K10 RAW Files and Photoshop

I've never bothered much with RAW processing, but so many reviews of the K10 suggest saing shots as RAW files is the way to get the best out of the sensor. My problem is my version of Photoshop CS (no number following) won't open the files. I know I need some sort of plug in but I can't get any joy out of the Internet and wouldn't know what to do if I found something.

I should be very grateful if anyone has a suggestion as to how I could proceed. It's not a huge problem if I don't get anywhere: the quality of the jpeg files is more than good enough to be going on with, but there's always that thought: could be even better!

You could try http://rawtherapee.com/ - it's free.

Thanks for this! I have and it works! What an amazingly complex piece of software. It'll take me a while to get my head round it.

I used to wonder why people shot RAW, seemed like a lot of effort for very little gain.

As an exercise, I took out the Pentax FA50 f1:1.4 shot only RAW, went to some of my usual haunts, took a picture or two, opened them in Aperture for Mac, found that I had been missing so much, there were things I could recover / adjust that were not open to me before.

I shoot everything in RAW now.

I know 'Aperture' is Mac only, but I have used LightRoom as well, it's good too. There are so many free RAW converters out there, especially for the Mac, so I assume for Windoze too, give them all a try and explore !

p.s. I like the pictures you post, so maybe you don't ned to adjust them too much ?

Rawtherapee is a great program, especialy as its at my favourite price. Free!

I've just got Photoshop Elements 9 (and my be able to test out CS4 soon), but I think I'll still do the majority of my processing in Rawtherapee, and then the tweaking in PSE9.

Love freebies! I've been shooting RAW with my K10 almost since day one and find RAW worth the extra effort. I just downloaded Rawtherapee and I'll be curious to see how it stacks up against the developer in Elements 9.

Andrew - are you using the DNG Raw format? You should be able to open DNG files in Photoshop.

Alternatively you can update your version of Photoshop's compatibility with RAW formats via a plug in downloaded from Adobe's website.

So how what the workflow flow look like from reading card to RAWtherapee software, filing and final tweeking in PSE 9?

Dave

Why use RAW Therapee if you have PSE9?

I find the interface for the RAW conversions better in Rawtherapee then PSE9. Also, the PSE9 organiser is... Not great.

Rawtherapee is a dedicated Raw convertor, and is (IMHO) easier to work with to create the processed file.

The workflow is -
Upload from card to PC.
- As I have Fast Picture View installed, I then sort the pictures (If required) into folders for the shoot straight from Windows Explorer. Some can be discarded straight away at this stage.

Load Rawtherapee and point it at the folder(s). It has an intergrated thumbnail browser, so I work through the pictures. Some pics will be able to have the same processing applied, and that can be done straight from the thumbnail browser at the bottom of the screen.
- The processed files are saved in either JPG or TIF format in a 'Converted' folder under the RAW files (Or, wherever I want them to be)

- Then, I load Picassa, as the organiser is brilliant (I really can't believe this programme is free!). Pictures that need more editing, simply right click and 'Open with PSE9', tweak and edit some more as required (still getting used to it tho'!).

Some files I will just tweak straight in Picassa, for example, the 'Filtered B&W' tool is brilliant.

Basically, just substitute Rawtherapee for 'Lightroom' or whatever else you would chose to use. The actual RAW convertor in PSE9 does a good job, I'll grant you, but the interface isn't the best when you compare it to a dedicated RAW conversion package.

As always, your mileage may vary.

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful and informative replies. It is much appreciated.

[quote:3496ace15f="Galoot"]I used to wonder why people shot RAW, seemed like a lot of effort for very little gain.
quote]
So did I and, to be honest, my experiences with the K100 weren't conclusive. The main benefit I found was in recovering highlight detail from, say, clouds. But the K10 is reputed to be considerably better when using RAW. It also has a very convenient one-shot RAW button which makes experimenting easy, rather than having to delve deep into a menu system.

Gareth, I'll give that link a try, thanks.

I can see the main problem is that I take a lot of pictures (you may have noticed) and my Photoshop work flow has become swift and quite efficient. I almost know what a picture needs just by looking at it and similarly know what levels, curves, sharpening etc. will do to it.

I've had such an interesting few hours using Rawtherapee and comparing the resulting JPEG to the JPEG processed by the camera, that I thought I'd publish the results. It's hardly scientific, and I'm nowhere near proficient at using the program, but the results are there to be seen, at least before uploading to this site.

In the RAW files, there is more detail in highlights, fine detail is rendered more precisely and some colours are richer.

Thanks again for all the help and advice. I failed to make the Photoshop plug-in work, despite down-loading it.
JPEG
[IMG]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/ADC3440/Pictures011-1.jpg[/IMG]
RAW
[IMG]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/ADC3440/Pictures011a.jpg[/IMG]
RAW
[IMG]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/ADC3440/Pictures016a-2.jpg[/IMG]
JPEG
[IMG]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/ADC3440/Pictures016.jpg[/IMG]
Makes a good monochrome conversion too...
[IMG]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/ADC3440/IMGP6390b.jpg[/IMG]
Again, thanks to everyone who kindly helped me with this thread.

That last one is a cracker. Great eye for composition!

Thanks Will. The last one was a real photograph; the first two merely test shots. I feel that, if I can make the time, RAW really does squeeze the best out of the K10's lovely sensor.

Trust me to be the awkward one - my copy of Rawtherapee crashes the moment it is shown a folder containing raw files, never managed to display a raw file Quite happy to display .tiff & .jpeg though