Changing images from RAW to JPEG

Digital SLR cameras can take photos in RAW format, which is a bit tricky for our photo book creator since it only recognises images in JPEG format. Below you’ll find out how to convert your images from RAW to JPEG format – it looks a bit complicated, but it’s ok really (if you get stuck and need a calm voice to explain things, our customer service team would love to help).

1. What does ‘RAW format’ mean?

An image saved in RAW format consists of raw data, without processing and compression. In short, RAW images don’t agree with our creator (like too much cake gives you bellyache) and you’ll need to convert them to JPEG.

2. Convert your file

Open the photos in RAW format, e.g. in Photoshop. Go to ‘File’ and choose ‘Save As’ and select from the list ‘.jpg’ (it might appear as JPEG).

Choose a compression between 90-100%, otherwise this leads to loss of quality. Compression also reduces the file size. Note: Make sure the settings are RGB.

3. Image size

For a 30×30cm book, your photos should be a minimum of 12 inches x 120 dpi or 1440 pixels wide to be displayed on a full page. Any smaller than this and the resolution in your photo book won’t be clear.

If you’d like to stretch a photo across two pages (30x60cm), it needs to be twice as large, i.e. (2 x 1440) = 2880 pixels. You can use the same formula for larger or smaller sized photo books. If you’re in doubt, our ‘Resolution warning’ in the photo book creator will tell you if your image isn’t large enough.

4. Difference between RAW and JPG

Ok, are you sitting comfortably? We’ll explain… a RAW file is added to include information about camera settings. Most sensors can be 12-bits to store colour information per colour channel. This means that each of the Red, Green and Blue (RGB) 4096 variations can be saved.

When saving a picture in JPEG format in the camera, the 12-bit information is converted to the 8 bits in a colour channel can have a JPEG file.

In JPEG format, there are only 256 possible variations per colour channel. In practice, these extra colours are not visible to the human eye, but of course it means that information is lost. For example, shadows and light parties through processing of the RAW format this additional information to be highlighted with a photo editing program so that way in shadow and light by drawing lots more to see.

Downside is that pictures taken in RAW format are stored much larger files and rework have to optimize them for printing. This is a time consuming process and it requires the knowledge and practice in this way the most of the pictures to take.

5. Why can’t you use RAW files with bonusprint programs?

For the simple reason that there’s no standard RAW format. Each camera manufacturer has a different RAW format, and all these variations make it incredibly difficult for us to deal with.
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