Shooting RAW

Hi, sorry to ask what will be an annoyingly dull question for you, but I need to know where to start with using RAW images...

I've got Elements and an *ist DS and a few shots I took in the RAW format, but when I do what I think I'm supposed to in Elements, the resulting image is very grainy and nothing like as sharp as a jpeg equivalent. I guess this could be related to the light at the time, but it wasn't bad at all - good enough to shoot hand-held without the flash and get a very sharp image from about 3metres away with a focal length of about 45mm...I guess i should see if the camera used a high ISO and that the graininess is just noise...but either way, I just can't see how I am going to be able to get the image up to jpeg standard....any help greatly appreciated!!

If you have Elements, you probably have ACR. But if you try to compensate for a severly underexposed image in Camera RAW, you'll get lots of noise.

I suggest you do some reading, and there is a forum on the Adobe Website for Elements where you can get answers specific to Elements.

Another thing to do is to make sure you read the documentation that came with Elements, to make sure you're using ACR correctly.

Okay, thanks AD. Will try the process I've been using with a nice and bright shot to see what happens...

I've been using Rawshooter essentials (free download from www.pixmantec.com) to handle the conversion from RAW to TIFF then doing final editing of the image in PSE. Much better (imho) than ACR. Now Rawshooter have a premium version with some extra editing features that closes the gap on PSE. But the free version is good enough for most purposes.

Ammonyte:

I see you have the istDS. Mine is just ordered from Willoughby's and should be here early next week.

I gather there is no direct plug in (i.e., a USB port in the camera) to the computer so you must remove the SD card and plug it in to something.

The something I've got, and have yet to use, is a ScanDisk ImageMate 6 in 1 with an attached USB cord. It takes MS, SD/MMC, CF I/II, and SM. I assume that if I plug the device to my computer and insert my 1GB SD card in the SD/MMC slot, that the images will automatically download to my computer (operating system is Microsoft XP) - AND - if I have previously downloaded the software that comes with the istDS, the images should magically appear?

Help here appreciated as I am older type (no excuse) and somewhat of a computer doofus. After I get this figured out I will probably shoot all non-photojournalism stuff in RAW.

Ted

In Windows XP, you'll probably get a prompt asking you what you want to do with the files. You'll have an option to copy them to your hard drive, using Windows Explorer.

Create a direcrtory (folder) on your hard drve and copy the images to it. Then you can remove the card and format it in the camera so it'll be ready for the next shots.

Thank you so much for the information. I assume by "format it in the camera" you mean erase the card's contents so it'll once again be a tabula rasa?

Ted

With my old Fuji camera, deleting the pictures while the card was in the computer mean that the card had to be reformatted in the camera.

The Pentax DSLRs, however, do not object to having the pictures deleted by the computer, which is obviously more convenient than doing it in-camera.

Re-formatting should be avoided.

G

Huh? Sorry, don't agree. A format in a CF card or SD card doesn't physically format every sector of the card (this wears it out!), but just rebuilds the file system information.

This is a good thing because then the camera can make a clean start (just in case Windows, heaven forbid, should do something wrong to the card ) i.e. Do the format from the camera (Pentax makes it easy on the *ist-D), not from the PC while the camera is connected.

It's actually worse to do an "erase all" because the system has to update the file system directory as each file is erased. This actually means you are writing to the card more!

Typically these devices have 100,000 erase/write operations (per block, which is usually in the region of 128k) before flash pages start to fail. Even then, most systems will include ECC (Error Correction Codes) to the pages so they can function well beyond the 100,000 cycles.

(I hope I should know - I'm writing firmware for NAND flash devices as I speak. Have many years of flash memory experience too )

Matt

:edited: 2005-11-10 14:33

So it's not a proper format then, in the normal sense of the word? Pity they use a term which usually means something else.

G

Formatting in the computer leaves a tabla rosa, which does not contain the necessary directory structure. Pentax cameras are smart enough to create the necessary directory structure, but it is still much preferred to format the card in the camera. This can prevent problems, and this way you know the card is ready for the camera.

George - flash media is very different to magnetic media. It has limited endurance for writing, and so any format should perform the least amount of erase/writes to the device.

In fact, even Windows will not physically format a CF/SD card - again it will just erase the existing block that specifies size and directory and rewrite just that. The camera does the same, and that's why formatting in camera can resolve some issues.

Actually, it is often to your advantage If you format a card (in camera or on the PC), most of the images can be recovered!! (Things like Zero Assumption Recovery are free, and Lexar have one too.) In fact, someone once said if they get caught taking photos at an event, they format the card in front of the staff... then get home and recover them all

Don't forget though, that the more images you write to the card after formatting, the more you reduce your chances of recovering the old images (because the blocks that were holding the old image data eventually get reused for the new images.)

And, as Arthur Dent said, format in camera

Matt

Well, one lives and learns. I assumed that formatting a card was like formatting a hard disk, which is not something to do too often.

My apologies to anyone whom I have misled.

G

That was me apologising. This site seems to have developed a habit of logging people out.

George

OK, so my new *1stDS kit has made it from New York yesterday (Willoughby's) as far as some Podunk town I never heard of in Illinois today. Tomorrow it ought to end up somewhere in western Missouri. Delivery is scheduled for Tuesday, November 15th to my home at 84 Neptune Avenue in Bisbee, Arizona..

I bought the SD 1GB card and four new rechargeable AA batteries, which I am charging even as I write.

So, when the camra arrives, I insert the batteries, then the card, then turn on the camera....then what? Does the camera automatically say "Hello" to the 1GB card and "format" it, or whatever it is supposed to do?

Advice appreciated. Also, how long should I leave the NiMh batteries in the charger to ensure that they are fully charged?

(God, I feel like a jerk asking all of these kindergarten questions, but after 30 years with Pentax Spotmatics I feel as if I'm suddenly enrolled in Sanskrit 101).

Ted

(OT, but I lived on Cato Street off Edgeware Road for six months in the early seventies and roamed the streets daily with my trusty spotties. I mention this as a show I was in closed last week, during which I sold two 11X14's taken then).