Raw conversion etc

puyjapin

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ok, ive decided to start shooting in RAW after too long in jpeg. Firstly i am still a bit confused. I have taken a raw test shot and used PSE7 to open it. In camera RAW 4.5
The software that came with my D40 doesnt seem to want to load. So ive opened the file in camera raw. I can see the advantage of this immediately but.......
Camera RAW offers some options re WB, exposure etc etc, which I have adjusted. How do I use the rest of PSE features on the file? ie the usual ones ive been using with JPEG. Once I have made some changes to my raw file i chose to save but the only option is dng.... surely i would want to save as jpeg?? or can the rest of the usual PSE applications be done while the file is still raw?
What im trying to understand is are all changes made in raw AND how do i save as a jpeg for normal viewing if thats possible or tiff?? if thats poss in pse7

thanks
 
update...ive had a look. i have seen i can use open image in camera raw and that then opens in the editor program as usual. im assuming the file is still raw and can then be saved as a jpeg?? or is another method better?
 
ok, ive had another look.... once i use open image and it opens in the editor the file is then a jpeg, so i assume by making changes to it from this stage will mean loss of quality? would all changes be made in camera raw, (which limits editing options) or is it acceptable to continue making changes to the jpeg before saving?
 
update...ive had a look. i have seen i can use open image in camera raw and that then opens in the editor program as usual. im assuming the file is still raw and can then be saved as a jpeg??
No, once you're out of ACR the image isn't RAW anymore...it's now a proprietary Adobe file format (.psd) until you convert it (Save As) to JPEG, TIFF or whatever. In fact, you're not really doing anything to the original RAW file when you're in ACR, you're working on a copy of it that has been converted to a file format that ACR can manipulate.
ok, ive had another look.... once i use open image and it opens in the editor the file is then a jpeg,
No, see above.
so i assume by making changes to it from this stage will mean loss of quality?
No, not at this stage...not until you convert it to JPEG when you Save As. And you don't really lose quality, you lose all the unnecessary bits and pieces of the image file that you and PSE7 have decided aren't needed to make your image look the way it does after editing. If you did it right, the JPEG that comes out of PSE7 will look better than a JPEG that comes straight out of your D40.
would all changes be made in camera raw, (which limits editing options) or is it acceptable to continue making changes to the jpeg before saving?
Working in ACR is the start of the editing process and it's where you do your white balance and big exposure adjustments. You can do some color adjustments and sharpening, but from what I understand it doesn't impact the image as much as when you're editing in PSE7. Do your early adjustments in ACR then open it in PSE7 and continue with your editing. The most important feature of PSE7 and PS CS4 is layers (something you can't do in ACR) and this is where you'll do most of your major editing adjustments.
would all changes be made in camera raw, (which limits editing options)
No. See above.
or is it acceptable to continue making changes to the jpeg before saving?
Yes, you do most of the photo editing in PSE7. Remember, you're not working on a JPEG file when you're in PSE7...you're working on a proprietary Adobe image format until you save/convert the image as a JPEG.

There are some people who do all their editing in ACR and all they do in PSE7 is convert it to JPEG with no other editing done to the image.

It's hard to learn this stuff on your own. PSE7, although it's not PS CS4, is still a powerful editor with lots of features and functions to learn. I'd suggest getting a few books to help you learn how to use PSE7 to it's fullest. I like the Missing Manual books ([ame="http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Elements-7-Missing-Manual/dp/0596521332/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238077770&sr=1-2"]Photoshop Elements 7: The Missing Manual [/ame]) and Scott Kelby's books ([ame="http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Elements-Digital-Photographers-Voices/dp/0321565959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238077770&sr=1-1"]The Photoshop Elements 7 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)[/ame]). Another good book to get is [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Layers-Complete-Photoshops-Powerful-Feature/dp/0321534166/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238079311&sr=1-1"]Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop's Most Powerful Feature[/ame].
 
thanks for all that. ive been doing a bit of work on a file. ive tried saving as a tiff and as a jpeg and the tiff is a much larger file and much better quality than the jpeg. for instance i would not be happy to print the jpeg but the tiff looks fine
 
thanks for all that. ive been doing a bit of work on a file. ive tried saving as a tiff and as a jpeg and the tiff is a much larger file and much better quality than the jpeg. for instance i would not be happy to print the jpeg but the tiff looks fine

You can keep file size down by saving tifs with zip compression. I do this for clients all the time, and they get first-rate prints. Tifs with zip compression are still larger than jpegs; the advantage is that tif is a lossless format, so you can open it, make further adjustments, and re-save it without losing image quality.

tiffoptions.jpg
 
so would u save as a tiff and a jpeg or just a tiff?
 
ive tried compression and it reduces the size from 17mb to 10mb, is that normalish and would it be possible to print from this usually? also i dont fully understand resizing. for instance if the file was cropped to a smaller size if the ratios were not correct then printing say a 12x8 would result in some of the border being white or the image being distorted if it was fit to page wouldnt it?
 
ive tried compression and it reduces the size from 17mb to 10mb, is that normalish and would it be possible to print from this usually?

That sounds about right. I just saved an image from a D300 as a tif, first with no compression, then with zip compression: 27.5MB / 11.1MB. Yes, you can print from a tif file.
 

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