I know how much you love ?'s

[Barefoot and Natural]

Okay....
I am going to try shooting some shots in RAW, just so I understand was this means for me, this is the jist:

1. RAW image is not a jpeg... right?
2. I still set custom settings on my camera...... right?
3. A RAW image gives me more chances to fix a "somewhat messed up shot"
4. I edit the RAW image and then save it as a jpeg?

This is once again going to be tested on my children and see if I can properly edit a picture. I have never shot in RAW mode before and so the setting on my camera should be "RAW" or RAW+L (I have a Rebel XT and it gives me both choices but the amount of shots I can take on my 1 gb card is dramatic from 74 RAW+L or 106 RAW) I am assuming that the RAW+L means it will save the shot both as RAW and a jpeg (right?)


Okay....thanks for your help on this.....I just love trying new things!!

Heather

[Art Scott]

Okay....
I am going to try shooting some shots in RAW, just so I understand was this means for me, this is the jist:

1. RAW image is not a jpeg... right?
absolutely correct...raw is a totally unprocessed, uncompressed file, a digital negative if you will, a jpeg (jpg) is a camera processed and compressed file

2. I still set custom settings on my camera...... right?
sure

3. A RAW image gives me more chances to fix a "somewhat messed up shot"

yes

4. I edit the RAW image and then save it as a jpeg?

correct.....I know that Smugmug says that the largest jpg you need is an 8 or 10...I have a local pro processor that does my printing (on photos that are to be signed and numbered) and they wanted everything as a 12 the least amount of compression...it is the same processor that does the air craft photographer ( Paul Bowen (http://www.airtoair.net/) ) work.....so I save it as a 12, even for SM galleries.

This is once again going to be tested on my children and see if I can properly edit a picture. I have never shot in RAW mode before and so the setting on my camera should be "RAW" or RAW+L (I have a Rebel XT and it gives me both choices but the amount of shots I can take on my 1 gb card is dramatic from 74 RAW+L or 106 RAW) I am assuming that the RAW+L means it will save the shot both as RAW and a jpeg (right?)

not being a canon shooter...I presume you are correct that the R+L= Raw / Jpg.......you are also correct that shooting in both eats a lot of card space....however....it can be helpful in the begining to see the difference in what the camera gves you and what YOU decide you really want your work to look like.....


Okay....thanks for your help on this.....I just love trying new things!!

Heather


Hope this has been a little help at least.

[saurora]

You'll never go back, Heather!!!! :D

[colourbox]

2. I still set custom settings on my camera...... right?


Yes and no. This can be confusing.

With Raw, the most important camera settings are focus, aperture, and shutter speed because it is impossible to change them later. (I guess you could add image stabilization to that.) Just about everything else can be changed in your Raw converter. For example, your camera has Sharpness and Saturation settings. Those usually affect JPEGs but not Raw. It's good to get white balance right during the shot but you can also freely change that in Raw.

[wxwax]

You do have software that can handle Canon RAW files, right?

[gus]

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-raw-files.shtml

[LiquidAir]

White balance, saturation and sharpening are all processes that are applied to the image when the conversion from Raw to JPEG happens. If you do the conversion in camera, those choices are set in stone at the time you take the picture. If you shoot raw and do the conversion in Digital Photo Profesional (Canons Raw software) you can adjust those settings to your liking when you have the image up on your computer screen.

There are two primary reasons I exclusively shoot raw:

White Balance: Canon's auto white balance is not all that hot and misses often. Shooting raw lets me defer the white balance decision to later and gives me one less thing to worry about when taking the picture. Often I take one shot of an 18% grey card to start off as a reference point for white balance.

Dynamic Range: Raw has somewhat greater dynamic range than JPEG so with a raw file I have more latitude to adjust if I missed the exposure a little bit.

[Barefoot and Natural]

You do have software that can handle Canon RAW files, right?

:huh
I don't know .....I have software that came wit my camera
I have Corel Paint Shop Pro (?) I don't know if that supports RAW files
I also have Adobe Elements 5 (?) not sure on this one either

I guess that would be a HUGE factor for me.....

[Barefoot and Natural]

Hope this has been a little help at least.


Yes....thank you very much!
I have also been looking into the Transcend cards after reading a couple of your posts....you are totally sold on them huh?

[Barefoot and Natural]

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-raw-files.shtml

Thank you for this link!! :D

[Barefoot and Natural]

You'll never go back, Heather!!!! :D

If I can do it right.......no more finger nails......total stress......agh!!!

[LiquidAir]

:huh
I don't know .....I have software that came wit my camera
I have Corel Paint Shop Pro (?) I don't know if that supports RAW files
I also have Adobe Elements 5 (?) not sure on this one either

I guess that would be a HUGE factor for me.....

