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Posted by zdw 12/28/2025

What an unprocessed photo looks like(maurycyz.com)
2510 points | 409 commentspage 6
amelius 12/29/2025|
If you're making a post like this, why not put a color calibration chart in the image?
tdeck 12/29/2025||
> On it’s own, this would make the LED Christmas lights into an overstaturated mess,

So, realistic then?

mvdtnz 12/29/2025||
The article keeps using the acronym "ADC" without defining it.
packetslave 12/29/2025||
Right-click, "Search Google for 'ADC'", takes much less time than making this useless comment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog-to-digital_converter

mvdtnz 12/29/2025||
My point wasn't "I can't find this information", my point was "this is poorly written".
benatkin 12/29/2025||
I wanted to say I that I think it's overrated in terms of its position on HN, but rather than criticize side issues of it, which often point to something being a weak article in general, I probably should have just said exactly what I don't like about it as a whole. So I'll do that.

I think the headline is problematic because it suggests the raw photos aren't very good and thus need processing, however the raw data isn't something the camera makers intend to be put forth as a photo, and the data is intended to be processed right from the start. The data of course can be presented in as images but that serves as visualizations of the data rather than the source image or photo. Wikipedia does it a lot more justice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_image_format If articles like OP's catch on, camera makers might be incentivized to game the sensors so their output makes more sense to the general public, and that would be inefficient, so the proper context should be given, which this "unprocessed photo" article doesn't do in my opinion.

tpmoney 12/29/2025||
> I think the headline is problematic because it suggests the raw photos aren't very good and thus need processing

That’s not how I read either the headline or the article at all. I read it as “this is a ‘raw photo’ fresh off your camera sensor, and this is everything your camera does behind the scenes to make that into something that we as humans recognize as a photo of something.” No judgements or implications that the raw photo is somehow wrong and something manufacturers should eliminate or “game”

benatkin 12/29/2025|||
There are also no citations, and it has this phrase "This website is not licensed for ML/LLM training or content creation." Yeah right, that's like the privacy notice posts people make to facebook from time to time that contradict the terms of service https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/facebook-privacy-notices
plaidfuji 12/29/2025||
Likely analog to digital converter, digitizing the raw signal from the photodetector cells
gruez 12/29/2025||
Honestly, I think the gamma normalization step don't really count as "processing", any more than the gzip decompression step doesn't count as "processing" for the purposes of "this is what an unprocessed html file looks like" demo. At the end of the day, it's the same information, but encoded differently. Similar arguments can be made for de-bayer filter step. If you ignore these two steps, the "processing" that happens looks far less dramatic.
seba_dos1 12/29/2025|
I fully agree regarding gamma, but completely disagree when it comes to debayering. Unless you turn 2x2 Bayer blocks into a single RGB pixel (losing some data in the process), the point of debayering is to interpolate missing data - it's upscaling of a kind after all - and you can use a multitude of various approaches to do that resulting in differing outputs.
jonplackett 12/29/2025||
The matrix step has 90s video game pixel art vibes.
to11mtm 12/29/2025||
OK now do Fuji Super CCD (where for reasons unknown the RAW is diagonal [0])

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_CCD#/media/File:Fuji_CCD...

bri3d 12/29/2025|
The reasons aren’t exactly unknown, considering that the sensor is diagonally oriented also?

Processing these does seem like more fun though.

DustinBrett 12/29/2025||
2 top HN posts in 1 day, maurycyz is on fire!
alexpadula 12/29/2025||
Very interesting! Thank you for posting
seper8 12/29/2025||
Your Christmas tree has anorexia?
lacoolj 12/29/2025|
> No adblocker detected. Consider using an extension like uBlock Origin to save time and bandwidth. Click here to close.

lmao is this an ad for an ad blocker?

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