Working with RAW

onedayillknowbetter · Nov 12, 2007

I got my Canon 40D last week, after owning my 350D for almost 2 years. I have some university schooling on photography, but film, and I definitely feel humbled in the presence of my 40D. I have decided to go back to the books and re-learn the basics, since the past two years with my 350D have resulted me heavily dependent on the Program setting. I can still expose an image and I know how to use my light meter and all that, but I really feel like a skipped a step going from color film classes to working with digital on my own.

A friend suggested that I work in RAW because of the advantages it offers, and I took his advice and shot in RAW last night. I've read about it and know that I need to convert the images somehow...or something? That's kind of where it trails off. I'm not certain of what I need to do to get these images into a viewable space where I could work with the adjustments and such. I work with Adobe CS2 and just started trying out Adobe Bridge today.

I cross posted this in another part of the forum, but haven't gotten any replies yet. Any suggestions, including books that could help me learn RAW conversion and usage a little better are greatly appreciated!

nossie · Nov 13, 2007

Welcome ODIKB.

Read this thread for a current discussion already open on RAW
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99936

Buy this book Understanding Exsposure for $16 to get you out of program mode

TCimages · Nov 13, 2007

For Processing RAW, I suggest using Digitial Photo Professional (DPP) that came with your camera. It retains the in camera settings and in my opinion produces excellent TIFs and JPGs. You have many other options, but DPP will do a very nice job and you can use PS to polish or add frames.

nossie · Nov 13, 2007

TCimages said:
For Processing RAW, I suggest using Digitial Photo Professional (DPP) that came with your camera. It retains the in camera settings and in my opinion produces excellent TIFs and JPGs. You have many other options, but DPP will do a very nice job and you can use PS to polish or add frames.

I dunno,.. it's hard to agree with that (when comparing to CS3).
Firstly if it has your camera settings it doesn't matter because you're going to make adjustments anyway.
2nd; Adobe Camera RAW has a vast amount of extra useful tools/functions/features.
3rd; Adobe put all of their production budget into making this product (CS3) - this is their business, for canon/nikon etc it's not what they do, they are not trying to compete but provide the necessary minimum of software to complete the camera package.

I suggest you give the Adobe Bridge + Camera RAW + Photoshop combination a good test drive.

gizmo2071 · Nov 13, 2007

You might need to download a RAW plug-in upgrade for CS2 to be able to work with the 40D RAW images. I'm not sure.
Open up Photoshop, then go to open file and you can open the raw files into photoshop.
Once you have done the adjustments in the RAW window, click open image and it will open the image in the normal photoshop mode for you to carry on working.

onedayillknowbetter · Nov 13, 2007

nossie said:
Welcome ODIKB.

Read this thread for a current discussion already open on RAW
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99936

Thanks for the tip, but I think you sent me to a thread about buying a first camera...
I've been looking for a RAW thread, but haven't had any luck so far.

nikonkev · Nov 13, 2007

For CS2, you will need to download Adobe RAW (as it was the case for me). You will then be able to open RAW files and edit them in CS2. After your adjustments are done, you save them as JPEG (or whatever other extention you wish) and it should be okay.

It may also automatically create an .xmp (Extensible Metadata Platform) file for you, which is kind of like saving your work as a .psd file where your new work is saved in the raw file.

Edit: If you're using CS3, it should already let you work with RAW images, no problem, without having to download plug-ins.

nossie · Nov 13, 2007

Sorry oneday it should have been this... http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99567

TCimages · Nov 13, 2007

nossie said:
I dunno,.. it's hard to agree with that (when comparing to CS3).
Firstly if it has your camera settings it doesn't matter because you're going to make adjustments anyway.
2nd; Adobe Camera RAW has a vast amount of extra useful tools/functions/features.
3rd; Adobe put all of their production budget into making this product (CS3) - this is their business, for canon/nikon etc it's not what they do, they are not trying to compete but provide the necessary minimum of software to complete the camera package.

I suggest you give the Adobe Bridge + Camera RAW + Photoshop combination a good test drive.

The goal is to take pictures that require little to no processing. Well, my goal. 2 and 3 are just how you justify what you spent on overpriced software. I hope you don't take that the wrong way, not meant to be mean, just my opinion.

I have and do use them both, so in my mind, my opinion carries a little weight. But it truley is nothing more than an opinion.

thanks for the suggestion though