Does Lightroom use the full editing latitude of RAW files?
Asked 2/28/2014
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If I shoot RAW+JPEG and edit both in Lightroom, I sometimes don’t see a big difference right away. When I adjust exposure, shadows, highlights, or white balance, does Lightroom actually take advantage of the extra bit depth and dynamic range in a RAW file? I want to be sure I’m not losing the benefits of RAW by editing in Lightroom instead of Adobe Camera Raw.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
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Lightroom is Adobe Camera Raw (with a lot of extra features). Your display can't/won't show you more than 8-bit colour; the extra bit depth comes into play when you make adjustments (you'd usually need to boost the blacks/shadows and recover the whites/highlights to fit a 12- or 14-bit image completely into the rendered space). Internally, you will be doing manipulations on a 16-bit (or, with the latest engine version, optionally 32-bit) version of the image (as is the case in ACR as well); the degree of manipulation will be saved as instructions to an XMP sidecar file (or into a DNG); the result of those manipulations will be rendered to 16-bit or 8-bit files when you export the image.
Originally by user2719. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2719
12y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. Lightroom does use the extra editing latitude of RAW files, and it uses the same processing engine as Adobe Camera Raw.
A RAW file’s higher bit depth and dynamic range usually won’t be obvious on screen by default, because your display typically shows 8-bit output. The advantage appears when you make stronger edits: recovering highlights, lifting shadows, changing exposure, or adjusting white balance. RAW files generally tolerate these changes much better than JPEGs.
In Lightroom, your edits are stored as processing instructions (not baked into the original RAW), and the image is rendered when exported, typically to 8-bit or 16-bit output formats.
If you want to verify the difference yourself, try:
- Apply the same edits in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw — results should be essentially the same.
- Shoot RAW+JPEG, make aggressive edits in Lightroom, then copy those edits to the JPEG. Changes like white balance correction or highlight recovery should show the RAW file’s advantage clearly.
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