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Early in 2005, Juergen Specht<ref name="JuergenSpecht">{{cite web |url= http://www.juergenspecht.com/ |title= Juergen Specht - Photographs: Photos by a German Photographer living in Tokyo, Japan |author= Juergen Specht }}</ref> and the members of his mailing list D1scussion<ref name="D1scussion">{{cite web |url= http://www.d1scussion.com/ |title= D1scussion - The Forum for professional photographers using Nikon DSLR cameras |coauthors= The individual Authors & Juergen Specht }}</ref> began to raise questions and concerns of the direction and difficulties associated with proprietary RAW files introduced by camera makers.<ref name="NewOpenRAW">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/ |title= Welcome to OpenRAW (latest home page) }}</ref>
Early in 2005, Juergen Specht<ref name="JuergenSpecht">{{cite web |url= http://www.juergenspecht.com/ |title= Juergen Specht - Photographs: Photos by a German Photographer living in Tokyo, Japan |author= Juergen Specht }}</ref> and the members of his mailing list D1scussion<ref name="D1scussion">{{cite web |url= http://www.d1scussion.com/ |title= D1scussion - The Forum for professional photographers using Nikon DSLR cameras |coauthors= The individual Authors & Juergen Specht }}</ref> began to raise questions and concerns of the direction and difficulties associated with proprietary RAW files introduced by camera makers.<ref name="NewOpenRAW">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/ |title= Welcome to OpenRAW (latest home page) }}</ref>


The background to these concerns is described at [[Raw_image_format#Drawbacks|Raw image format – Drawbacks]], [[Digital_negative#Objectives|Digital Negative – Objectives]], and [[Dcraw#Motivation|dcraw – Motivation]]. In summary, the photographs from top-end digital cameras are often contained within files whose specifications are formally known only to the camera manufacturers. Not only does this require extra software development with most new camera models, but there is a major risk that future software products will not be able to render photographs from decades earlier.
The background to these concerns is described at [[Raw_image_format#Drawbacks|Raw image format (Drawbacks)]], [[Digital_negative#Objectives|Digital Negative (Objectives)]], and [[Dcraw#Motivation|dcraw (Motivation)]]. In summary, the photographs from top-end digital cameras are often contained within files whose specifications are formally known only to the camera manufacturers. Not only does this require extra software development with most new camera models, but there is a major risk that future software products will not be able to render photographs from decades earlier.


As the seriousness of the issue was quickly realized, they founded an initiative called OpenRAW, with the goal of encouraging image preservation and giving creative choice of how images are processed to the creators of the images. OpenRAW was launched worldwide on 25 April 2005.
As the seriousness of the issue was quickly realized, they founded an initiative called OpenRAW, with the goal of encouraging image preservation and giving creative choice of how images are processed to the creators of the images. OpenRAW was launched worldwide on 25 April 2005.
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== Supporters ==
== Supporters ==


At OpenRAW's peak there were over 1500 registered individual supporters from across the world, writing in English but sometimes as a 2nd language<ref name="OpenRAWIndividuals"></ref>. Nearly 30 software and hardware companies registered their support<ref name="OpenRAWCompanies"></ref>, 30 "photographic resources" were supporters<ref name="OpenRAWResources">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/supporters/resources/index.html |title= Photographic Resources supporting OpenRAW }}</ref>, and so were 5 professional organisations.<ref name="OpenRAWOrganisations"></ref>
At OpenRAW's peak there were over 1500 registered individual supporters from across the world, writing in English but sometimes as a second language<ref name="OpenRAWIndividuals"></ref>. Nearly thirty software and hardware companies registered their support<ref name="OpenRAWCompanies"></ref>, thirty "photographic resources" were supporters<ref name="OpenRAWResources">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/supporters/resources/index.html |title= Photographic Resources supporting OpenRAW }}</ref>, and so were five professional organisations.<ref name="OpenRAWOrganisations"></ref>


