RAW conversion Q's

Hi there, a few dumb questions. I am venturing nervously into the world of RAW capture and subsequent conversion. I have downloaded the free version of Picmantec's essentials 2005.

Do I just covert to TIFF straight away?

or

do I have to make any required changes in the RAW format using Pixmantec before I convert. (to give me the most flexibility) or does it not matter?

Sorry if this sounds stupid but I cannot find any help on how to use this software?!

Any tips on this subject very gratefully received!

Anna [/code]

Anna,

You make global changes in the RAW convertor first - white balance, exposure, curves etc. Get it as good as you can in the RAW convertor - it'll save you a heap of work in PS later (and gives you better quality).

Personally I export from Capture One to high quality JPG generally (it's good enough for 99% of my work) in the Adobe RGB colour space. If I am printing huge (bigger than 20x16") or doing a lot of PS work I'll use 16-bit TIFF.

Once exported, I bring it into PS and sharpen it up (with Mattmatic's Sharpen-O-Matic of course ), then apply any localised adjustments - dodging and burning, creative sharpening etc.

Hope that helps!
Matt

Hello Anna,

writing to say you're not alone and I am eagerly waiting for some tips from the forum gurus on this subject.
I am using Raw Shooter as well as it was recommended on the Finnish Pentax users forum. I have succeeded in transforming a raw to a jpg - took a lot of work though.

Lena

Thanks Matt !

Some Mmatics for this raw-stuff would be more than welcome...

Hi there, thanks AGAIN matt very helpful. I have also been chatting to a friend who has lent me a disc from her digital photo magazine from June2005 which has a tutorials on rawshooter essentials 2005!! I have taken these so I know whats what and now need to practice - alot!

Lena I'll try to copy it for you if you want to private message me your address, otherwise I think I am right in saying that you can get back issues - mail [email protected] or www.digital-photo-magazine.com.

It's really helped!! worth the effort of trying to get a copy, I'm going to.

Anna

Thanks Anna,

I have

Lena & Anna,
In addition to my "sticky note" about using Capture One, here are some general points about RAW conversion that may clear out some of the "mud":

* The RAW format contains a lot more information than the JPG, so you process as much as possible in the RAW convertor before going into PS.

* Get the White Balance right first of all. You can select a predefined WB: "Sun", "Shade", "Tungsten" etc, or pick a close one and manually adjust. Alternatively, if there's something you know is absolutely white (not teeth!) like material or paper, then you can eye-dropper to get a good white balance. (Personally I use either an accurate grey card from www.qpcard.com, or an Expodisc)

* Next, get the exposure right. Use the histogram display to fill the chart from dark to light (left to right). This maximises the tonal range. Also, set the "film type". Most RAW convertors have set of response curves built in to simulate various film types. It depends on your subject and what you want to obtain - but get this nearly right.

* If you made drastic changes, go back to the white balance and double check this, then check the exposure again. (They inter-relate somewhat)

* Now you can adjust contrast, saturation, and if you really want to - curves (assuming your RAW convertor has this). Don't go over the top, just go for a well defined exposure. Anything radical you can tackle in PS.

* Use the exposure warning mechanism to show whether you have any burnt out highlights or deep shadows. If the areas covered are important to the image, then re-evaluate the exposure and/or the film-response type, and possibly the curves adjustments (again keep curve adjustments slight!)

* Visit the noise reduction section. This generally depends on the ISO setting of the shot. The higher the ISO, the larger the noise reduction needs to be. If you've shot ISO200, then reduce the noise reduction to preserve detail. The values used depend on the RAW convertor, and experience

* Now, adjust the sharpening. Personally, I prefer to do this in PS as I have a lot more control over things.

* Finally, export the image. If you're new to RAW, export in the colour space "sRGB" and as a high quality JPG. That'll give you the best compatibility with other packages and print services. However, these are my personal views:
- For general work, export as AdobeRGB in JPG
- For super large work, or lots of editing in PS, export as ProPhoto colour space in 16-bit TIFF (the ProPhoto + 16-bit gives plenty of headroom for serious colour and curves manipulations)

* Additionally, don't forget that some images will have so much contrast between light and dark you just can't get a perfect histogram in one hit. If the whole image is important (e.g. landscapes), then you can always output two JPGs from the RAW convertor. e.g. adjust the RAW file for exposure in the shadows and output that, then readjust for the highlights and output again. Bring both images into PS as layers in the same image and blend the two layers with a layer mask

If you work methodically with the convertor, you should find that given some experience you can successfully adjust a shot in well under a minute. For shots in the same lighting conditions it becomes a breeze because you can copy the white balance, exposure, and other settings from one image to a whole batch of others.

Oh yes, and one final point - it does initially take time! Once you get over the learning curve it becomes easy and a real time saver So stick with it

Matt

I can vouch for what Matt says. It seems a major problem at first, but it quickly becomes second nature - and quick.

And it's well worth while. Shots that one might once have thrown away become viable. This is especially true of over-exposed images. If you shoot JPEGs, over-exposure is death. If you shoot RAW, you can usually recover much or all of what at first sight seemed completely blown highlights.

G

Matt, George

thanks for the support and practical guidelines. I know it's no turning back now and I do want to learn to bring to "life" all that my beatiful, lovely piece of art in itself my DS that is can capture in my hands.

I actually printed your step-by-step, Matt. Now, off to shoot some trial material

Lena

Hi, on my first batch to convert and have been through advice, BUT I seem to get pixcellated images at 100% in elements after conversion. I have croped at 300dpi at 10x8in in elements.

I cannot fathom what I am doing wrong. I know there is more information captured there but the images look alot worse quality than jpeg images?

Yours 'banging head against brick wall'

anna

Anna: a few questions and points:
1. What RAW convertor are you using? Is it Pixmantec?
2. The output image should be 3008 x 2008 pixels (which isn't even 10x
3. You shouldn't need to do any resizing in Elements - just load the image straight in.
4. If you haven't enabled full colour management in Elements, then make sure you save as an sRGB image - JPG or TIFF from the RAW convertor.

Try this:
1. Convert in your RAW convertor to a high quality JPG in sRGB colour space
2. Load the image straight into Elements
3. Examine the image (i.e. do nothing to it)
4. Let us know what you get

Matt

Hi Matt

1/ yes pixmantec
2/ It is
3/ I want to crop it to 10x8 to fit a mount
4/ no colour management

Image processed as advised opened in elements as maximum quailty jpeg, same result at 100% can see pixcelating?

I await your prognosis

Anna - can you email a JPG to me? (May have to do the PEF as well later)
Matt

Hi, issue resolved by not using pixmantec. Matt pointed out that the image size had been resized a wee bit making it pixelate? Still not sure why it has done this, cannot fathom it out. Anyway using CS2 convertor and all is resolved.

Thanks All

anna

I usually do cropping and leveling in the Adobe Bridge converter, I suspect you can do much the same with other converters.

The beauty is you can keep the original, and make changes in the future, but if you've done the global changes in the converter, they're there every time you open the file.