So I shot in RAW...

wxnut · Mar 20, 2007

whats next? I have CS2. I actually shot in the RAW and large jpeg mode. I opened both pics and compared and am just in awe at the improved quality in the RAW. So I open it in CS2 and a screen I never saw comes up. Allows me to adjust certain things but not do everything I need to do in photoshop. Pressing buttons... I come across "open" which brings it up in the normal photoshop window I am used to. So...

Do you fine tune in the first window thing, and then "open" it up into photoshop to do things like clone stamp and lettering and such?

What do I need to know about the first window / program that comes up? Any tips?

I think I am going to like RAW.

Thanks in advance...
Doug Raflik

xfloggingkylex · Mar 20, 2007

use a RAW converter (either supplied with your camera, or if PS can do it thats fine) to adjust the basics you need: exposure, white balance, sharpening, saturation, lens correction for aberations etc. After that you save the file (Tiff's are lossless meaning you can save over and over and not lose ANY quality) and open that file in PS to edit as you normally would.

wxnut · Mar 21, 2007

I dont see an option to save as anything. I click the open button and the file is in PS. Guess I will look at file size and see if it loses anything.

xfloggingkylex · Mar 21, 2007

wxnut said:
I dont see an option to save as anything. I click the open button and the file is in PS. Guess I will look at file size and see if it loses anything.

Your camera should have come with software that includes the RAW converter so you can resave as another format.

wxnut · Mar 21, 2007

I save as a tiff in PS without touching the picture and it went from 6.86MB RAW to 24MB as a tiff. Is that right?

Alex_B · Mar 21, 2007

wxnut said:
I save as a tiff in PS without touching the picture and it went from 6.86MB RAW to 24MB as a tiff. Is that right?

CR2-Raw is 12 bits per colour channel, TIFF is 16 bits per channel, so that increases file size. also TIFF is apparently not really good at compressing, so it sounds OK what you get there.

shorty6049 · Mar 21, 2007

I noticed that when i take a high ISO photo, it shows up as having more noise (noticably more noise) in photoshop's RAW opener than they show in the RAW converter that was supplied with my camera... its almost like it ADDS noise or something because its noisier than it appears on the camera as well.... anyone know whats up with that?

RVsForFun · Mar 21, 2007

...but still a nice guy. I do shoot RAW for commercial work but rarely use the RAW data as I do a pretty good job controlling the exposure.

Big Mike · Mar 21, 2007

I noticed that when i take a high ISO photo, it shows up as having more noise (noticably more noise) in photoshop's RAW opener than they show in the RAW converter that was supplied with my camera... its almost like it ADDS noise or something because its noisier than it appears on the camera as well.... anyone know whats up with that?

I think that some RAW converters have different defaults for noise suppression/removal. I have found that I get different noise levels in different software as well. Some software even has a default setting for more noise suppression at higher ISO levels.

You shouldn't use the image on the camera's LCD to judge anything more than the composition. Those screens aren't good for judging exposure and you aren't actually viewing the RAW image...it's just an embedded JPEG so it's not representative of what the RAW file will look like.

shorty6049 · Mar 21, 2007

ok, it just seems wierd because when i try and get rid of the noise in photoshop , it cant get it back to the way it looks going into sony's program, there's just a lot of color noise that comes out in PS, that i dont have to deal with in sony's program, I'll just use that one from now on, but i just thought it was wierd that it does that

chris82 · Mar 21, 2007

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My Photos Are OK to Edit

ok, it just seems wierd because when i try and get rid of the noise in photoshop , it cant get it back to the way it looks going into sony's program, there's just a lot of color noise that comes out in PS, that i dont have to deal with in sony's program, I'll just use that one from now on, but i just thought it was wierd that it does that

I just started shooting in RAW and I havent had that problem.I find my images are a lot smoother and more sharp which is better I think.

wxnut · Mar 22, 2007

RVsForFun said:
...but still a nice guy. I do shoot RAW for commercial work but rarely use the RAW data as I do a pretty good job controlling the exposure.

I never have a problem with exposure either. Thats not all it is about. I shot a close up of a models face in high res JPEG and RAW and compared them side by side. The RAW was soooo much sharper I couldnt beleive it.

Doug Raflik

RVsForFun · Apr 4, 2007

...of the raw converter. Sharpness of JPEG is a matter of what your in-camera settings are, not an intrinsic property of RAW. The image comes off the same chip regardless of the format. Personally I have my sharpness setting on high, the JPEG images are just peachy.

wxnut said:
I never have a problem with exposure either. Thats not all it is about. I shot a close up of a models face in high res JPEG and RAW and compared them side by side. The RAW was soooo much sharper I couldnt beleive it.

Doug Raflik

fmw · Apr 5, 2007

That intermediate screen is the RAW converter for CS2. You can save files out to the Photoshop RAW format (the name escapes me at the moment) or TIFF, I believe, from that screen. To do additional editing you do just what you did. You open it in photoshop and then you can work with the RAW file as though it were any other kind. You're doing fine. I work with it the same way. I leave my RAW files untouched. I bring them into CS2 and then open them from the converter into CS2 for editing. Then I save the file out in whatever format I want for printing or computer viewing or whatever. In other words, I never do any editing in the RAW converter itself. But, as you discovered, you can.

jtice · Apr 5, 2007

I am very new to RAW and have a couple questions also.

I have my Canon 30D set to 3 sharpness now for jpegs.
I noticed that when i dump down the RAW and jpegs, that the jpegs looks MUCH better than the RAW files.
I assumed this was due to the jpegs being sharpended by the camera.

I must be missing something though.
When I dump the RAW images to my computer, I think they were only about 8 to 9MB.
I simply drag and drop them into PS for editing.
I never saw a separate screen for conversion, it just opens the photo like it would a jpeg.
I know I have CS, pretty sure its CS2.
Is this still ok? Can I just open it like that, edit it, then save it as a Tiff?
Or, should I somehow be making it a Tiff first, then edit it?

I am not that good at PS, so I have not wanted to shoot RAW much at all.
I find that the cameras jpegs look better than what I can do with the RAW files.
I also think its a bit silly to have to edit every photo, and it seems you HAVE to edit a RAW file for it to look good.

~John