I copy and pasted my photos from my Canon Rebel SL1 straight to My Pictures on my computer. They appear to be image files, but the file type is "CR2".
When I try to post them on Facebook, image files automatically pop up but my Canon photos seem to be under a regular file instead of image, and they never completely upload, and when I try to email them to people they cannot see them. How can I fix this?
'CR2' is the file extension for 'Raw' images from Canon. They cannot be uploaded as an image to facebook. Raw files are helpful to edit. If you want to distribute your taken picture, you must first convert them to jpg or another image format.
First of all, you should check the camera's settings. Most likely you will be able to set the camera to save the files as JPG instead of Raw (cr2). In some cameras, you can also choose to save both JPG and RAW files. If you don't know what Raw files are and don't use the advantages of those files, I would rather set the camera to ONLY save the JPG file, since cr2 files are considerably bigger, which means you would be able to save more pictures on the card you are currently using.
.cr2 files are Raw images produced, among others, by Canon cameras. You can use the software that came with the camera to convert those images to JPG, or if you don't have that software anymore, there are image processing software that will be able to convert cr2 to jpg. Of course, Facebook, won't allow uploading cr2 files.
More about Raw Images on Wikipedia
If you don't have any software capable of converting Raw files to Jpg, there are also websites offering online converting, for example this one here: Raw Pics.io
This video here will explain how to set the camera for file type and quality.
.CR2 is the file suffix Canon uses for their RAW files. However, RAW is not an acronym. It is not a standard. And it is not a single file format. It basically means a raw (uncooked) data dump from the camera sensor/processor. And the file format is different for every model of camera. This is why software that can interpret a RAW file as visual data has to continually be updated to include interpretations of the file formats coming from new cameras.
.CR2 files can be easily converted to more standard file formats that web browsers know how to display by default (e.g., JPEG, PNG, etc.) You just need the right software. And your camera can do this for you by default, if you set the image quality to be JPEG or JPEG+RAW (if you decide you want to post-process the RAW file yourself). Canon cameras come with a piece of software called Digital Photo Professional (DPP) that can do RAW conversion. You can also download it from Canon's websites if you have the serial number of your camera.
A lot of common post-processing software can also do RAW conversion. (See: Is there good free software for editing Canon RAW files?).
The other answers excellently explain what a RAW is. It's the raw data captured from the sensor. Each camera manufacturer has its own RAW file format, and most services like Facebook don't have special support for RAW files.
I would actually argue that unless you want to invest a lot in your skills for handling RAW files, it's typically better option to just use the JPG. RAW files usually contain a lot of noise, especially if the picture was taken with a high ISO setting. Some RAW software like darktable has a profiled denoising option, but then you have to turn the module separately 'on'. In contrast, the noise reduction algorithms in the camera have been applied to the JPG file. Actually, I would say the noise reduction in the camera is pretty good. While not as powerful as non-local means profiled denoising, it doesn't give a painting-like appearance like the non-local means profiled denoising does at high ISO.
Some cameras have an option to store both RAW and JPG. If you have a large memory card and lots of storage on your computer, and see it possible that you'll be investing in your skills for handling RAW files in the future, it may be a good choice to capture both RAW and JPG at the same time.
If you've already taken the photo, you can convert CR2 files to JPG, using software such as Lightroom, Photoshop, raw.pics, or UFRaw. To skip this step next time, you can change your camera settings to shoot JPG instead of RAW.
Check out Adobe DNG converter. I believe a .DNG file (digital negative) will open in your software. From there you can convert it to .jpg for Facebook, email, etc. The DNG converter is free.
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/digital-negative.html
Also check for new software:
If you are using a Mac, I found this on a search from Canon Thailand: I loaded it and it works.
Fred
