Ahola Development Blog

RAW image files are basically just what the camera sensor sees thru the lens. There is no processing, fixing and correcting done. The JPEG photo is processed by software to fix colors, exposure and even other errors software can detect. So is iPhone and iPad take great photos, why shoot RAW?

Sometimes you want to fix the photo yourself. You have some great software you like to work with. And over time all software tend to get better in doing things and so does RAW image processing software. When you have the original RAW data at hand you can use the new software capabilities to give your photos a new look.

Silver B&W Camera takes RAW photos. They are saved together with the JPEG image as DNG file. There are several options to get access of the DNG file – one is using A Photo Tool.

Shooting RAW with Silver B&W can be bit confusing as the iPhone and iPad set some restrictions to when RAW image is available. If your device has multiple cameras (we call them lenses) you must select wide of tele lens.

And you can not use zoom. That is because the lenses on your device are fixed length (focal length) and all zooming is done digitally cropping the image. So it makes sense to only have the non zoomed RAW photos as you can always use your editing software to make the crop you want.

Also you must enable the RAW format. Go to settings and switch RAW on. By default this removes non RAW features – like automatic lens and zoom buttons. But you can enable the non RAW compatible features if you like.

If you enable non RAW compatible features Silver B&W Camera saves RAW file when it is available and possible. So you can use all the features of Silver B&W Camera. You get RAW when the settings are right but you can zoom if you like and know that you still get JPEG.

One thing to note is that although Silver B&W Camera is geared towards black and white photography the RAW photo version is always in color. The sensors records color and the b&w jpeg is created by Silver B&W Camera so the RAW is what the sensors sees.

You have create tools to take b&w photos with Silver B&W Camera, but when RAW is available you can later rethink how to convert the photo to grayscale or even keep the colors if you change your mind.

Your device may have one, two or three cameras on its back. Silver B&W Camera has setting to select a camera. We call this selecting the lens to use when taking a photo or shooting video.

Lens (camera) is selected by button shown in the picture below. If your device has only one camera then the lens selection button is not visible.

There is one extra lens listed in the selection. That is lens A – automatic. A is default and lets the operating system to choose lens to be used based on zoom and focus.

All devices have wide lens. That is selected by button W. If you device has only one camera then this is it.

Some devices have tele lens. That is selected by button T. Tele gives narrower field of view compared to wide lens.

Some devices may have third camera that is called Ultra Wide. That is selected by button UW. It gives a really wide field of view and can produce exiting results.

On front of your device you have one single camera to take selfies. Switch to it using button marked with circling arrows.