Its influence was much wider than these numbers would indicate. When it conducted a survey in 2006<ref name="Survey">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/2006rawsurvey/originalsurvey/index.html |title= The Original Survey Page (now nonfunctional) }}</ref>, more than 19,000 photographers worldwide responded to it.<ref name="SurveyPressRelease">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/press/release3/index.html |title= Survey Press Release |author= Juergen Specht |date= 24 |month= 04 |year= 2006 }}</ref><ref name="SurveyWeb">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/survey/ |title= The 2006 RAW Survey (Web) |author= Calvin Jones |date= 25 |month= 04 |year= 2006 }}</ref><ref name="SurveyPDF">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/files/2006rawsurveyreport.pdf |title= 2006 Raw Survey Results |author= Calvin Jones |coauthors= Juergen Specht |date= 29 |month= 04 |year= 2006 |format= PDF }}</ref>
Its influence was wider than these numbers would indicate. When it conducted a survey in 2006<ref name="Survey">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/2006rawsurvey/originalsurvey/index.html |title= The Original Survey Page (now nonfunctional) }}</ref>, more than 19,000 photographers worldwide responded to it.<ref name="SurveyPressRelease">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/press/release3/index.html |title= Survey Press Release |author= Juergen Specht |date= 2006-04-24 }}</ref><ref name="SurveyWeb">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/survey/ |title= The 2006 RAW Survey |author= Calvin Jones |date= 2006-04-25 }}</ref><ref name="SurveyPDF">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/files/2006rawsurveyreport.pdf |title= 2006 Raw Survey Results |author= Calvin Jones |coauthors= Juergen Specht |date= 2006-04-29 |format= PDF }}</ref> Twenty photography associations, forums, listservs, and other resources worldwide supported the survey.<ref name="SurveySupporters">{{cite web |url= http://web.archive.org/web/20060402213501/http://openraw.org/ |title= OpenRAW home page from the Internet Archive |author= Juergen Specht |coauthors= Calvin Jones |date= 2006-04-02 }}</ref>


== Achievements ==
== Achievements ==
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Although few if any camera manufacturers changed their policies as a result of the OpenRAW initiative, many of the newly-aware photographers became informed about options available to them, such as specific archiving actions they could take. (No measures are available of how much they changed their habits).
Although few if any camera manufacturers changed their policies as a result of the OpenRAW initiative, many of the newly-aware photographers became informed about options available to them, such as specific archiving actions they could take. (No measures are available of how much they changed their habits).


A useful legacy of the initiative is the availability of resources describing the problems. In particular, soon after the launch of OpenRAW, an article "The RAW Flaw", jointly authored by Michael Reichmann (of Luminous Landscape) and Juergen Specht (leader of the founding group of OpenRAW), was published by each of them. (The OpenRAW version is a subset of the Michael Reichmann version).
A useful legacy of the initiative is the availability of resources describing the problems. In particular, soon after the launch of OpenRAW, an article "The RAW Flaw"<ref name="RawFlawLL">{{cite web |url= http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/raw-flaw.shtml |title= The RAW Flaw |coauthors= Michael Reichmann; Juergen Specht |date= May 2005 }}</ref><ref name="RawFlawLLWord">{{cite web |url= http://www.luminous-landscape.com/TheRawFlaw.doc |title= The RAW Flaw |coauthors= Michael Reichmann; Juergen Specht |date= May 2005 |format= DOC }}</ref><ref name="RawFlawLLPDF">{{cite web |url= http://www.luminous-landscape.com/TheRawFlaw.pdf |title= The RAW Flaw |coauthors= Michael Reichmann; Juergen Specht |date= May 2005 |format= PDF }}</ref>, jointly authored by Michael Reichmann (of The Luminous Landscape<ref name="LuminousLandscape">{{cite web |url= http://www.luminous-landscape.com/index.shtml |title= The Luminous Landscape |author= Michael Reichmann }}</ref>) and Juergen Specht (leader of the founding group of OpenRAW), was published on each website. (The OpenRAW version<ref name="RawFlawOpenRAW">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/actnow/ |title= The RAW Flaw |coauthors= Michael Reichmann; Juergen Specht |date= May 2005 }}</ref> is a subset of the Luminous Landscape version).