I would expect you got Digital Photo Professional in the package with your camera; that is the official Canon sanctioned way of converting raw to JPEG. Otherwise, while it is in beta, Adobe Lightroom is free and supports raw files. Personally I use Lightroom because it gives me a faster workflow, but there are some picky technical reasons why the Canon software might be somewhat better.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

[Barefoot and Natural]

I would expect you got Digital Photo Professional in the package with your camera; that is the official Canon sanctioned way of converting raw to JPEG. Otherwise, while it is in beta, Adobe Lightroom is free and supports raw files. Personally I use Lightroom because it gives me a faster workflow, but there are some picky technical reasons why the Canon software might be somewhat better.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/


I looked at this link....very cool....dumb question, can I even download that? I don't have Mac

[LiquidAir]

I looked at this link....very cool....dumb question, can I even download that? I don't have Mac

There is a Windows version. Beta 4 for Windows had some serious problems, but 4.1 is better. When they release the final version, Adobe will start charging (an, as of yet, unspecified price) for it, so be prepared if you get too dependant on it.

[Art Scott]

Yes....thank you very much!
I have also been looking into the Transcend cards after reading a couple of your posts....you are totally sold on them huh?

If their INdustrial Cards [-40°F to 185°F ] were at a faster Speed than 45X, i would be sold...but it seems right now that San Disks Extremes [ -13º F to 185º F ] are the best for what I truly want and that is cards that usable below Zero Degrees F....as I love to be out in the COLD shooting wildlife...but yes i really like the one I have...but I do need to get a recovery software that will recover Raw files as
raw and the one that transcend sent me recovers them only as small ...very small jpgs....I am going to try my lexar software this weekend to see if it works or not.

I have not tried to capture really fast sports on it yet...however maybe sunday if the RC boats are running at the local lake I will see how it does then.

[Art Scott]

Elements 5 does read raw files....buuuut......


Convert raw files to Digital Negative

Enjoy a lifetime of access to your raw files by converting them to universal DNG format, which means you’ll be able to open and use your highest quality photo files without worrying about proprietary camera formats.




Adobe Elements 5 feature page link (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/overview2.html)

[rjpat]

Another program that no one has mentioned is Raw Shooter Essentials, available for free from Pixmantec. (http://www.pixmantec.com/products/rawshooter.asp)
(Make sure and scroll down to the free version)

That is what I started with. The only drawback is that the resulting TIFF file is only 8 bit. Of course, if you are use to dealing with jpeg, that's not a problem. I always felt that I got better results with it than DPP (the Canon software).

[claudermilk]

Just remember that RawShooter is now an orphan app. Adobe bought them out last month and is basically killing off the program; they say that the underlying technology will be used in their own RAW converters. Personally, I didn't care for it, and am not much of a fan of LR either. I'm also not sold on DNG--more work for no gain. Welcome to the highly opinionated & political world of RAW converters. :D

I think your best bet is dig out the DPP CD and load that up. Use it while playing with RAW and worry about all the 3rd party converters after you decide to stick with RAW. Then you can get trial versions of everything and choose the one that suits you best; each app has a different take on how to convert the data and has a different end result.

In general you just need to make sure the exposure is right in RAW. Getting WB close helps. Custom functions in general no longer have any meaning--though AFAIK the Canon converter does read that data & take it into account for a baseline.

[Richard]

Another program that no one has mentioned is Raw Shooter Essentials, available for free from Pixmantec. (http://www.pixmantec.com/products/rawshooter.asp)
(Make sure and scroll down to the free version)

That is what I started with. The only drawback is that the resulting TIFF file is only 8 bit. Of course, if you are use to dealing with jpeg, that's not a problem. I always felt that I got better results with it than DPP (the Canon software).
The most recent version of RSE (1.2.0) has output options of JPG, 8 and 16 bit TIFF. My computer is capacity challenged, so I use 8 bit TIFF. In experiments, I could never see a measurable improvement by using 16 bit anyway.

Unfortunately, what Chris says is true...RSE has been assimilated. Too bad. It's very powerful and has a great user interface. Sorting and culling pics is a breeze with it. I plan to simply keep using it until I get a more powerful computer, then check out the options again.

[BeachBill]

I also have Adobe Elements 5 (?) not sure on this one either

PSE5 would be a really good starting point for working with your raw files. Not only does the very nice organizer display raw files, PSE comes with a good raw converter. I've got both PSE4 and Photoshop CS2 with Bridge and I still prefer the PSE organizer over Bridge for organizational functions.

[Barefoot and Natural]

THANKS EVERYONE!!!

I did not realize all the "other things" that I would need to take into consideration.
It is very intimidating, but I WILL TRY!!
One more question......excuse me if it sounds dumb but.....
how do you judge your before/after edits?
Do you automatically save the image without any post-editing and then do all your editing to see the difference?
I am only asking because I have never "seen" what a RAW image looks like. But I will soon enough and may answer my own question :wink

Thanks again to everyone for the advice and the helpful answers.

Heather