1st attempt at a raw edit.

[WolfSpring]

I have been experienting with UFRaw for gimp. I'm still not very good at PP but I need to learn. Here is the finished product. I wish I could include the raw file, but I'd like some C&C of what I could/should do to better this image.

 

[nossie]

Well you don't really edit RAW, you setup the parameters on how it should be opened or interpreted.
Try this... put a raw file in a folder, then open the raw file. Now look in the folder and I expect you'll see a new file with the same name but a different extension. That's an instruction set for the application you used on how to open the file. Sometimes you can open these files in notepad and see the XML layout.

Does that help? errrm?:scratch: So like you can open the RAW file in more controlled circumstances like adjusting the white balance after the shot was taken and correct problems like Chromatic Aboration rather than the camera making decisions for you and spitting out a jpeg all finished.

Read this thread too...
http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1024264#post1024264

 

[WolfSpring]

Well you kinda confused me but didn't. What I mean is for the first time I used RAW and changed the settings and exported to JPEG after tweaking the lighting and the white balance. I really don't do a lot except cropping for PP, but this was the finished, color balance, white balance, exposure correction and cropped JPEG from a raw file.

Or are we both confused by each other and talking about completely different things?

 

[nossie]

Ok so that's all you do but some applications let you do more. I'm really liking Adobe Bridge atm coz I can do so much before opening the file. But once the file is opened you leave RAW behind and do your editing in Photoshop for example. However at no point did you actually edit the RAW file from the camera, you just opened like you wanted. For example it's not cropped even though you opened it cropped, you can go back and open it another way, with a new crop.

Any better?
make sure you read that other thread.

 

[WolfSpring]

Yeah I understand that the raw always stays the same, it's like the negative and the JPEG is like the digital print from the negative, it's just about what you do to tweak it before processing, right?

 

[Alex_B]

I wish I could include the raw file,

But you cannot see a raw file. It is just a heap of data, but nothing which can be really visualised. Even the RAW preview you can see, is an image generated from the data using certain conversion settings/parameters.

What you call editing of the raw "image", is really playing with these parameters.

 

[WolfSpring]

what I meant by include the raw so that someone else could see the original raw file, and see my final jpeg image and comment on the changes I made so I could know if I should do something different.

 

[nossie]

what I meant by include the raw so that someone else could see the original raw file, and see my final jpeg image and comment on the changes I made so I could know if I should do something different.

Make a copy of the RAW file, give it a new name "test2.raw" and then open it with no adjustments.

 

[Alex_B]

what I meant by include the raw so that someone else could see the original raw file, and see my final jpeg image and comment on the changes I made so I could know if I should do something different.

but that was my point... there is nothing to see about RAW data. RAW data becomes an image only AFTER conversion. And this conversion is done using certain arbitrary parameters and even algorithms. So even depending on the RAW conversion software, these algorithms and parameters vary and you get totally different results.

So strictly speaking with RAW there is no before and after, there is only after

So what you want to compare is a default conversion ,where someone else chose the conversion parameters (the software designer), with the conversion, where you chose the parameters yourself.

 

[WolfSpring]

So if I were to send the NEF file before I do anything to it and export it to a JPG you would see something different then I would?

 

[nossie]

So if I were to send the NEF file before I do anything to it and export it to a JPG you would see something different then I would?

Yes. Because if I opened your RAW file in Adobe Bridge then AB would apply different parameters hence open it differently hence I would see something differently.

For us to see the before and after you need to process the file from RAW to JPEG without making adjustments and save it as 1.jpg. Then open the RAW file make all the adjustments you want and then save it as 2.jpg

Now we can make comments on the difference.

 

[Alex_B]

So if I were to send the NEF file before I do anything to it and export it to a JPG you would see something different then I would?

yes, and this is not only because of different parameters, but also because of different algorithms (such as de-mosaicing algorithms as used when creating the colour information of a bayer-pattern sensor)