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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.<ref name="AboutOpenRAW">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/about/index.html |title= About OpenRAW |author= Larry Strunk |authorlink= |date= 2006-03-15 }}</ref>
OpenRAW was launched worldwide on 25 April 2005.


== Supporters ==
== Supporters ==
Line 29: Line 31:
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"<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 (at The Luminous Landscape) |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 (at OpenRAW) |coauthors= Michael Reichmann; Juergen Specht |date= May 2005 }}</ref> is a subset of the Luminous Landscape 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 (at The Luminous Landscape) |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 (at The Luminous Landscape) |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 (at The Luminous Landscape) |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 (at OpenRAW) |coauthors= Michael Reichmann; Juergen Specht |date= May 2005 }}</ref> is a subset of the Luminous Landscape version).


== Limitation ==
== Limitation ==
Line 48: Line 50:
:"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."
:"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 above quote "(and Adobe has created)" refers to Adobe's [[Digital Negative|DNG (Digital Negative Format)]], launched 7 months before OpenRAW. From April 2006, the stance was explicitly "DNG is not the answer". The words "(and Adobe has created)" disappeared from "The RAW Problem", removing the acknowledgment that Adobe had created such a file format.<ref name="RawProblem2">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/info/%23solution |title= The RAW Problem |archivedate= 2006-04-11 |archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20060411194520/http://www.openraw.org/info/%23solution }}</ref> An article "Notes on the future of Open RAW formats, and a look at DNG" by Stuart Nixon said "DNG is not the answer".<ref name="NotesStuartNixon">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/node/1482 |title= Notes on the future of Open RAW formats, and a look at DNG |author= Stuart Nixon |date= 2006-04-03 |archivedate= 2006-04-21 |archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20060421030226/http://www.openraw.org/node/1482 }}</ref> In an interview with Javier García Diz, Juergen Specht said "No, DNG is unfortunately not a solution."<ref name="CaptivePhoto">{{cite web |url= http://www.ladinamo.org/english/raw-format-the-captive-photo.php |title= RAW format, the captive photo |author= Javier García Diz |date= July 2006 |archivedate= 2007-02-06 |archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20070206163406/http://www.ladinamo.org/english/raw-format-the-captive-photo.php }}</ref>
The above quote "(and Adobe has created)" refers to Adobe's [[Digital Negative|DNG (Digital Negative Format)]], launched 7 months before OpenRAW. From April 2006, OpenRAW's stance was ''explicitly'' opposed to DNG. The words "(and Adobe has created)" disappeared from "The RAW Problem", removing the acknowledgment that Adobe had created such a file format.<ref name="RawProblem2">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/info/%23solution |title= The RAW Problem |archivedate= 2006-04-11 |archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20060411194520/http://www.openraw.org/info/%23solution }}</ref> An article "Notes on the future of Open RAW formats, and a look at DNG" by Stuart Nixon said "DNG is not the answer".<ref name="NotesStuartNixon">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/node/1482 |title= Notes on the future of Open RAW formats, and a look at DNG |author= Stuart Nixon |date= 2006-04-03 |archivedate= 2006-04-21 |archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20060421030226/http://www.openraw.org/node/1482 }}</ref> In an interview with Javier García Diz, Juergen Specht said "No, DNG is unfortunately not a solution."<ref name="CaptivePhoto">{{cite web |url= http://www.ladinamo.org/english/raw-format-the-captive-photo.php |title= RAW format, the captive photo |author= Javier García Diz |date= July 2006 |archivedate= 2007-02-06 |archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20070206163406/http://www.ladinamo.org/english/raw-format-the-captive-photo.php }}</ref>


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 synergy between its aims and those of DNG, OpenRAW concentrated on "public documentation of RAW image formats - past, present, and future".
[[Digital_Negative#Objectives|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 synergy between its aims and those of DNG, OpenRAW concentrated on "public documentation of RAW image formats - past, present, and future". The disagreement that OpenRAW had with DNG is illustrated by this thread on its website: "Converting current RAW images to Open RAW".<ref name="ConvertingToOpen">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/node/1548/ |title= Converting current RAW images to Open RAW |author= (various) |date= 2007-02-03 }}</ref>


⚫
== Status in 2011 ==
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 OpenRAW Mailing List was closed to new members in April 2006.<ref name="MailingList">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/lists/index.html |title= OpenRAW Mailing List |author= Juergen Specht |date= 2006-04-02 }}</ref>
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 OpenRAW website became inactive in August 2009, but the last post was a year earlier.<ref name="HomeArchive20100208">{{cite web |url= http://www.openraw.org/ |title= OpenRAW home page |archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20100208232200/http://www.openraw.org/ |archivedate= 2010-02-08 }}</ref> By May 2011 that home page was moved to preserve it<ref name="OriginalOpenRAW"></ref>, and a new home page summarized the history of OpenRAW.<ref name="NewOpenRAW"></ref> It says:
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 ==


:"While the final goal of "''Open Documentation''" has not yet been reached, the '''OpenRAW''' initiative and the survey results have triggered the ongoing development of an "''Open''" RAW standard which is in the final stages of becoming a reality."


