[HDR-photo] Re: RAW to EXR

[Geraldine Joffre]

On Tue, 1 May 2007 12:19:54 -0500, Dan Reetz wrote
> In the case of a single RAW file, converted to HDR without white
> balance, what would be the difference between the values stored in 
> the RAW file (the 10 or 12bit-per-pixel information) and the 
> generated HDR?

The difference between the values will come from the RAW conversion process
which in this case will be limited to:

1. Decoding 
2. Clipping at saturation and black level
3. Demosaicing of the Color Filter Array 
4. Conversion from camera to output color space

Then, most RAW converters will add to that noise reduction, highlight
recovery, correction for chromatic aberrations, lens distortions... 

Note that the decoding step is only needed when the data is stored in
proprietary format (CR2, NEF, ...) and the demosaicing step when the camera
does not capture all 3 color channels at each pixel (which is the case for the
vast majority of digital cameras but not all).

Geraldine Joffre