Processing RAW Images

[stalley]

I'm new to photography and would love some feedback about a few questions I have.

1. I'm shooting with a Canon 50D and processing my images with Photoshop CS3. Currently I open my RAW images in Photoshop and make the necessary changes but when I click "save images" I'm getting a tiny jpg that's less than 1MB. What am I doing wrong?

I know there's a huge debate over whether it's better to shoot jpgs or RAW data so I'm wondering what are the best post processing steps to get crisp colorful images.

2. When shooting lanscapes how do you decide what to set the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed on? Are their certain formulas that help deciding what the shutter speed should be for a large aperture?

Obviously I'm terribly new at this and trying to learn all I can! Thanks for your help!

 

[D-B-J]

1: I have no idea why that is happening?

Shoot in RAW!! I never did, seeing as how the files are massive, and it takes extra time. However, they are much simpler to correct, and often come out better than a jpeg (for me atleast!).

2. All depends. Normally i shoot at f9-11, and adjust everything else accordingly.

 

[stalley]

I know this is dumb but what do you mean by "adjust everything else accordingly"...

 

[D-B-J]

like, ill usually set my iso at 100 (in bright situations), then set my aperture for narrow dof of greater dof (wide aperture or like 9-11, respectively), then adjust my shutter speed to center my light meter.

 

[pbelarge]

My understanding is that Raw does not change the entire photo, it builds a database of info that is stored with the image (non-destructive). I think...not sure... you have to save the image after your work in a way that incorporates the data onto your photo. The one-meg is the data.

 

[Dwig]

...Currently I open my RAW images in Photoshop and make the necessary changes but when I click "save images" I'm getting a tiny jpg that's less than 1MB. What am I doing wrong? ...

I'm not 100% sure, I skipped from PS/CS to PS/CS4, but if I'm not mistaken you are not actually editing your RAW image in Photoshop itself. PS can't read RAW files. It uses a plugin, Adobe Camera RAW (aka ACR), to pre-process the RAW files and convert them into something PS can swallow.

When you attempt to open a RAW file in PS, it launches ACR and the image first opens there. You make adjustments to the RAW conversion in ACR. I think you are then clicking a "Save image" button in ACR which generates a file based on ACR's preferences instead of clicking "Open" which then opens the converted image is PS itself. If your ACR's preferences are set to generate small JPGs then that is what you'll get when you click "Save Image".

 

[kkart]

Ok a little idea here....

When ACR opens a RAW file, look at the very bottom-left side, and you will see the dimensions of the file which open up inside PS, make sure it set to your cameras resolution and not something like 800x600

 

[KmH]

You might want to get a copy of this book:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Real-World-Camera-Adobe-Photoshop/dp/0321518675/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275607301&sr=8-7"]Amazon.com: Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS3 (9780321518675):…[/ame]

There are used ones available too.

 

[emh]

1. If you are intentionally saving as jpeg after processing a RAW image, 1MB isn't all that small. Remember, jpegs are compressed -- so they are supposed to be small. And a photo editor will do a much better job of compression than your camera would, so the same image saved as a jpeg on a computer will be much smaller than a jpeg out of the camera. Depending on the content of the image, even a high-quality jpeg can be tiny (images with less details compress more).

That said, there should be something in CS3 that lets you change the "quality" of the jpeg you are saving. Higher quality does less compression (bigger files) and lower quality does more compression (smaller files). I don't use Photoshop anymore, so I can't tell you in specific steps, but make sure you are not saving the jpegs at a low quality setting.

2. For landscapes, I prefer a smaller aperture (usually f/11 or smaller). Most times, you would want the entire landscape to be in focus. So to get a larger DOF, you want a narrower aperture. To me, that's the most important setting for landscapes. If the lighting is good, I generally stay at ISO 200 or so. Then the only free variable is shutter speed, and you have to set that to get proper exposure. In low light, you may need to bump up the ISO if a the shutter speed for proper exposure ends up being too long (practical shutter speeds may be limited due to varous reasons, like if you are hand-holding the camera or there are moving things in the image).

 

[D-B-J]

cs3 does have an option of different jpeg qualities.

 

[Dwig]

cs3 does have an option of different jpeg qualities.

Thanks for the confirmation about the 4.x versions of ACR that run in PS/CS3. The early versions of ACR didn't have their own Save option. To save the processed RAW files as a bitmap, any format, you had to click Open to pass it into the core Photoshop application and then Save from there. The newer version of ACR have their own Save option and there are several options in Preferences to choose the format and, if JPEG, the compression (at least in ACR v5.x under PS/CS4, I presume there is some level of control in v4.x).

 

[stalley]

Thanks for the amazing help everyone. There's great information here and I can't wait to get out with my camera today and see what happens.

I found that if I go ahead and open the images first and then save them in PS that it's saving up at a higher quality like normal. I'm still not sure why it doesn't give me the option to save higher in the ACR but at least there's a run around. The dimensions in the ACR are really large so I'm trying to find a setting that's making is save down tiny directly out of the ACR.

Thanks again!