RAW or raw?

[drynn]

In terms of photography, I don't think I have ever seen either raw, Raw or RAW, used in a way that leaves ambiguity.

All the discussion really boils down to is (as pointed out to us in the very first post) the pedantry aspect, which is why I said was in the 'who cares' camp.

Still, for those who do care, then lots of people have it right even though they disagree i.e. it is not an acronym(RAW); it is not a proper noun(Raw), and indeed the post about the DPR house style actually describes a common noun before boldly declaring it a proper noun; and the common noun version(raw) is clearly accepted by many (I suspect most digital photographers with any experience of such files) as describing a type of file produced by many digital cameras.

But all in all, I enjoy reading these kinds of topics: nobody is getting irate, points of view are being expressed, differences are being accepted. Nice.

 

[JustUs7]

I’ve decided I like RAW, because it makes me think of the file type rather than the many other things that can be raw. Raw meat. Raw oysters. Hanging out at the beach in the raw. Raw vegetables.

 

[Ellinor William]

You're right—"RAW" is not an acronym like JPEG, which stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. RAW simply means that the unprocessed data is captured by the camera sensor, and it’s commonly written in lowercase because it's not an abbreviation. The term "raw" accurately describes the state of the image data before any processing or adjustments are made.

People write "RAW" due to technical contexts or software interfaces. But, I believe that using "raw" in lowercase is perfectly valid and conveys the idea that the data is unprocessed.

 

[FrancoD]

You're right—"RAW" is not an acronym like JPEG, which stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. RAW simply means that the unprocessed data is captured by the camera sensor, and it’s commonly written in lowercase because it's not an abbreviation. The term "raw" accurately describes the state of the image data before any processing or adjustments are made.

People write "RAW" due to technical contexts or software interfaces. But, I believe that using "raw" in lowercase is perfectly valid and conveys the idea that the data is unprocessed.

to those that already know what it is, not to the general public.

 

[J A C S]

You're right—"RAW" is not an acronym like JPEG, which stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. RAW simply means that the unprocessed data is captured by the camera sensor, and it’s commonly written in lowercase because it's not an abbreviation. The term "raw" accurately describes the state of the image data before any processing or adjustments are made.

People write "RAW" due to technical contexts or software interfaces. But, I believe that using "raw" in lowercase is perfectly valid and conveys the idea that the data is unprocessed.

As an adjective or as a noun?