用RAW格式拍摄才能真实记录水下色彩，避免科学数据失真。
Underwater imaging without color distortions requires RAW capture
- 拍摄时保存未经处理的RAW原始数据，避免相机算法篡改颜色。
- JPEG格式会破坏像素值与光照强度的线性关系，无法跨设备比较。
- 适合珊瑚白化、生态监测等依赖色彩精度的研究者参考。
消费级相机因其价格低廉且操作简便，被广泛用于水下科学领域，生成大量用于生态系统调查、监测、制图和动物行为研究的影像。然而，当颜色是研究变量（如珊瑚白化研究）时，若以JPEG格式拍摄，大多数图像无法进行定量分析。问题并非源于JPEG压缩本身，而是其前的相机内部处理：相机内置算法在生成图像时修改颜色与对比度，目的并非保证色彩准确，而是生成视觉上更吸引人的照片。这些不可逆的处理过程破坏了像素值与场景辐射亮度之间的线性关系，导致颜色无法标准化、复现或跨相机、地点、时间进行比较。本文阐明了这一做法的科学代价，并提供实用建议，从原始数据的采集与存档开始，保留最小处理的RAW图像，以防止不可逆的数据损失。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Consumer cameras are ubiquitous in aquatic sciences because they are affordable and easy to use, generating vast collections of underwater imagery for ecosystem surveys, monitoring, mapping, and animal behavior studies. Yet when color is the variable of interest, such as in coral-bleaching research, most of these images cannot be used quantitatively if captured in JPEG format. The limitation is not due to JPEG compression itself, but to the in-camera processing that precedes it: as cameras produce these images, built-in algorithms modify colors and contrast not to ensure color accuracy but to produce visually pleasing pictures. These irreversible in-camera operations break the linear relationship between pixel values and scene radiance, making colors impossible to standardize, reproduce, or compare across cameras, locations, or time. This essay explains the scientific costs of this practice and offers pragmatic guidance to prevent irreversible data loss, beginning with the capture and archiving of minimally processed RAW images.
Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品；中文卡片由大模型生成，请以原文为准。