Importing RAW files

[thouts]

So i'm fairly new to the raw concept. With my first set of raw images I imported them into iPhoto (system default at the time) Then I installed Lightroom. After that I imported from disk the photos from iPhoto. I notice that the photos have the .jpg extension in LR. Does this mean they are not in RAW format? Do I have to directly import the RAW images from the camera for this to work?

Please help me to understand this RAW importing...and maybe a general description of RAW images too would be nice!

Thanks in advance.

 

[dornoforpyros]

no, .jpg files are not raw.

Google can explain raw files to you.

 

[wheelhot]

What camera are you using cause if you shoot Canon the RAW images will be .CR2 (well at least on the 1000D anyways).

I'm not sure how LR works but yeah, you need to import RAW images from your camera to LR.

RAW is what most photographers will mention as a digital film negative. Its unprocessed so it will give you the luxury of post-process it (like you don't need to worry that WB will ruin your photo cause you can change it if you dont like it - assuming you shoot in RAW). The bad part about RAW is the image size, a RAW image is about 10mb while a JPG image is about 4mb, that is double and more bigger then compressed format. So make sure you have the space to stash your RAW pictures.