RAW v JPEG

OK - I think the time is coming when I will have to decide how I progress.

Now at present I'm shooting in JPEG . I fully realise that should I change to shooting in RAW I will not be able to use iPhoto as at present , and this will force me over to using PS or PSE for final editing after I have had the shot in either Aperture or Lightroom.

I realise I could use SilkyPix BUT if I head back to College again for the new term - the tutor is not going to have a clue about SilkyPix [ he has a large Nikon ] and as I do not learn easily on my own , this would seem to be pushing me towards Aperture [ nice Mac programme ] or Lightroom [ from the Adobe stable ] I do have PSE 6 on the MacBook Pro at present

Comments and advice welcomed .

I do believe iphoto can open the raw photos....
If you got the computer power, do try aperture... I love it.

you can use pse 6 as your external editor with either aperture or iphoto.

raw is not the end all, be all, of image quality.... but it does give you more lattitude to fix things if something goes wrong... for me it's a control thing, but I'm proficient enough to shoot jpegs and get it right in camera.

What has having a large Nikon got to do with not using Silkypix?

Furthermore, most people use SP to produce a near-perfect JPEG or TIFF file which they can then process further in the program of their choice. In your case that could be Iphoto.

You need to clarify your thinking a bit.

Incidentally, it takes very little time to be able to use SP well. The only time it becomes complicated is when finding a balance between sharpening and noise reduction, and you can use another program for that until you get the hang of it.

G

My advice is to use PSE6 for both RAW converting and then any further PP work. Especially as you already have it!

Photoshop will always be the 'standard' program, and for that reason alone, well worth learning. The Elements version is easy to pick up, but very powerful.

George - nowt wrong with my thinking I assure you

Silkypix and a Nikon - yes there is a link - the tutor uses a Nikon - if it's like the last class I'm the only Pentax user there and only the Tutor and I use Macs . If I need help using Silkypix - he can't help .

I do not , as I have already said , learn easily on my own . I do better sitting with someone and doing things under guidance till I'm happy/confident that I won't break things. I already have the habit of never working on the original shot in iPhoto - I always duplicate it and work on the duplicate, so the original is there untouched in case things do go wrong . Belt and Braces - that's me

Don - to my imperfect knowledge iPhoto doesn't open RAW [ I'm willing to be proved wrong ] BUT since Aperture is from Apple there will be some similarities in the appearance of iPhoto and Aperture .

Pentaxohpile - I seem to have a mental block about PSE - can't see why, but I have and sadly there seems to be a lot of emphasis on it in the College . Manipulations like changing the sky completely in a shot as pp work [ ie cloning it out and totally substituting another from a collection of sky shots ] to me seems sort of unethical - it's cheating - it's not a photograph but a bit of art

If you are happy shooting jpeg why go to RAW?

Some people seem to think shooting RAW will make their photos miraculously better. It won't. It can help with exposure problems and things like that, but it is just more time at a computer and not taking photos otherwise.

I use PSE6. I use camera RAW, though I am not always happy with it see the other thread on this subject).

I use PSE for levels, straightening, cloning out blobs, little tweaks, plus b/w conversion, though I have lately done that in camera RAW too and been more than happy with the results.
I never do things like putting one sky into another photo or anything like that. I know how to do it, but can't see the point of it.

The only way to learn how to use PSE is to play with it. Maybe Scott Kelby and Matt Koslowski's book would suit you - they talks you through various projects which you can then try yourself either with their photos (which you download from their site) or your own.

What RAW converter does your tutor use?

Thread divergence: Thank goodness - someone else who doesn't think a photo is just a collage with bits to be replaced if they don't match some notional ideal.

C

That makes three of us on this thread

Gwyn

Why go to RAW - well since I can't get out and take photos at present [ blasted weather and also trying to get on in the house making some very very expensive and necessary changes ] I would have time in the evenings to sit at my MacBook and fiddle with my pictures

Take today - a charity were supposed to be coming to uplift some furniture [ quite a lot actually ] between 10 and 3 - so I couldn't leave the house - I'm still waiting and there has been no phone call

There is no link at all, and everything wrong with your thinking. You seem to be under the impression that Silkypix only works with Pentax, and that view could not be more mistaken. The bible of Silkypix was written by a Canon owner (and Silkypix user). Silkypix works with all RAW files.

If your tutor can't help with Silkypix it's because he doesn't use Silkypix, end of story. Whether he's a Nikon user or a Kodak Brownie user or a Gandolfi user is irrelevant.

It seems to me that if you are so dependent on your tutor perhaps you should buy a Nikon.

And finally, don't under-estimate yourself. Anybody can learn Silkypix; it really isn't at all difficult.

G

Most basic technical stuff are quite the same between all types off RAW editors.
I mean brightness won't do something else in Silkypix than in Lightroom it's only in the more advance options you will see a difference or things might be missing or vice versa and in the way a program handles a photo.

If it's a general photo course I don't see really good reason for you to switch off program, just do the course. You will notice from self if it goes or not.

Mattmatic produced a fairly comprehensive guide to Silkypix here: link

I use the version that came bundled with my Samsung GX-20 to tweak the image until I'm happy and then produce a Tiff for any further work in Serif PhotoPlus. Having said that, JPegs do the job for me 90% of the time. I remain unconvinced that you need a separate program to work on raw files directly.

Al

You could also try the GIMP with the RAW plugin, as I will be doing soon.

95% of the time I shoot JPGs, as I find the results perfectly acceptable providing that I use the camera properly and I can get a lot more on an SD card that way. JPGs also seem less prone to causing the camera to shudder to a halt while writing images.

The remaining 5% is for one-off events - for example, I should be at an airshow this weekend (RIAT), as many of these displays will be one-off events I will be using RAW with a view to being able to rescue well composed but badly exposed shots. My view is that I have nothing to lose this way as I can still develop them in-camera (and I probably will do this with a few) but before doing so I can copy the lot to my external HD and play around in the GIMP to learn how to use it.

Techno, choose a RAW photo. Open it in PSE. It will go straight to Camera RAW.

It will come up with the default setting for your camera. Generally this is not brilliant for Pentax. Try the auto setting. Click default again to reset it.
Now play with the white balance settings at the top - choose the different defaults, or just slide the sliders around to see what they do.
Do the same then with Exposure, recovery etc. play with them, see what effects they produce. You can always go back to your original settings - white balance choose As Shot and exposure etc choose default.
Do the same with the bottom three sliders.

When you have finished playing either press cancel to cancel the whole thing, or if you like what you have done then I suggest you press whatever the Mac equivalent of Alt is and open - this will open a copy of your adjusted RAW file in the editor. The original will be completely untouched. If you lose your way completely press alt-cancel to reset the photo.
You can then play with the editor and see what different things do. If you like the results save it as a jpeg, PSD or Tiff (but that's big!). If you don't then just close it.
No harm done and you have passed a rainy summers evening learning a bit more about PSE.

Scary at first but you can only learn it by doing it. A book will help but hands on is best.

Relax! Have fun!

I think this is a wrong approach. PSE is no more cheating than any other editing tool. You don't have to manipulate your image, even if the program allows you to. PSE is fully capable of doing the subtle adjustments often needed for any image.

What's nice about PSE is that it is more likely to get help than with most other editors, because so many people are using it. And Adobe RAW comes free with the PSE, so you can use this program as your only tool. (Free plug-in converters for most cameras can be downloaded from Adobe).