Shooting in RAW?

IamAshlyRose said:
@AndyB1976
The 5D MKII has the option to save both RAW & JPEG files of the same photograph, think I'll be doing that whilst I'm experimenting! Thank you for posting that link :} I created this thread to get more information like this.
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Every dslr offers u that option but it's only helpfull as a safety net when u don't know how to use RAW. I used to be like that but I got used to Raw and now I never shoot jpeg. Light Room 3 is my main editing program, I have CS5 too but LR does everything I need, well about 90% of the time anyway and for the rest there's CS5 and Photomatix and starstax. Gotta love the RAW! and all the flexibility it gives. I even process HDR from one single RAW, but that is another matter.
 
john-oh said:
One other really useful feature of editing RAW files is that the changes (usually) are stored in a separate 'sidecar' file (xmp). So, delete this and you are back to your original shot. Very useful as your editing skills improve.
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That's dead handy to know actually, thank you!
 
I recently started setting my camera to shoot in raw & jpg. I set it to shoot monochrome so it outputs the jpg in mono but the raw still has all the colour info. I am not sure if others will agree, but I find it handy once I get the images on the pc as the jpgs allow a quick visual reference as to how the image will look in mono. if an image has potential in mono I can use the raw to fine tune the exposure then bring it into silver exfex pro if needed. I do seem to be outputting more mono shots then I have before, this way.
 
@sc0ttie Thats interesting actually. I guess it shouldn't actually surprise me that the RAW would remain in colour as it's unprocessed in-camera but I never realised hahaha. I can imagine that does help give you an idea whilst you're out & about shooting as to what the photograph will look like in mono.
 
scOttie, i do that as well, mono jpegs. On a 7D the smallest jpeg that goes with a RAW takes up such little space that shooting RAW on its own can only get a few more images on the card anyway
 
I have used RAW for years, but I have a question.

When I import RAW files into LR3 I find the colour and everything washes out straight away. As to be expected.

Is there a default setting file that I can add to LR3 that will auto convert my RAW files to the JPEG representation that I see on the back on the LCD when I shoot the picture?
 
Doug said:
Is there a default setting file that I can add to LR3 that will auto convert my RAW files to the JPEG representation that I see on the back on the LCD when I shoot the picture?
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Take a photo in RAW. Adjust the settings to how you like it and seave as a preset in Lightroom. Apply the preset on import.

You migfht also like to have a read of this: http://photo.andysheen.co.uk/technical/lightroom-raw-vs-dpp-raw-processing/ particularly for the Camera Calibration stuff. If you've not played with this (it will be set to Adobe Standard by default) - it can make a big difference to the way LR processes the colours of your image.
 
Mm, does anyone have any general tips when experimenting with RAW files before they open into Adobe Photoshop? I'm still experimenting & I'm not sure if I'm getting the hang of it just yet. I've found I don't particularly like what the Shadows/Exposure/Fill Light/Brightness bars do to my photographs. Any particular recommendations? I'm not asking for your secret retouching techniques, just wondering roughly what sort of tools you're working with? Thanks.
 
IamAshlyRose said:
Mm, does anyone have any general tips when experimenting with RAW files before they open into Adobe Photoshop? I'm still experimenting & I'm not sure if I'm getting the hang of it just yet. I've found I don't particularly like what the Shadows/Exposure/Fill Light/Brightness bars do to my photographs. Any particular recommendations? I'm not asking for your secret retouching techniques, just wondering roughly what sort of tools you're working with? Thanks.
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Yes, convert it first in DPP ;)
 
@u8myufo Why DPP? Can it offer something Photoshop can't? I'll be post processing in Photoshop after conversion & I thought it would make sense to do the conversions & adjustments in there beforehand. Just wanted to know if other's would recommend using curves, or a feature I may not have discovered yet..
 
Keep it in Camera Raw as long as you can. You have most control there. The only way to learn is take a few photos and play with the sliders and see what they do. As I get more competent, post processing is becoming easier.

To see why u8myufo is wrong with DPP see: http://photo.andysheen.co.uk/technical/lightroom-raw-vs-dpp-raw-processing/

Lightroom is just a different front end to Photoshop RAW. All the controls in that article are available in PS RAW.
 
@arad85
Thank you. Just need to keep experimenting I suppose but I'm easily frustrated when I can't create in front of me what I'm picturing in my head.
I'll keep at it none-the-less :}
 
IamAshlyRose said:
@u8myufo Why DPP? Can it offer something Photoshop can't? I'll be post processing in Photoshop after conversion & I thought it would make sense to do the conversions & adjustments in there beforehand. Just wanted to know if other's would recommend using curves, or a feature I may not have discovered yet..
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Well without sounding disrespectful Ashly, imo your answer says it all. The way I see it from all you have said so far is that you have little knowledge of RAW although admit you need to start using it, thats fine :thumbs: You have only just realised the difference between the different RAW sizes in camera, and now you ask if others recommend using curves or a feature you have not yet discovered. To sum it up Ashly it seems to me like you have limited experience with the processing side of things. Bear in mind that all I am trying to do is help here, so all I am suggesting is that if you use Canon`s DPP you will find it easy to adjust RAW files to start with, no point in having a window full of sliders and options if you do not have any understanding of what they all do. It will just fill your head with more questions and might well lead to a lot more frustration for you :shrug: Obviously the choice is yours as to which route you take ;)
 
Dr_O said:
I have that issue every day- I wouldn't worry about it:lol:
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Then instead of struggling on your own Ashley, put the picture up in the relevant section and start discussing it with others :thumbs:
 
@u8myufo Limited experience in the processing side of things in what way? I've never worked with RAW or RAW conversions before, hence this thread.

