Using RAW.

joelg

joelg

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joel
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hello i am new to the site and have started using the RAW setting on my canon EOS Rebel XSI, at first i realised that i could not view any photo's on my PC becuse it couldnt read RAW files so i downloaded able RAWer to veiw them. But then wanted to put them in to photoshop which i allso couldnt do untill i upgraded my photoshops camera RAW plug in which i did.

so my qeastion is: when i work in photoshop with a RAW image is the image on the screen actually RAW qaulity or not?

and allso...... when i go to save my RAW image in photoshop it doesnt have just a RAW option so i saved it in "photoshop RAW" which i couldnt open again in the able RAWer viewer or in photoshop?

if any body could shed any light i would much apreciate it beacuse it is all getting a bit to confusing and i would love to maximize my photo's potential.

much thank's
joel :)
 
joelg said:
so my qeastion is: when i work in photoshop with a RAW image is the image on the screen actually RAW qaulity or not?
Click to expand...

No. Its a JPEG preview. You monitor won't be able to re-produce the amount of color gamut (think thats the word) of a digital image. It gives you more of a reference to work with while in RAW format. Opening the edited RAW file and thus saving it in TIFF or uncompressed JPEG (not recommended, but that will depend on your work flow) will save all the information from the RAW data. But again, your monitor won't be able to reproduce the color gamut. Printing the image (on a high quality printer) will provide you with a real life example as to its quality. There are hundreds of factors determining the quality of RAW / TIFF / JPEG color, sharpness and detail quality. Much of it depends on your viewing hardware. A 14bit monitor is the best way to go but they are $$$.
 
King_Boru said:
No. Its a JPEG preview. You monitor won't be able to re-produce the amount of color gamut (think thats the word) of a digital image. It gives you more of a reference to work with while in RAW format. Opening the edited RAW file and thus saving it in TIFF or uncompressed JPEG (not recommended, but that will depend on your work flow) will save all the information from the RAW data. But again, your monitor won't be able to reproduce the color gamut. Printing the image (on a high quality printer) will provide you with a real life example as to its quality. There are hundreds of factors determining the quality of RAW / TIFF / JPEG color, sharpness and detail quality. Much of it depends on your viewing hardware. A 14bit monitor is the best way to go but they are $$$.
Click to expand...

Think I'll stick with JPEG's :thinking:
 
Basic workflow for Raw

Backup your Raw files to cd/dvd...

Load raw file into camera raw...

Adjust as neccessary then click open image to load into photoshop...

Carry out any photoshop mods...

Then save as Tiff or Jpeg...

You can always go back to original raw files if any problems...

:thumbs:
 
joelg said:
so my qeastion is: when i work in photoshop with a RAW image is the image on the screen actually RAW qaulity or not?
Click to expand...

Short answer is no. Longer answer is when you open file in PS via ACR (or any other RAW converter), the RAW file is demosaiced to a usual graphic file format so PS can work with it. You can then save it as any other graphic format such as PSD, TIFF or JPEG. You would not be able to save into the original RAW file though.

joelg said:
and allso...... when i go to save my RAW image in photoshop it doesnt have just a RAW option so i saved it in "photoshop RAW" which i couldnt open again in the able RAWer viewer or in photoshop?
Click to expand...

This is not the RAW in the same sense as camera RAW - Photoshop just dumps image how it stores it internally (raw buffers) to a file hence it is called Photoshop RAW. Camera RAW are all different formats depending on camera manufacturer so there is no single format that is called RAW. Nikon uses .NEF files, Canon uses .CR2 etc.
 
joelg said:
is the image on the screen actually RAW qaulity or not?
Click to expand...

trying to keep it simple as this is the basics section...

Think you need to understand what raw is. Think of it as a film negative - it has all the original info the camera recorded but it needs developing into an image you can use. No program makes changes to a raw original file so you can't save over it on a computer. You can save copies in various file formats but the original raw file made by the camera will remain unchanged.

The raw converter program (lightroom ,photoshop or whatever) will use the extra information in the raw file to get you the best possible picture file that you can then save (or 'export') to your preferred file type - usually jpeg with a high quality setting. A computer and raw software is more powerful than the chip in the camera that converts to jpeg so you can get better results from raw.
 
thanks every one i have a better understanding now, it frustrated me at first becuse my freind living in my halls at uni has a MAC and for her she use's the RAW files as if they were JPEG'S with no additional softwear (apart form photoshop).

thank you i will edit then save my RAW files to JPEG now.
 
If you mean view the files in windows itself without having to open any programs then you will need a codec to do this (much like you had to for Photoshop)

I use this which works great, allows you to preview the pics in windows itself
 
Joel

It's possible your friend with the Mac has iPhoto. iPhoto will handle RAW files and does a very good job of working with them. Sort of Mac version of DPP, but works with other many camera files not just Canon.

iPhoto comes as part of the installed software with Macs nowadays. It's not a bad program.
 
I just use the Canon Digital Photo Professional program that came with it. Surprisingly, unlike most proprietary multimedia software it's actually a decent program, and not just branded bloatware. I load the RAWs in there, alter sharpness, white balance, brightness etc. and fix things like barrel distortion, then output to JPEG.
 
Chappers said:
Joel

It's possible your friend with the Mac has iPhoto. iPhoto will handle RAW files and does a very good job of working with them. Sort of Mac version of DPP, but works with other many camera files not just Canon.

iPhoto comes as part of the installed software with Macs nowadays. It's not a bad program.
Click to expand...

That friend is me :D Welcome to the forum Joel! - and yes I do have iPhoto, great program.
 
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