== Limitation ==
== Limitation ==


The problem identified by Michael Reichmann, Juergen Specht, and other sources identified above, can be summarised as: "there is an ever increasing number of undocumented raw file formats". The final paragraph in The RAW Flaw on The Luminous Landscape website is:
The problem identified by Michael Reichmann, Juergen Specht, and other sources identified above, can be summarized as: "there is an ever increasing number of undocumented raw file formats". The final paragraph in "The RAW Flaw" on The Luminous Landscape website is:<ref name="RawFlawLL"></ref>


:"Finally, consider the problems of digital asset management and the cataloging of files…. The various asset management programs can't hope to keep up with the ever increasing number of proprietary formats. And as time passes and these programs are enhanced, what are the chances that they will still be able to read your older RAW files?"
:"Finally, consider the problems of digital asset management and the cataloging of files…. The various asset management programs can't hope to keep up with the ever increasing number of proprietary formats. And as time passes and these programs are enhanced, what are the chances that they will still be able to read your older RAW files?"


And it summarises the solution as:
And it summarizes the solution as:


:"The Solution? There really is only one solution – the adoption by the camera industry of...
:"The Solution? There really is only one solution – the adoption by the camera industry of...
Line 44: Line 44:
:B. Adoption of a universal RAW format"
:B. Adoption of a universal RAW format"


The version of The RAW Flaw published by OpenRAW omits that entire final paragraph, and also the words "or, more likely...". OpenRAW did not acknowledge the need to avoid the ever increasing number of proprietary formats, and did not pursue the idea of a "universal RAW format". (In contrast, many of its individual supporters, supporting companies, and supporting professional organisations, did want such a format).
The version of "The RAW Flaw" published by OpenRAW<ref name="RawFlawOpenRAW"></ref> omits that entire final paragraph, and also the words "or, more likely...". OpenRAW did not acknowledge the need to avoid the ever increasing number of proprietary formats, and did not pursue the idea of a "universal RAW format". Another article "The RAW Problem" at OpenRAW confirms this:<ref name="RawProblem1">{{cite web |url= http://web.archive.org/web/20060220165818/http://www.openraw.org/info/ |title= The RAW Problem (via Internet Archive) |accessdate= 2006-02-20 }}</ref>


:"We want camera manufacturers to publicly document their RAW image formats - past, present, and future. ... Many have suggested (and Adobe has created) a common, open file format for RAW image files for all camera makers to use as a solution to the RAW problem. ... Open documentation of all RAW file formats by manufacturers is the quickest and most satisfactory way for OpenRAW's goals to be reached." (The Adobe reference is to [[Digital Negative|DNG (Digital Negative Format)]]).
⚫
This limitation in the stance of OpenRAW meant that it did not accept that Adobe's DNG (Digital Negative Format), launched 7 months before OpenRAW, was a useful part of the solution. DNG was designed (among other things) as an archival raw image format and has a published specification. It is compatible with the OpenRAW's objective of "Digital Image Preservation Through Open Documentation". Instead of seeking cooperation between its aims and those of DNG, OpenRAW concentrated on "Public documentation of RAW formats; past, present and future".


⚫
This limitation in the stance of OpenRAW meant that it did not accept that Adobe's [[Digital Negative|DNG (Digital Negative Format)]], launched 7 months before OpenRAW, was a useful part of the solution. DNG was designed (among other things) as an archival raw image format and has a published specification. Those characteristics are compatible with the OpenRAW's objective of "Digital Image Preservation Through Open Documentation". Instead of seeking cooperation between its aims and those of DNG, OpenRAW concentrated on "public documentation of RAW image formats - past, present, and future".
⚫
OpenRAW acknowledges that "… the final goal of "Open Documentation" has not yet been reached". Meanwhile, throughout OpenRAW's campaigning, DNG continued to encourage niche and minority camera manufacturers to use it instead of proprietary formats; an increasing number of proprietary formats could be converted to DNG; and an increasing number of software products supported it in some way. OpenRAW was not associated with this moderate success, and sometimes criticised it.


OpenRAW objected to DNG primarily because it had a DNGPrivateData field, corresponding to the EXIF Makernote field. While the publicly documented fields in DNG are sufficient for high quality rendering of the image, OpenRAW took the stance that it was unacceptable to have any data that was not openly documented. Had OpenRAW succeeded in its limited objectives, those fields would anyway have been documented, and its objection to DNG would have gone away. Given that it didn't succeed, DNG is better than nothing. A repeated suggestion that OpenRAW should seek a version of DNG (tentatively called "DNG/OpenRAW") that had all the advantages of the DNG, but without the undocumented data, was ignored.
OpenRAW objected to DNG primarily because it had a DNGPrivateData field, corresponding to the EXIF Makernote field. While the publicly documented fields in DNG are sufficient for high quality rendering of the image, OpenRAW took the stance that it was unacceptable to have any data that was not openly documented. Had OpenRAW succeeded in its limited objectives, those fields would anyway have been documented, and its objection to DNG would have gone away. Given that it didn't succeed, DNG is better than nothing. A repeated suggestion that OpenRAW should seek a version of DNG (tentatively called "DNG/OpenRAW") that had all the advantages of the DNG, but without the undocumented data, was ignored.


