One more RAW question.

darkpbstar · Jun 16, 2008

ok so I put all my RAW photos I took today into my PictureProject program I got with my D40. Now I'm able to view the RAWs, so I'm getting closer. Now, if I pick some to do some pp to, then when I do the pp and convert to jpeg after the pp, will my adjustments save? That should be all. Thank you

Crosby · Jun 16, 2008

I am really new at this so this thread is interesting to me too. Just messing around with my Digital Photo Professional program that came with my Canon, I could adjust the raw image and save it as a RAW. I went back and edited it again. So, I guess I could adjust a RAW image as often as I would like and save each change to a JPEG and have several different versions of the same picture.

Is that correct? Anyone?:scratch:

darkpbstar · Jun 16, 2008

maybe, as long as you always have that original RAW, you should be able to save as many as possible, but what I need is if I make changes, and save the changes as a jpeg, will they be as good as the changes while it was in RAW?

tirediron · Jun 16, 2008

I don't believe that PictureProject allows you to save RAW files (someone pls correct me if this is incorrect) it's more of a management/transfer tool with very basic PP tools. For serious PP, you may want to look at Nikon Capture NX.

Crosby, you are correct. It's important to remember that only Nikon software will allow you to actually save changes to Nikon RAW files (and I assume the same for Canon). All of the other RAW handlers simply write a file containing the PP date you applied, which the software looks at when it opens the picture and then re-applies.

darkpbstar · Jun 16, 2008

ok I just adjusted a photo of mine in my RAW program, and when I saved it to jpeg, the color wasn't the same, it was much darker, and did not look like the pp that I did. Unless I saved it incorrectly or something, I don't know what to do. I'm very new to RAW, but it seems easy enough, until I go to save the copy to jpeg, so I can post it on here and such, and send it to get prints made, and the quality doesn't seem to keep as it did with RAW. I just need help! thank you everyone so much.

darkpbstar · Jun 16, 2008

Well I used PictureProject just so I was able to view my photos, since they were RAW and I couldn't see them any other way. That way I could pick what photos I wanted to do pp to in another program for RAW pp. You see?

Crosby · Jun 16, 2008

darkpbstar said:
ok I just adjusted a photo of mine in my RAW program, and when I saved it to jpeg, the color wasn't the same, it was much darker, and did not look like the pp that I did. Unless I saved it incorrectly or something, I don't know what to do. I'm very new to RAW, but it seems easy enough, until I go to save the copy to jpeg, so I can post it on here and such, and send it to get prints made, and the quality doesn't seem to keep as it did with RAW. I just need help! thank you everyone so much.

I'm not sure, but I think that RAW has more information and more colors. Could it be that when converting to JPEG, the color choices it has to use isn't the same as it was from RAW?

I say this because I was playing around with mine earlier today and found something like 5600K and adjusted it to 4500K. This was in the JPEG format and I think it had something to do with color, maybe color tone or saturation?

I don't know, but I think if we ask enough questions, we'll figure this out.

Early · Jun 16, 2008

tirediron said:
I don't believe that PictureProject allows you to save RAW files (someone pls correct me if this is incorrect) it's more of a management/transfer tool with very basic PP tools. For serious PP, you may want to look at Nikon Capture NX.

Crosby, you are correct. It's important to remember that only Nikon software will allow you to actually save changes to Nikon RAW files (and I assume the same for Canon). All of the other RAW handlers simply write a file containing the PP date you applied, which the software looks at when it opens the picture and then re-applies.

What I imagine is, once you edit a raw file and save it as jpeg or tiff, you still have the RAW file to work on in the future.

darkpbstar · Jun 16, 2008

thanks for ideas, but WHERE ARE THE EXPERTS!!!!???? haha ok I'll be patient.

MACollum · Jun 16, 2008

I think you'll want to check the settings regarding how the picture is displayed. For example, if your camera is set for sRGB and the program is displaying the picture in Adobe RGB, then there will be a difference. If you're doing your edits and then looking at the JPGs in Windows Picture Viewer they could look different. You could try printing a couple at Walmart or something to see if it's just a discrepancy among viewing apps. However, keep in mind that if your monitor is not calibrated the prints may not match anyway.

