RAW Shooters (any software), need your thoughts please.

Marcel

Marcel

Kim Jong Bod
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Marcel
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How much 'tweaking' do you do in RAW?
(Please also mention which software you use). I'm not after a comparison of different software BTW, just so I can make judgement.

I'm using RSP at the mo (Had to upgrade as RSE doesnt support the 30D).

At first I used to play with the White Balance (my 350 never used to get it right first time for some reason), basically tweak the two sliders until it looked right (very hit and miss, what with me being colour blind...lol)

I then *used* to hit the "Auto Exposure" Button, and then drag the fill light back down (RS tends to like to overuse it I think).

Then basically tweak each slider, messing about, going down the list, till I thought it looked right.
This, as you can imagine, took ages.

Now I've started to look at it slightly differently.
I try *not* to touch the white balance unless it's out (My 30D seems to make a much better job of it).
Try not to touch the exposure compensation unless necessary.
Then I usually select the 'Normal' profile (I never used these before), which normally does the picture justice.
A very quick levels adjustment (watching for clipping, and maybe up the saturation to 10 or 15, then the colour vibrance to 3 (or 5 if it can take it).

This is still taking a while though, and if I'm perfectly honest I'm just playing with sliders until it looks acceptable.

What about everyone else? How much RAW tweaking do you do? Do you do it in a logical order and get it precise?
 
I try to do as little as possible to be quite honest - mostly for me its white balance - minor exposure compensations and cropping...... I use Bibble but have been trying to use Lightroom more and more as it has a better feel to it and better CS2 interface.

My major adjustments are made in CS2 depending on how creative i want to be :)

Jon
 
I'm waiting for Adobe to release Camera RAW 3.6 which will have support for my 400D, but until then I'm using the Canon DPP software which I don't actually like very much! I tend to look at each preset white balance setting and each picture style and chose the one that looks best to me. Then I export the image to the more familiar environment of Photoshop CS2 and tweak the levels. At that point I consider that I have a starting point. Like you Marcel, not very scientific but it works for me. I'm really looking foward to Camera RAW 3.6 so that I can do the whole thing through Photoshop, which I feel very "at home" with.
 
I use Adobe Bridge (CS2), it's good for what I need, Although I have found that the noise reduction doesn't do a lot if anything at all!!

Mainly I use the white ballance and the shadows feature (basically adjusts the bottom end of the histogram) as I like my blacks to be black and not dark grey.

Davy
 
I used to use the bridge too, until it stopped opening my files, (cheepo version off e-bay and broke after an update), so now I use rawshooter (the free download). Occasionally I teak the exposure, but mostly to manage any highlights/shadows for clipping. Sometimes white balance, but I find my 350D usually does a good job; occasionally a bit of fill light, then open into CS2 and do anything else there. Crop first, curves or levels next, saturation if necessary, occasionally shadows/hightlights, smart sharpen (mine are ALWAYS soft/out of focus) and print. If I'm not printing, I don't sharpen. I always leave that till last.
:)
 
For quick raw edits like 'fill light' or 'cropping' i use google picassa.

For actual editing i use 'Gimp' and the 'UFraw' plug-in.
 
RSE does support the 30D. I just downloaded it this morning for our new 'works' 30D. I only used it briefly and it all looks a bit confusing to me! I need a couple of hours to play with it.

Up till now I've used ACR for my fuji s9500 RAW files. I tend to use it for white balance (when I don't set it at the time of the shot, which I often do) and exposure control and for making multiple tiffs (e.g. for shadows and highlights, etc) to blend in PS.

I flick between the 'auto' setting and the default settings and usually plump for something in between.

I rarely do ALL my tweeking in RAW and don't often spend much time in it but I will tweek almost all images to a certain extent in it.
 
Really? It never used to, the cheeky beggars...lol
IIRC it used to display the image in four quadrants, repeated, with 4 colours overlayed (think Andy Warhol).

FYI I'm now starting to do less tweaking in RAW, and more in Photoshop.
 
Photoshop CS2 - usually no more than minor saturation changes.
 
i do about the same as you marcel, just fiddle with sliders until i'm happy with it really. pretty inefficient, but then what's the hurry when i'm not pro.
 
I use the RAW thingy in PS to check colour balance, do a rough exposure check, reduce any colour noise and to correct any colour fringing using the chromatic aberration tools.
Well worth shooting in NEF for these alone.
Then I go into PS proper to do all my fine-tuning of levels, sharpening and cropping.
 
I get it pretty much how I want in RSP then I send it to PS as a tiff for sharpening, levels adjust and curves...plus any other conversions such as b&w I might want to do.
Is quality better creating an edited image in RSP (colour saturation/contrast/vibrance etc) then minor tweeks in PS or better just ensuring exposure/WB etc are ok in RSP then bulk of editing in PS? two different ways about it but which gives best quality...?
are image processing gizmos better in PS then? otherwise why have them in a raw program at all?
 
CS2 (Bridge). Tend to play with the exposure more than anything else.
My 20D doesnt seem to muck up the colour ballance very much. A little cool
sometimes, but then hey... if it was perfect why by PS2.
 
When I was using CS I did a fair bit of tweaking but now CS2 seems to do a lot of "auto adjustments" for you. Some I like, some I don't.

As a broad guide I try to do any "global" changes in the raw editor and use PS for the local stuff (using selections/adjustment layers or adjustment layers/gradient masks).

HTH!
 
Hardly do anything to the Raw files as I prefer to work in Photoshop. Sometimes I'll change the exposure and very occasionally I'll tweak the white balance but I leave my 20D's white balance set to daytime/sunlight regardless of what I'm shooting these days. If I'm shooting indoors I'll use a colour checker chart and eyedrop the white balance from that.

So, to summarise... I just use RSE to make the Tiff file and then do everything in Photoshop.

Oh, and I never let any piece of software do anything automatic. Manual all the way. I'm a control freak.
 
I don't generally do much tweaking in RAW unless there's an obvious correction to be made, but when I do I prefer Adobe Camera Raw. However, I'm getting quite attached to RawShooter... it's sooo much quicker at thumbnailing things than CS2.

:)
 
Tend to use Picassa fro simple raw cahnges these days. Am also looking at Capture 1 when there is batch cahnges to be made eg studio results

JohnB
 
Bibble here again, but I only use it where I need to fix something, e.g. skewed horizon, dodgy white balance, stuff sticking into the frame needed to be cropped, chromatic abberation or distortion from the wide end of the 17-55 DX etc. The most sophisticated thing I use with any regularity is probably curves and again that's only when I can see stuff going wrong.

If I've messed up a very challenging exposure, I might use the "Perfectly Clear" plugin to attempt a rescue, but I try to avoid that because it tends to make a whole lot of other changes at the same time (esp to colour) that I then need to detect and fix. In extreme cases it can make the photo look unreal, as though it was produced with some sort of fancy modelling/rendering program like Lightwave or something. (sometimes that can be a fun effect though, but it's not something I try to make a habit of)

I almost never use other tools (e.g. PSE, I don't have CS2) though. Bibble seems just fine for my simple needs.

Edited to add: I'm told Bibble v5, due out shortly, will have a fair bit more image editing functionality, masks and stuff like that. I'm not actually sure if that's a good thing or not.
 
I know this is an old thread but I've not been here for a while!

In RSP I tend to leave WB as it is or use the dropper. I always hit auto exposure to see what it does then cancel it as its almost always too much.

Go straight to curves and see what medium or midpoint curves do. Tweak fill light slightly and highlight and shadow contrast. Finally play with levels. Usually add a point or 2 of vibrance.
 
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