The consequence was that, instead of OpenRAW and DNG being perceived as compatible and cooperative parts of a success story, they were positioned by OpenRAW as competitors. OpenRAW failed.
The consequence was that, instead of OpenRAW and DNG being perceived as compatible and cooperative parts of a success story, they were positioned by OpenRAW as competitors. OpenRAW failed.

⚫
OpenRAW acknowledges that "… the final goal of "Open Documentation" has not yet been reached". Meanwhile, throughout OpenRAW's campaigning, DNG continued to encourage niche and minority camera manufacturers to use it instead of proprietary formats; an increasing number of proprietary formats could be converted to DNG; and an increasing number of software products supported it in some way. OpenRAW was not associated with this moderate success, and sometimes criticised it.

(In contrast, many of its individual supporters, supporting companies, and supporting professional organisations, ''did'' want such a format).


== Status in 2011 ==
== Status in 2011 ==

Revision as of 09:13, 11 October 2011


OpenRAW

OpenRAW was an initiative to raise awareness of a serious problem with top-end digital photography, and to help solve that problem. The problem concerned raw image image access and archiving. OpenRAW's solution, (also their motto), was "Digital Image Preservation Through Open Documentation".[1]

This initiative was primarily an international advocacy and lobby group directed at companies making digital cameras, and also at those developing software to support those cameras. Its resources included a website with a discussion forum[1], and many registered supporters, including individuals[2], companies[3], and professional organizations[4].

Formation

Early in 2005, Juergen Specht[5] and the members of his mailing list D1scussion[6] began to raise questions and concerns of the direction and difficulties associated with proprietary RAW files introduced by camera makers.[7]

The background to these concerns is described at Raw image format (Drawbacks), Digital Negative (Objectives), and dcraw (Motivation). In summary, the photographs from top-end digital cameras are often contained within files whose specifications are formally known only to the camera manufacturers. Not only does this require extra software development with most new camera models, but there is a major risk that future software products will not be able to render photographs from decades earlier.

As the seriousness of the issue was quickly realized, they founded an initiative called OpenRAW, with the goal of encouraging image preservation and giving creative choice of how images are processed to the creators of the images. OpenRAW was launched worldwide on 25 April 2005.

Supporters

At OpenRAW's peak there were over 1500 registered individual supporters from across the world, writing in English but sometimes as a second language[2]. Nearly thirty software and hardware companies registered their support[3], thirty "photographic resources" were supporters[8], and so were five professional organisations.[4]

Its influence was wider than these numbers would indicate. When it conducted a survey in 2006[9], more than 19,000 photographers worldwide responded to it.[10][11][12] Twenty photography associations, forums, listservs, and other resources worldwide supported the survey.[13]

Achievements

The OpenRAW initiative raised awareness of these problems with many photographers and organisations worldwide. Many other people were vaguely aware of them, and the OpenRAW material crystallized their understanding.

Camera manufacturers became aware of the disquiet about their policies, and one of them (Sony) responded with a letter held on the OpenRAW website.

Although few if any camera manufacturers changed their policies as a result of the OpenRAW initiative, many of the newly-aware photographers became informed about options available to them, such as specific archiving actions they could take. (No measures are available of how much they changed their habits).

A useful legacy of the initiative is the availability of resources describing the problems. In particular, soon after the launch of OpenRAW, an article "The RAW Flaw"[14][15][16], jointly authored by Michael Reichmann (of The Luminous Landscape[17]) and Juergen Specht (leader of the founding group of OpenRAW), was published on each website. (The OpenRAW version[18] is a subset of the Luminous Landscape version).

