imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

SpyderJan Loc: New Smyrna Beach. FL

I saw that "deal" from Topaz too, and I respect Topaz, but C'mon Guys. If it isn't there (data) in the first place, how are you going to "add" it back in? You can always edit a .jpg in a RAW editor, but still you will never get the same results as you would editing the RAW file.

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

Can't make a sow's ear out of a silk purse?

Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

Hehehehehe...

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

This was already just discussed. https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-576004-1.html

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

So what would it take to make a raw file from a jpg?

First of all, a jpg is a compressed image file, so the first thing to do is to convert it to a full image file, something like a bitmap.
You then divide the bitmap into red, green, blue channels and re-mosaic the image.
Then you take the 8 bit data (remember you started with a jpg) and convert it into 12 bit data, probably by adding trailing zeroes.
Then you add a couple of housekeeping bytes, add the original jpg to the front of a file, put in the EXIF data from the jpg, then pack in the 12-bit data you re-mosaiced. Voila, a raw file (approximately). (I'm not intimately familiar with all raw files so I may have missed a few things that go into some raw files).

Now that you have a mosaiced data file you can treat it as a raw file and do whatever your editing file usually does with it. The various colors can be interpolated because you have converted them to 12 bit from 8 bit.

Since data are lost when you convert the sensor data to jpg, you can't really put that back, so I suspect that what you get will not be as good as what you would get if you started with the raw file to begin with, but I think you can probably get something better than editing a jpg, particularly when it comes to things like white balance.

And of course I don't know just how they do the conversion so it's possible that some modern signal processing algorithms could improve things significantly.

You'll do best if your original jpg has not been compressed too much (saved at "high quality" setting), otherwise you lose a lot of data in the compression. I suspect the final result will be something between the jpg and the raw file.

Of course it's better to start with the raw file, but if all you have is your iPhone, this could conceivably improve the image. I have not tried it so I can't say for sure. Might be worth a try (particularly if they have a free trial).

Personally, I hope the resulting file has an extension something like ".raw" so I can easily distinguish it from original raw files (.nef, .cr2,......)

brianmcnarch

its probably not the same thing and you may be aware anyways but the camera raw filter in ps furnishes some capability of this nature. I imagine this method degrades the file-don't know.

Soul Dr. Loc: Beautiful Shenandoah Valley

Look at the times these were posted. Mine was actually posted first.

Anhanga Brasil Loc: Cabo Frio - Brazil

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

It does not. DNG won't do anything with a JPG. It converts RAW files to DNG, which is Adobe's RAW file.

Traveller_Jeff

I'm hearing some skepticism here, and from some pretty good photographers to boot. When the television was first invented, the experts said, "It's just a gimmick. No one'll touch it. A flash in the pan."

When the car was invented, they said: "Physicists tell us that the human body is torn apart at speeds over 40 mph. It'll never work."

The writer here told us there's a beta product out there and that it's free. So, let the skeptics try it out and report back. I'd really like to hear your reactions after you've done everything you can with the product.

My two cents. ;-)

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

Got the same email and I have Topaz Studio as well. Love the AI Clear adjustment. My cell phone shoots RAW so I don't need this utility. In fact, a lot of smart phones are capable of RAW. Some require an app to do it.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

"I'm hearing some skepticism here...."

I had some fun starting topics about A.I. processing. My examples included the recently improved "Auto" button in Lightroom/ACR, Photolemure 3 and Panasonics "iA" version of automatic. I am traditional old school. But but am enjoying and using computational photography, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools.

AirWalter Loc: Tipp City, Ohio

Or maybe if that situation ever occurs where I get that greatest shot ever, but not in RAW then I could get the Topaz trial and see what it does!?!?

AirWalter Loc: Tipp City, Ohio

Well, then again you might be pushing a little bit. Most of the posts I have read are admitting that it can't be as good as Raw, but could possibly help make "older" JPEGS look better. Thet never thought someone would put a rocket on the moon either. Who knows?