About RAW Files

A RAW file is like a negative. RAW files contain all of the data that was collected by your digital camera's sensor when you took a photo. If you tried to view a RAW file without processing, it would appear almost completely black. It is therefore necessary to process your RAW files to produce a photo.

ACDSee Ultimate offers a new RAW processing engine providing improved Color, Contrast and Exposure. ACDSee Ultimate also emulates Pro 3's pipeline for RAW images developed in Pro 3 or earlier versions.

You can use Develop and Edit mode to select exposure, color, and image sharpness settings for your RAW files. You can select and save unique settings for each RAW file, or you can select and save generic settings as presets. If you save generic settings as presets, you can apply those presets to numerous RAW files using the batch tool, or by going to Manage mode, and selecting Tools | Process | Apply Preset and then selecting a preset.

You cannot change your original RAW files permanently. The RAW files remain intact after processing to preserve all the data captured by your camera. The processing settings that you select for a particular image are saved to the XMP file of the RAW, and associated with the image in the database.

To save any changes you make to a RAW file permanently, you need to save it as a separate file, in a different file format (JPEG or TIFF, for example). If you want to save your processed file to many different formats at the same time, use the multiple format option in Develop mode. After developing your image, simply click on the Save button, and select Export. In the Export dialog box, select your export settings and click OK.

ACDSee will automatically apply geometry corrections to DNG files that include geometric distortion correction tags. DNG files created from the Adobe DNG ConverterĀ© will often generate geometric distortion tags for micro 4/3rds cameras.

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