Lightroom tends to export my JPGs darker than they were in the app so when I use it I just make it a little lighter to make up for the darkness of the exported JPG.

MACollum · Jun 16, 2008

Crosby said:
I say this because I was playing around with mine earlier today and found something like 5600K and adjusted it to 4500K. This was in the JPEG format and I think it had something to do with color, maybe color tone or saturation?

I don't know, but I think if we ask enough questions, we'll figure this out.

Those numbers represent the white balance. The higher the number, the "warmer" the picture. The lower the number, the "cooler" the picture. The higher numbers mean there is more yellow, lower numbers mean there is more blue. HTH.

andrew99 · Jun 16, 2008

I haven't used Picture Project in a while, but from what I remember it doesn't ever change the RAW files, it saves your changes in a separate little file. If you look in the folder where the RAW files are, you should see a little file with the same filename for each file you worked on. This way to can makes as many changes as you want while never affecting the original RAW file.

Regarding export to JPEG, I'll have to go into that program when I get home from work to remember how I used to do it, but when you save your JPEGs, they should look the same as they do in
Picture Project. It sounds like it may be a colour space issue, though.

lockwood81 · Jun 16, 2008

andrew99 said:
I haven't used Picture Project in a while, but from what I remember it doesn't ever change the RAW files, it saves your changes in a separate little file. If you look in the folder where the RAW files are, you should see a little file with the same filename for each file you worked on. This way to can makes as many changes as you want while never affecting the original RAW file.

I agree, you wouldn't want it changing your raw file.

For viewing there is a plug-in you can download to view raw photos in picture viewer without having to convert.

darkpbstar · Jun 16, 2008

I just adjusted another picture, and I saved it as jpeg, and then I opened the untouched raw file, and it looks just like the jpeg I just adjusted. It's like I adjust the RAW, but when I save it to jpeg I lose some quality. Should I save as TIFF? and if so can I still upload to this site, or does it have to be jpeg? TIFF sais it is a lossless file, so I'm assuming with jpeg I'm losing some info that I adjusted. I want to get the best quality out of my pictures, which is why I bought my camera, I just need to figure out how to do it.

Ok, I saved as TIFF, and it still isn't coming out the way I made it look in pp. I can get my photos to look quite nice, and I want to keep these results, but I don't know how to do it without the colors being lost when I convert the RAW file. I feel like I'm goign in circles, I need help! please bare with me, and please offer your input. thank you

Moglex · Jun 17, 2008

darkpbstar said:
I just adjusted another picture, and I saved it as jpeg, and then I opened the untouched raw file, and it looks just like the jpeg I just adjusted. It's like I adjust the RAW, but when I save it to jpeg I lose some quality. Should I save as TIFF? and if so can I still upload to this site, or does it have to be jpeg? TIFF sais it is a lossless file, so I'm assuming with jpeg I'm losing some info that I adjusted. I want to get the best quality out of my pictures, which is why I bought my camera, I just need to figure out how to do it.

Ok, I saved as TIFF, and it still isn't coming out the way I made it look in pp. I can get my photos to look quite nice, and I want to keep these results, but I don't know how to do it without the colors being lost when I convert the RAW file. I feel like I'm goign in circles, I need help! please bare with me, and please offer your input. thank you

I'm finding this confusing.

A RAW file is a RAW file.

If it had any processing applied to it it would, by definition, not be a raw file.

May I suggest that you ask your question in the "Graphics Programs and Photo Gallery " forum specifying exactly which software you are using.

Normally, you would use a RAW processing program to 'develop' your pics and then save the results (either in the same directory or a different one) in one of a number of formats (but NOT RAW), leaving the RAW in place.

The RAW file will NOT have been changed so if you think you are opening it and yet see something that is different to what you saw when you opened it originally I suspect that something is confusing the issue along the way.

Typically this could be a program that is being too clever and just displaying the file name then opening the RAW file if there is no processed file but the processed file if one exists. (If this is the case there will be a menu option somewhere to get back to the original RAW file, but what the wording of such an option is is anybodies guess).