Microsoft announced that Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 now
supports raw format images.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with raw format, it is the
uncompressed output from each of the original pixels on the camera?s
image sensors. Raw files have several advantages over JPEG files
including higher image quality, finer control, and more image
information.
Dealing with raw images on Windows hasn?t always been easy. While
there is software that works well to convert raw files to JPEG,
Windows is offering a built-in Windows solution.
Just download the
Microsoft Camera Codec Pack for Windows 7 and
Windows Vista to be able to view raw photo files from more than 120
DSLR cameras in Photo Gallery, as well as in Windows Explorer.
Viewing is only part of the story. Photo Gallery will also support
editing copies of your raw images. Because raw files are like
digital negatives, they?re protected originals, not to be altered or
harmed. So if you want to alter a raw image, Photo Gallery makes a
copy of the raw original and converts it to either JPEG or the far
superior JPEG-XR (or HD Photo) format. With JPEG-XR, all of the
quality of the raw original is there so you can fine-tune different
editing effects. You can fix red-eye, remove blemishes, or make
detailed image adjustments with confidence knowing your original raw
file is safe. When you use your raw files to construct a panoramic
stitch or Photo Fuse, a new file is generated and you get an even
higher quality result than before.
With the new codec pack, Windows will now support viewing and
editing a wide range of photo file formats including raw, JPEG, PNG,
TIFF and more.