RAW Intimidation!

TinySpark

TinySpark

Suspended / Banned
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874
Name
Melissa
Edit My Images
Yes
I just went on a shooting spree there and after a few JPEGs, i decided to shoot in Raw. And I also changed it to Raw+JPEG, then back to Raw...etc etc (I don't know why, guess I'm crazy) I'm not sure which are which either :lol:


So as a silly newbie... here are my silly newbie questions...


1) When i open the RAW files with 'Image Data Coverter SR' (the one i got with my Sony A100) the photos appear rather, 'pixelated...' Not as sharp as they are on the camera- Is this normal?

2) Raw... Hmmm... So I have to do the work now, not the camera. Where do i start??

Maybe my idea of shooting raw when i have no idea what I'm doing wasn't my brightest idea, but after a lot of my pics ruined from under/overexposure, i didn't want to take that risk, and I want to learn how to do it anyways.

I'd appreciate any tips or even links to tutorials, please help!


I think I'll be busy tonight...
uh oh!


:help:
 
When using the RAW converter you got with the Sony, you may find that the picture is as you say pixelated or blurred looking for a few moments. There should be a 'progress bar' either green or blue in the bottom right of the photo window. Once this progress bar has got to the end then your photo should look ok and then it's down to you to now play with the sliders to your hearts content to see what happens to the RAW image.

You can then save the file as jpeg or tiff and then open it up on photoshop or whatever you have and do more editing in there.
 
Oh yeah! I see now! God have a bit of patience Melissa... :lol:
Thanks!

Would you process it more in the raw converter or photoshop (well, gimp in my case..)
I'm not sure which one i should use to make the changes to it.
 
I've been thinking for a while this topic would make a good tutorial. We'll get round to it one day :)
Photo editing and the whole idea of RAW processing must be confusing to people that are new to it.
I'm not going to try and explain what I do right now but if it is any encouragement the time you spend RAW processing does drop once you get used to it. I'd expect to go through 200 RAWs and have them converted to best jpegs in an evening. It is worth the effort as the difference to jpegs from the camera varies from a little better to a lot better.
 
I use Lightroom for my RAW conversions, without too much of a problem I can get through about 500-750 ish pics in a good evening, depending on how good the original shots are (and whether I'm trying to be creative or not) Wayne
 
TinySpark said:
Oh yeah! I see now! God have a bit of patience Melissa... :lol:
Thanks!

Would you process it more in the raw converter or photoshop (well, gimp in my case..)
I'm not sure which one i should use to make the changes to it.
Click to expand...



All I use the Sony converter for is for exposure control, any white balance adjustments and contrast levels etc on the RAW image. I then save as tiff and then open the image up in CS2 and take it from there with any cropping, cloning, sharpening, layers etc etc.

There are two reasons why I use the Sony converter, number one - my images from the A700 are not compatible with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) with CS2 (you need CS3), and I've found that the Sony utility seems to show a clearer picture on screen than ACR used to do with my old A100 camera.

You will not be able to do major image editing with Sony RAW program, it's really just for adjusting the picture to look good then use the Gimp to do the layering, cropping etc etc.

Oh, BTW, are you using version 2 of the Sony converter, if not, try and download it from their site, it's much better than version 1 that was shipped with my A100 back in 2006.
 
Actually this Raw thing is pretty cool, pity i didn't take them all Raw. Thanks for an the info guys :)

Should i save the converted files as tiff or jpeg? What's the difference?
 
TinySpark said:
Should i save the converted files as tiff or jpeg? What's the difference?
Click to expand...

Jpeg - You loose some quality each time you save but small files
Tiff - You loose no quality for saving but big files

I'd say tiff for storing/printing jpeg for the web
 
Oh and for those who use/have used the Sony Raw Converter program, would you recommend i stick with it or use a different (better..?) program for developing my Raws?
 
Alot of people on here use Lightroom for RAW processing, it is particularly good for workflow type processes allowing you to proces alot of RAW files quickly. a 30 day free trial is available here

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/lightroom/free-trial.html

I'm a canon user and have stuck with the supplied Digital Photo Professional as it covers what I need.
 
TinySpark said:
Oh and for those who use/have used the Sony Raw Converter program, would you recommend i stick with it or use a different (better..?) program for developing my Raws?
Click to expand...

I'm staying with the Sony product for the time being. I didn't use it much with my A100 but I am finding it a pleasure with the A700.
 
I recently bought Nikon Capture NX2 but find the book very difficult to follow. Has anyone any opinions on this program?
 
a1ex2001 said:
Alot of people on here use Lightroom for RAW processing, it is particularly good for workflow type processes allowing you to proces alot of RAW files quickly. a 30 day free trial is available here

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/lightroom/free-trial.html

I'm a canon user and have stuck with the supplied Digital Photo Professional as it covers what I need.
Click to expand...

Lightroom works great with the Sony Cameras. Downloaded a trial of it last weekend when i discovered that my copy of CS2 wouldn't work with the RAW files my A300 was spitting out.....and I didn't really like the bundled Sony applications. There is a download (Adobe Camera RAW) on the Adobe site that adds the Sony compatibility to Photoshop, but it only works with CS3.

So, I went an got a trial copy of Lightroom. It works wonderfully, and was proving damn handy for organising photos, so I bought it a few days later. :) Then I went and pestered the boss at work for a copy of CS3 so I could "work from home" :p, which is handy...but for the vast majority of things, I'll just be using Lightroom.

Give it a go!
 
Thanks to all the help guys, I'll be sure to try out all of your suggestions.

JPS said:
All I use the Sony converter for is for exposure control, any white balance adjustments and contrast levels etc on the RAW image. I then save as tiff and then open the image up in CS2 and take it from there with any cropping, cloning, sharpening, layers etc etc.

There are two reasons why I use the Sony converter, number one - my images from the A700 are not compatible with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) with CS2 (you need CS3), and I've found that the Sony utility seems to show a clearer picture on screen than ACR used to do with my old A100 camera.

You will not be able to do major image editing with Sony RAW program, it's really just for adjusting the picture to look good then use the Gimp to do the layering, cropping etc etc.

Oh, BTW, are you using version 2 of the Sony converter, if not, try and download it from their site, it's much better than version 1 that was shipped with my A100 back in 2006.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your detail here JPS, that's exactly what I was looking for :)
Also, I'm not sure which version I'm using but I reckon it's version 1 as i bought the camera second hand recently but i think it's atleast a year old. So I'll see if i can download version 2 :) Thanks for your advice.
 
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