Limitation

The problem identified by Michael Reichmann, Juergen Specht, and other sources identified above, can be summarized as: "there is an ever increasing number of undocumented raw file formats". The final paragraph in "The RAW Flaw" on The Luminous Landscape website is:[14]

"Finally, consider the problems of digital asset management and the cataloging of files…. The various asset management programs can't hope to keep up with the ever increasing number of proprietary formats. And as time passes and these programs are enhanced, what are the chances that they will still be able to read your older RAW files?"

And it summarizes the solution as:

"The Solution? There really is only one solution – the adoption by the camera industry of...
A. Public documentation of RAW formats; past, present and future
or, more likely...
B. Adoption of a universal RAW format"

The version of "The RAW Flaw" published by OpenRAW[18] omits that entire final paragraph, and also the words "or, more likely...". OpenRAW did not acknowledge the need to avoid the ever increasing number of proprietary formats, and did not pursue the idea of a "universal RAW format". Another article "The RAW Problem" at OpenRAW confirms this:[19]

"We want camera manufacturers to publicly document their RAW image formats - past, present, and future. ... Many have suggested (and Adobe has created) a common, open file format for RAW image files for all camera makers to use as a solution to the RAW problem. ... Open documentation of all RAW file formats by manufacturers is the quickest and most satisfactory way for OpenRAW's goals to be reached." (The Adobe reference is to DNG (Digital Negative Format)).

This limitation in the stance of OpenRAW meant that it did not accept that Adobe's DNG (Digital Negative Format), launched 7 months before OpenRAW, was a useful part of the solution. DNG was designed (among other things) as an archival raw image format and has a published specification. Those characteristics are compatible with the OpenRAW's objective of "Digital Image Preservation Through Open Documentation". Instead of seeking cooperation between its aims and those of DNG, OpenRAW concentrated on "public documentation of RAW image formats - past, present, and future".

OpenRAW objected to DNG primarily because it had a DNGPrivateData field, corresponding to the EXIF Makernote field. While the publicly documented fields in DNG are sufficient for high quality rendering of the image, OpenRAW took the stance that it was unacceptable to have any data that was not openly documented. Had OpenRAW succeeded in its limited objectives, those fields would anyway have been documented, and its objection to DNG would have gone away. Given that it didn't succeed, DNG is better than nothing. A repeated suggestion that OpenRAW should seek a version of DNG (tentatively called "DNG/OpenRAW") that had all the advantages of the DNG, but without the undocumented data, was ignored.

The consequence was that, instead of OpenRAW and DNG being perceived as compatible and cooperative parts of a success story, they were positioned by OpenRAW as competitors. OpenRAW failed.

OpenRAW acknowledges that "… the final goal of "Open Documentation" has not yet been reached". Meanwhile, throughout OpenRAW's campaigning, DNG continued to encourage niche and minority camera manufacturers to use it instead of proprietary formats; an increasing number of proprietary formats could be converted to DNG; and an increasing number of software products supported it in some way. OpenRAW was not associated with this moderate success, and sometimes criticised it.

(In contrast, many of its individual supporters, supporting companies, and supporting professional organisations, did want such a format).

Status in 2011

References

  1. ^ a b "Original OpenRAW website".
  2. ^ a b "Individuals supporting OpenRAW".
  3. ^ a b "Software Companies & Developers supporting OpenRAW".
  4. ^ a b "Organizations supporting OpenRAW".
  5. ^ Juergen Specht. "Juergen Specht - Photographs: Photos by a German Photographer living in Tokyo, Japan".
  6. ^ "D1scussion - The Forum for professional photographers using Nikon DSLR cameras". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "Welcome to OpenRAW (latest home page)".
  8. ^ "Photographic Resources supporting OpenRAW".
  9. ^ "The Original Survey Page (now nonfunctional)".
  10. ^ Juergen Specht (2006-04-24). "Survey Press Release".
  11. ^ Calvin Jones (2006-04-25). "The 2006 RAW Survey".
  12. ^ Calvin Jones (2006-04-29). "2006 Raw Survey Results" (PDF). {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ Juergen Specht (2006-04-02). "OpenRAW home page from the Internet Archive". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ a b "The RAW Flaw". May 2005. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ "The RAW Flaw" (DOC). May 2005. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "The RAW Flaw" (PDF). May 2005. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ Michael Reichmann. "The Luminous Landscape".
  18. ^ a b "The RAW Flaw". May 2005. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ "The RAW Problem (via Internet Archive)". Retrieved 2006-02-20.
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