Why are RAW images soft?

Splog

Splog

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Steve
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Just wondering why are raw images 'soft' :thinking: I'm sure some of you probably know the answer :)

Steve
 
they shouldn't be soft soft but they won't be as sharp as an in-camera jpeg as most likely the jpeg has had some sharpening already applied.
 
TBH It's more of a general question! as I have also noticed a difference from camera to camera.
 
RAW looks soft on the screens of most cameras when zoomed all the way in. It's because you aren't viewing the RAW, you are only viewing the thumbnail embedded in the RAW.
Once it's back on the computer it should look a whole lot better.
You get used to it after a while.....
 
All digital images require sharpening. JPEGs come out of the camera with some sharpening applied and RAWs don't which is why you notice that you need to apply more sharpening to a RAW file than a JPEG.
 
The difference you see in RAW 'softness' is down to the strength of the Anti Aliasing filter fitted in front of the sensor array, and also partly down to how the algorithm used to convert data from the sensor to the RAW file handles it and what processing has been done to it, (All cameras do some processing in camera before the RAW file is built).
 
RAW files differ from camera to camera but all (or most) RAW digital files are soft out of the camera due to the anti alising filter in front of the chip.
My 1dmk2 files required a lot of sharpening whereas I'm finding the 1dsmk3 files require a bit less.

For absolute sharpness remove the filter (saw somewhere you can do it with the 5d)
 
can someone give a quick guide to the sharpening process, using canons DPP?
 
hsuffyan said:
can someone give a quick guide to the sharpening process, using canons DPP?
Click to expand...

All you have to do is move the Sharpening slider up in the Raw section!
 
Slightly facetious but true! The only thing I would add is that you ought to be viewing your image at 100% magnification to judge the effect of the sharpening and I wouldn't imagine you'll ever need to exceed 5 on the slider [I don't recall ever going above 4 personally].
 
Thanks everyone, the anti-alising filter as the cause makes sense!...:thumbs:
 
Edtog said:
My 1dmk2 files required a lot of sharpening whereas I'm finding the 1dsmk3 files require a bit less.
Click to expand...

I find that with my 1DsmkII compared to my 5D. Just needs that extra little bit. Got an action in CS3 for it now so I can just run a whole batch.
 
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