raw file is converted by software like Camera Raw, Lightroom, or many others to an image you can work with and view. If you don't record a JPEG in the first place, you have no JPEG, only your raw file which can only be saved in a different format like JPEG, PNG, or TIFF.

Once again: Your camera does not convert a raw to a JPEG based on exposure settings, or lack of settings. The only setting that does that is the one you make telling the camera which format/s to record.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

What comes from the camera sensor is raw data. In order to form an image the camera has to process those data using the settings you have placed in your camera (brightness, contrast, white balance, sharpening, noise reduction). That produces a jpg. The jpg is used to show the image on your monitor and can be output as a file. The raw data gets the jpg embedded as a preview and then can be output as a file. Both the raw file and the jpg file have additional metadata telling you things like the date and time of the shot, the camera model, various other things you can have some cameras place in the metadata like copyright information, IPTC information, and comments.

So yes, the jpg from the camera is processed in the camera. But it can be further processed outside the camera. Or used as is. The raw file from the camera will need to be processed to use the image.

When you push the button, the camera will take the picture (shoot) and will store the raw and/or jpg file on your camera card (save). You can then download the result from the card (some cameras have a USB port that allows you to download the file without removing the card).

lmTrying Loc: WV Northern Panhandle

And I thought I was getting a handle on this raw thing. I have my XSi set to record raw. But when I downloaded into my computer, some files were tagged CR2, others were tagged JEPG. Do you know why? I don't.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

CR2 is the raw file from a Canon camera. My Nikon cameras produce NEF raw files. Both cameras will produce jpg files. There will be a setting in your camera that you can adjust to produce either CR2 or jpg or both. Sounds like you have your camera set to save both.

PS: jpg and jpeg are the same thing. But your computer will probably consider them different files because the spelling is different.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

.CR2 is the file name Canon uses for their RAW files. My T1i saves .CR2 files. If you got JPEG files from your camera, at some point it was set to save either JPEG or RAW+JPEG. If I set my T1i to save only RAW, I do not get JPEGS.

BTW - I'll change your BOTH to RAW.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Editors will acknowledge (recognize) either .jpg or jpeg extension names.
Computers themselves, the file system, consider them different files because of the extra letter.
Computers are VERY literal.
Some computers even consider "File.ext" and "file.ext" two different files as that system (UNIX) is CASE SENSITIVE.
Windows is not case sensitive.

terryMc Loc: Arizona's White Mountains

That's what I was trying to tell him.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

National Park

RAW.

lmTrying Loc: WV Northern Panhandle

My head hurts. LOL.

Maybe part of my confusion has come from my XSi. I set it to record raw. But when I downloaded files to my computer, some were tagged CR2, others were tagged jpeg. CR2 is a raw file, correct?

Then I got an RP. Again, I set it to record raw. When I downloaded into my computer I get two files, a CR3 displaying no image and another file showing the image. Both show the same image number.

So, are you saying that setting the white balance in camera will negate the in camera raw file and change it to a jpeg?

The rest of your information about post processing I pretty well followed.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

NO! Setting the white balance in camera will NOT negate the in camera raw file save and change it to a jpeg. It (and other image settings) have nothing to do with what file type is saved.

Somewhere you had the setting to save "RAW+JPEG".
(.CR3 is a newer version of Canon's RAW file.)

Seabastes

Both