RAW image processing

[reefrunner]

Couple of questions...

1) Is it correct that PhotoShop CS has a RAW converter built in, or do I need to get a plug in?

2) Any secrets/tips/tricks to processing a RAW image?

3) Here is the big question...what is the secret to working with such large files? Crop and resize first? RAW images are saved at 13 mb on my cam, I can see running a filter on a 13 mb file taking about an hour....

 

[ReefLady]

1) Yes, it comes with a RAW converter. Check the Adobe web site to make sure it's compatible with your camera.
2) (multipart, LOL)
-Use the eyedropper tool on a neutral grey area to get "in the ballpark" for white balance.
-Use the "preview" button frequently to make sure you're improving/staying accurate.
-"shadow" slider is great for midtone contrast.
-"exposure" slider rocks, but use it sparingly- bumping up the exposure will gradually give you a noise problem.
-Click the "advanced" radio button for many more options.
-below the histogram, click the small triangle, go to "preferences" and set it to apply sharpening to preview images only. You're better off sharpening in the regular PS.
-click the "detail" tab. "Luminance smoothing" is noise reduction, blow your preview up to 100% and move the slider to get rid of noise, without sacrificing much sharpness at all.
-"lens" tab- vignetting is pretty cool, move the slider toward negative numbers to give your pic some nice vignetting if you like that stuff.
-"calibrate" tab- the "shadow tint" slider can work wonders when you're struggling with white balance.

3) Can't crop and resize, as they're not RAW anymore. When you process the RAW image, it opens as a PSD in Photoshop. I think more RAM or a separate scratch disk would be in order.

T

 

[Jakets]

Yes CS has a Camera Raw formate. It can open file extension such as .TIF, .CRW, .NEF, .RAT, .ORF, .MRW, .DCR , .MOS
I'm not sure what your camera Raw file extesion is but it would have to be one of these.

13Mb files shouldn't be that slow to manipulate. Unless you were working with a very old computer with very little RAM.
I can shoot 17Mb files in TIFF and I have 1.1G Athalon with 1G Ram to apply a filter takes 1 or 2 seconds.

 

[reefrunner]

13Mb files shouldn't be that slow to manipulate. Unless you were working with a very old computer with very little RAM.
I can shoot 17Mb files in TIFF and I have 1.1G Athalon with 1G Ram to apply a filter takes 1 or 2 seconds.

2.2gh processor, but only 256 mb RAM (so more RAM is definitely in order

When you process the RAW image, it opens as a PSD in Photoshop. I think more RAM or a separate scratch disk would be in order.

When I first installed PS 7 and now PS CS, it yelled at me a bit about the scratch disk, can you explain (for a dummy) how to set up a seperate scratch disk?

 

[ReefLady]

Sure. You need a separate hard drive on the system, other than the one with Windows installed. PS then uses this hard drive as a sort of RAM, constantly dumping and pulling information. It makes a big difference. You can easily get a 20GB hard drive for very cheap (www.fatwallet.com) and don't use it for anything but PS. This is not as good as loading your machine with RAM, but it comes in a close second.

You'll have to assign the new drive as a scratch disk:

edit-->preferences-->plug-ins & scratch disks.

HTH

Try www.dealram.com for the cheapest ram prices.

T

 

[reefrunner]

Well, I won two auctions on ebay this am, I have a gig of ram coming and a 40gb external hard drive which is probably faster than the internal one I have now, so hopefully by next week I'll be set for some lightening fast PS editing.

Let me just say, that RAW rocks!! It's pretty wild having that much control over the picture!!

 

[ReefLady]

Yeah, it really, really does rock. For my portrait jobs it's by far the safest route. If I meter the WB wrong or over/underexpose, I know I have that safety net of shooting RAW.

You'll also find that, once you've edited the image in RAW, there's really no need for 90% of the work you would do in Photoshop. I check the levels, sharpen and resize and that's about it, where with JPEG there's a lot more to do.

T