What is ARW?

Sony Alpha Raw (ARW) is Sony's proprietary raw image format containing unprocessed sensor data from Sony Alpha and Cyber-shot cameras.

What is HDR?

Radiance HDR is an image format that stores high dynamic range pixel data, commonly used for HDRI environment maps and lighting.

When Should You Use ARW vs HDR?

ARW vs HDR: Key Differences

• •ARW uses lossless compression while HDR uses lossless compression — both take the same approach to file size management.
• •Since both ARW and HDR use lossless compression, the quality characteristics are comparable — differences in file size come down to how efficiently each format implements compression.
• •Alpha channel support: HDR lacks transparency support.
• •ARW files are typically 20-40MB per photo while HDR files range 5-30MB for typical HDR maps
• •ARW is optimized for sony camera post-processing, professional editing while HDR is designed for hdri lighting, panoramic photography — choose based on your specific workflow needs

Advantages of ARW

• ✓The lossless nature of ARW means file sizes stay reasonable while handling Sony camera post-processing, professional editing efficiently.
• ✓From mobile devices to enterprise servers, ARW is recognized and supported everywhere.
• ✓The trade-off for ARW's perfection is larger files — but for archival work, it is worth every megabyte.
• ✓ARW is a first-class citizen in all major software ecosystems, from creative suites to development environments.

Advantages of HDR

• ✓At its core, HDR relies on lossless encoding — a design choice that makes it perfect for HDRI lighting, panoramic photography.
• ✓You won't run into compatibility issues with HDR — it's a universal standard across platforms.
• ✓File size management with HDR: larger files guaranteed to match the original exactly.
• ✓Every major application in the HDRI lighting, panoramic photography space supports HDR natively.

Common Use Cases for ARW to HDR Conversion

• Print materials and publications
• Social media posts and ads
• Digital photography and editing
• Graphic design projects
• E-commerce product images
• Email marketing campaigns

Industry Applications

Best Practices for ARW to HDR Conversion

• →When converting ARW to HDR, check whether HDR supports transparency — if not, your transparent areas will be filled with a solid color
• →Use HDR for maximum quality archival and ARW for lossless workflows
• →Optimize images for web to reduce page load times — tools like our converter let you adjust quality settings before conversion
• →Maintain original aspect ratio to avoid distortion during conversion
• →Always keep a backup of your original files before converting
• →Choose the appropriate quality settings for your specific use case

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Troubleshooting ARW to HDR Conversion

• !HDR shows visible compression artifacts → lower the compression level or switch to a lossless variant
• !The converted HDR image looks washed out → the source ARW likely uses a wider color space than HDR supports
• !HDR file is much larger than expected → check if the conversion preserved an unnecessarily high resolution
• !Text in the converted HDR looks fuzzy → text-heavy images benefit from higher quality settings or a different output format

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