:"'''OpenRAW''' had a lot of impact on the world of photography and it continues to aim at improving the situation for photographers and their photographs for years to come."


== References ==
== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}
{{Reflist|2}}


== External links ==
* [http://www.example.com/ example.com]


<!--- Categories --->
<!--- Categories --->

Revision as of 13:29, 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.[8]

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[9], and so were five professional organisations.[4]

Its influence was wider than these numbers would indicate. When it conducted a survey in 2006[10], more than 19,000 photographers worldwide responded to it.[11][12][13] Twenty photography associations, forums, listservs, and other resources worldwide supported the survey.[14]

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"[15][16][17], jointly authored by Michael Reichmann (of The Luminous Landscape[18]) and Juergen Specht (leader of the founding group of OpenRAW), was published on each website. (The OpenRAW version[19] 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:[15]

"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[19] 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:[20]

"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 above quote "(and Adobe has created)" refers to Adobe's DNG (Digital Negative Format), launched 7 months before OpenRAW. From April 2006, OpenRAW's stance was explicitly opposed to DNG. The words "(and Adobe has created)" disappeared from "The RAW Problem", removing the acknowledgment that Adobe had created such a file format.[21] An article "Notes on the future of Open RAW formats, and a look at DNG" by Stuart Nixon said "DNG is not the answer".[22] In an interview with Javier García Diz, Juergen Specht said "No, DNG is unfortunately not a solution."[23]

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 synergy between its aims and those of DNG, OpenRAW concentrated on "public documentation of RAW image formats - past, present, and future". The disagreement that OpenRAW had with DNG is illustrated by this thread on its website: "Converting current RAW images to Open RAW".[24]

Status in 2011

The OpenRAW Mailing List was closed to new members in April 2006.[25]

The OpenRAW website became inactive in August 2009, but the last post was a year earlier.[26] By May 2011 that home page was moved to preserve it[1], and a new home page summarized the history of OpenRAW.[7] It says:

"While the final goal of "Open Documentation" has not yet been reached, the OpenRAW initiative and the survey results have triggered the ongoing development of an "Open" RAW standard which is in the final stages of becoming a reality."
"OpenRAW had a lot of impact on the world of photography and it continues to aim at improving the situation for photographers and their photographs for years to come."

References

  1. ^ a b c "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. ^ a b "Welcome to OpenRAW (latest home page)".
  8. ^ Larry Strunk (2006-03-15). "About OpenRAW".
  9. ^ "Photographic Resources supporting OpenRAW".
  10. ^ "The Original Survey Page (now nonfunctional)".
  11. ^ Juergen Specht (2006-04-24). "Survey Press Release".
  12. ^ Calvin Jones (2006-04-25). "The 2006 RAW Survey".
  13. ^ Calvin Jones (2006-04-29). "2006 Raw Survey Results" (PDF). {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Juergen Specht. "OpenRAW home page". Archived from the original on 2006-04-02. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ a b "The RAW Flaw (at The Luminous Landscape)". May 2005. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "The RAW Flaw (at The Luminous Landscape)" (DOC). May 2005. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ "The RAW Flaw (at The Luminous Landscape)" (PDF). May 2005. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ Michael Reichmann. "The Luminous Landscape".
  19. ^ a b "The RAW Flaw (at OpenRAW)". May 2005. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ "The RAW Problem". Archived from the original on 2006-02-20.
  21. ^ "The RAW Problem". Archived from the original on 2006-04-11.
  22. ^ Stuart Nixon (2006-04-03). "Notes on the future of Open RAW formats, and a look at DNG". Archived from the original on 2006-04-21.
  23. ^ Javier García Diz (July 2006). "RAW format, the captive photo". Archived from the original on 2007-02-06.
  24. ^ (various) (2007-02-03). "Converting current RAW images to Open RAW".
  25. ^ Juergen Specht (2006-04-02). "OpenRAW Mailing List".
  26. ^ "OpenRAW home page". Archived from the original on 2010-02-08.
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