Ability of Photoshop to see RAW files

[esteban dido]

Hi,
By the question I wil pose, it is clear that I am new to DP. I just got my G2 and in the process of familiarize on this. Need you help: I Got the PS LE that came with the camera, also BreezeBrowser, I took some pics in RAW files and I can see them in Breeze, I was able to convert to JPEG using the different options and played a bit with it, my question is, when I go to PS, it can not find the RAW files that I can see in BB, I am very sure that I am looking at the same directory, sorry if the question is silly, perhaps PS can not work with RAW and just JPEG??? (this woul dnot make too much sense perhaps)
One more question, is TIFF simmilar to jpeg, I read the process that Pekka follows and honestly, I was not able to follow up (honest, I read five times), it looks clearly that there is a lot to be gain by doing this process. I am coming from the Nikon 35 mm world and just in the process of learniong this great new technology. I have a wife that is intrigued that I spend so much time on the PC reading stuff that normally would put to sleep most of the people, I am adicted to this , it is a combination of art, technology and the great option to play at no additonal cost other than the initial investment ....
ED

[Pekka]

esteban dido wrote:
Hi,
By the question I wil pose, it is clear that I am new to DP. I just got my G2 and in the process of familiarize on this. Need you help: I Got the PS LE that came with the camera, also BreezeBrowser, I took some pics in RAW files and I can see them in Breeze, I was able to convert to JPEG using the different options and played a bit with it, my question is, when I go to PS, it can not find the RAW files that I can see in BB, I am very sure that I am looking at the same directory, sorry if the question is silly, perhaps PS can not work with RAW and just JPEG??? (this woul dnot make too much sense perhaps)


Hi and welcome to the forum,

If you convert RAW to TIFF (8 or 16 bit) you can then import the TIFF to Photoshop. Photoshop can not open CRW's directly. Inside Photoshop there is TWAIN import which uses Canon TWAIN for converting and loading CRW's.

One more question, is TIFF simmilar to jpeg, I read the process that Pekka follows and honestly, I was not able to follow up (honest, I read five times), it looks clearly that there is a lot to be gain by doing this process.

A great advantage of TIFF's over JPG's is that you can edit them (change levels, saturation, clone, blur...) without degrading the quality, especially if you use 16-bit mode (you can load in 8-bit TIFF and convert mode to 16-bit in Photoshop for the time you edit it, this preserve quality too quite well). Save edited images in different name, so you always have an original TIFF as a backup (if you have space for them). CRW is you "negative", that should be kept safe and never be deleted.

JPEG is a lossy format, so if you resave JPEG as JPEG you always degrade image quality. That's why originals should be kept in TIFF or PSD format.

The 16-bit linear TIFF is a special form of TIFF where data in linear more (i.e. no gamma and saturation applied). The advantage of that is that you can use Photoshop's curves to convert it back to way you'd like to see it, and sometimes save overblown highlights, too. You can use D30 actions for converting linear to 'normal', but they use ICC profiles which are only for D30 so you most likely end up having wrong colors on G2 photos. You can try using LinearSharpen for G2 Linear TIFF's if you remove the Linear ICC profile form the action and add strong saturation to the end.

Note also that in my gallery the workflow is not correct in G1 area. I try correct this asap, but meanwhile the correct workflow is explained at http://photography-on-the.net/gallery/feedback.php?exhibition=2&dt=1

[GordonMcGregor]

Hi there,

Does anyone have ICC profiles for the G2 available ?
Either linear or non-linear would be useful (both would be excellent)

Alternatively, can someone explain/ provide pointers to how to go about creating one ? Would modifying the D30 profiles be a good starting point ?

Thanks in advance,

Gordon

[esteban dido]

Pekka,
TRhank you a lot for your response, this is clear now, I see the advantage of TIFF.
Esteban