I think I had an "Aha!" moment the other day.

When shooting RAW, the on-camera settings for white balance (as well as all the options under "Optimize Image"?) don't really matter: The same raw image data is going into the file no matter what.

Sure, the selection on the camera is used by the camera (and Bridge, and Photoshop, and whatever else you use to view a RAW image) when displaying the image, but that's just a display setting, not something actually embedded in the image itself (is this what they call "EXIF" data?). You can manipulate those settings in Photoshop (to a different white balance mode, for example) without any degradation.

I ran a simple series of tests where I shot test photos in every available white balance pre-set. I loaded them into Bridge, then converted them in Photoshop and set the WB mode to "auto" for each. The resulting images are identical.

I am playing around with the options under "optimize image", and it seems like the result is the same, but since those effects are way more subtle than WB, its not as obvious.

All this is on my D70.

Does that sound reasonable?

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