Canon Raw Files

'Daniel' · Sep 23, 2005

I'm finding editing these somewhat confusing. I d/led Adobe DNG convertor 3.1 which supports .CR2 files but you need CS2 to use the files it creates I think. I have CS and the next convertor down 2.4 doesnt seem to work with CR2 files.

Can anyone help?

edit - i'm using a 350D (Digitial Rebel XT)

SLOShooter · Sep 23, 2005

I would imagine that a plugin that works for cs2 would also work for cs, but I could be wrong. Did you stick it in the plug-ins\extensions folder?

Just throw it in there and try editing one of your RAW files and you'll find out whether it works or not quick enough.

Big Mike · Sep 23, 2005

Do you have the latest version of 'Adobe Camera RAW'? It's a free download.

Not every .CR2 file is the same. You need a newer PS plug-in to read 350D files than you do to read 300D files...for example.

'Daniel' · Sep 23, 2005

No the problem is that I d/led the latest Adobe Raw but that only works with CS2. It says so on th website. And you can use the latest DNG Convertor without CS2 but I can't open DNG in CS, do I need a plug-in for that too?

Maybe thats the problem, i'll report back.

SLOShooter · Sep 23, 2005

On Adobe's site it says that only v3.1 of the converter has file support for the 350D. v3.1 only works in CS2 so to use that plugin then yes, you would need to have CS2.

However I'm sure that the software included with the camera must have a plugin that works with PhotoShop, be it CS or CS2.

'Daniel' · Sep 23, 2005

You'd think that wouldn't you. There isn't that I can see. You can view them in the Canon software and then process them to tiff jpg or bitmap but I may as well have shot them originally in jpg.

SLOShooter · Sep 23, 2005

I just did some searching around on the internatron and it appears that there is no support for the 350D in Photoshop CS. Your stuck either upgrading to CS2 and using v3.1 of Adobe's RAW converter, or using the one provided by Canon. I'm sure there are other thrid party software's out there that can handle RAW conversion as well if you don't like the one provided by Canon.

Christie Photo · Sep 24, 2005

Daniel said:
You can view them in the Canon software and then process them to tiff... but I may as well have shot them originally in jpg.

Ya know, I've been thinking the same way. I'm an old school, "get it on the neg" kind of guy. So I'm wondering... if I make the exposure properly, what do I gain by shooting raw? More work?

-Pete

DocFrankenstein · Sep 24, 2005

I have the CRAW working with CS... But I can hardly remember how I installed it.

I did have to manually copy the plug-in somewhere into the photoshop directlory.

Hope this helps any.

photobug · Sep 24, 2005

Christie Photo said:
So I'm wondering... if I make the exposure properly, what do I gain by shooting raw? More work?

-Pete

-Expanded dynamic range (ability to pull details from shadows & highlights)
-Post shot control/adjustment of white balance
-The ability to drastically alter the mood of the shot without affecting the quality of the image (lighter/darker/color cast etc.)
-Better control over contrast, saturation, and sharpness of the pics

So, you can do all the above in jpegs (maybe), but it'll actually be more work than doing the same thing with a RAW file. Once you have one shot of a series dialed in you can batch process RAW files with the same parameters.

But, [large if here] if jpegs are doing what you need your pics to do for you & that floats your boat then you'd gain nothing by shooting RAW. But, [another large if] if you haven't ever shot RAW you really don't know, do you?

'Daniel' · Sep 24, 2005

I have the CRAW working with CS... But I can hardly remember how I installed it.

I did have to manually copy the plug-in somewhere into the photoshop directlory.

Hope this helps any. Today 02:13 PM

:x I did that. But it didn't seem to work. I'll try some stuff again see if I can get it happening. Maybe if I can find a dng plug-in for CS.

Christie Photo · Sep 24, 2005

photobug said:
-Expanded dynamic range (ability to pull details from shadows & highlights)
-Post shot control/adjustment of white balance
-The ability to drastically alter the mood of the shot without affecting the quality of the image (lighter/darker/color cast etc.)
-Better control over contrast, saturation, and sharpness of the pics

This is very helpful. I've not received this detailed answer before.

But... help me a bit more please. I want to understand all this. If I've lit the photo properly (both exposure and color temp), would I still benefit from shooting raw. I have (and do occasionally) shoot raw, but it seems all I end up doing is converting to tiff. How can sharpness be controled?

Thanks!

-Pete

'Daniel' · Sep 24, 2005

RAW is totally unprocessed. It's the information the photo cell recieves put directly into digital format with no compression. It is either 12 or 14 bit which means it can handle 2 ^12 or 2^14 brightness levels. It is as close as you'll get to film negative. Jpeg compresses the picture and can only have 256 levels or brightness. This means the picture is not as accurate and on many camera brightness saturation etc is altered in jpeg.

photobug · Sep 24, 2005

Great answer from Daniel. I'll expand a bit.

When you shoot jpeg the camera applies one of several levels of sharpening, saturation, and contrast that you select. Once the pic is saved you can go back and try to change them, and you can be successful up to a point.

When a RAW file is saved in the camera there is no processing applied to it (beyond setting the WB) so you get a "pristine" pic. Depending on the lighting and the subject you may not need to "process" it at all, but if you do, the processing methods available in photo editing software are better than those available in-camera. If for no other reason than they are infinitely adjustable within a hi-low range, as oppposed to a 3 or 4 setting range available in-camera.

Like I said before, if you're getting the quality of pics you want/need from jpegs, shooting RAW may be a waste of time (and memory space) for you. For optimal prints, particularly in larger sizes (12x18, 20x30 etc.) RAW is in my opinin a better option.

Bottom line is- If you never print larger than 8x10 and you're happy with your prints, then dance with the one that brung ya.