I worked with Lightroom for two years whilst assisting a {rather lazy} portrait photographer but I've never much liked what the exposure, blacks & all those various sliders do to the images. I prefer to build up with much more subtle adjustments.

For the past couple of years I've been doing post production in Photoshop using curves & levels as well as other adjustments after shooting JPEG format; but they seem to have different effects when working with RAW photographs? I'm probably over-complicating things in my head but it all seems different thus far & I was just wondering if there were different techniques I've missed when using the plug-in. Perhaps not.

I just meant what can DPP offer that Camera Raw doesn't? If they do the same thing more or less I'd prefer to carry on experimenting with what I'm currently learning to work with as eventually I'll get there! I hope that I'm making sense hahaha.
 
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Mmm, thank you everyone on here for your help.
Think the best thing for me to do is just experiment & keep at it until I've worked everything out for myself hahaha.
 
The book - "Real World Camera Raw" will help enormously.

Anthony.
 
@Anthony.Ralph Oh thank you for the suggestion! Will have a look for it.
 
arad85 said:
Lightroom is just a different front end to Photoshop RAW.
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To be nit-pickingly accurate, Lightroom contains the same underlying technology as ACR, and the sliders will have the same effects as in ACR, but you don't need (or have) ACR installed if you only install Lightroom.

IamAshlyRose said:
I worked with Lightroom for two years whilst assisting a {rather lazy} portrait photographer but I've never much liked what the exposure, blacks & all those various sliders do to the images. I prefer to build up with much more subtle adjustments.
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I'd like to make a suggestion. Since you're using Photoshop, open your RAW file (from Bridge, or whatever) into ACR then just use the sliders to correct the White Balance (try the white eydropper in a few places where the R, G, and B values are pretty much the same); and to get the exposure more or less correct. Then open it in PS and play with the Levels and Curves to get the tonality and colour the way you want, and then all of your selection/layer/mask/filter work to get individual parts of the picture the way you want. In other words, just use ACR to get things roughly OK-looking.

Remember that when you take a RAW photo from ACR into PS, it's (usually) a 16-bit image that allows a very large amount of leeway in terms of how you can process it. For most photos you won't need to do a great deal in ACR unless you want to.
 
garryknight said:
Then open it in PS and play with the Levels and Curves to get the tonality and colour the way you want
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For global adjustments, why can't you do that in the Tone Curve in Lightroom.

Actually, I've just found an area ACR differs between PS and LR. In LR, I can't see a way of setting the curve parametrically as in ACR 6.6. The sliders are the same names given to LR4 new sliders.
 
garryknight said:
Well, I can, but the OP (AshlyRose) is using Photoshop. :)
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Or the Tone Curve in ACR in Photoshop then (which, apart from the Parametric stuff is exactly the same as LR).... :p

TBH, I do 95% of my work in LR (which the OP also seems to have judging by the first post) and only drop into PS if the adjustment brush doesn't do what I want....
 
IamAshlyRose said:
@u8myufo Limited experience in the processing side of things in what way? I've never worked with RAW or RAW conversions before, hence this thread.

I worked with Lightroom for two years whilst assisting a {rather lazy} portrait photographer but I've never much liked what the exposure, blacks & all those various sliders do to the images. I prefer to build up with much more subtle adjustments.

For the past couple of years I've been doing post production in Photoshop using curves & levels as well as other adjustments after shooting JPEG format; but they seem to have different effects when working with RAW photographs? I'm probably over-complicating things in my head but it all seems different thus far & I was just wondering if there were different techniques I've missed when using the plug-in. Perhaps not.

I just meant what can DPP offer that Camera Raw doesn't? If they do the same thing more or less I'd prefer to carry on experimenting with what I'm currently learning to work with as eventually I'll get there! I hope that I'm making sense hahaha.
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No probs Ashley, in just reading your first few replies on here it came across that way to me. Perhaps a little bit more in depth info as to what you have done and what you would like to achieve early on would have given people a better idea ;)
 
garryknight said:
I'd like to make a suggestion. Since you're using Photoshop, open your RAW file (from Bridge, or whatever) into ACR then just use the sliders to correct the White Balance (try the white eydropper in a few places where the R, G, and B values are pretty much the same); and to get the exposure more or less correct. Then open it in PS and play with the Levels and Curves to get the tonality and colour the way you want, and then all of your selection/layer/mask/filter work to get individual parts of the picture the way you want. In other words, just use ACR to get things roughly OK-looking.

Remember that when you take a RAW photo from ACR into PS, it's (usually) a 16-bit image that allows a very large amount of leeway in terms of how you can process it. For most photos you won't need to do a great deal in ACR unless you want to.
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Thank you for your suggestion, I'll give that a try next time. Much appreciated! :}
Hopefully I won't have to do much in ACR as I usually try to get a decent exposure whilst shooting but I'd love to know I have the flexibility during the post-production! It's just trying out different things to see what could benefit rather than hinder my work.

@u8myufo Mm, I'm pretty terrible at explaining what I'm thinking at the best of times.
 
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using ACR/DPP etc.. can also be your friend in ways you might not think. For instance... i did some early morning landscape shots in the lakes last year and on one of the pics i adjusted the white balance to tungsten (while just experimenting) and it gave the whole shot a real cold blue cast which worked perfectly with the scene i had shot. Of course, all the RAW editing is non-destructive as well, so you're not deteriorating any image quality while you mess about work :D
 
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