alt Hacker NewsEven old school chemical films were the same thing, just different domain.
There is no such thing as “unprocessed” data, at least that we can perceive.
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True, but there may be different intentions behind the processing.
Sometimes the processing has only the goal to compensate the defects of the image sensor and of the optical elements, in order to obtain the most accurate information about the light originally coming from the scene.
Other times the goal of the processing is just to obtain an image that appears best to the photographer, for some reason.
For casual photographers, the latter goal is typical, but in scientific or technical applications the former goal is frequently encountered.
Ideally, a "raw" image format is one where the differences between it and the original image are well characterized and there are no additional unknown image changes done for an "artistic" effect, in order to allow further processing when having either one of the previously enumerated goals.
Exactly - film photographers heavily process(ed) their images from the film processing through to the print. Ansel Adams wrote a few books on the topic and they’re great reads.
And different films and photo papers can have totally different looks, defined by the chemistry of the manufacturer and however _they_ want things to look.