raw to Jpeg help please

[mackb]

:oops: Ok this is my first post so take it easy on me...ok, I took a picture with my 10D in RAW, then I loaded it on the computer, ok.....when I open it zoombrowser makes me decode the picture for "temporary viewing" if I save that image as a JPEG do I still have the quality of the RAW picture (I hope this makes sense to someone). I need to save it as a JPEG because I want to burn it on a disc and take it to get a print.

The RAW file extention is CRW (what is that) and can a store print this??

Thanks alot for any help

[defordphoto]

Why you dumb son-of-a....Hehehe...just kidding...

Very common confusion among a digital/SLR newbie. And it all depends on what software you're using. The Canon ZoomBrowser is not the best solution. I suggest BreezeBrowser (www.breezesys.com) as it's much easier to use and has gobs more features.

Anyway, you can extract the JPEG file from the RAW (CRW) file and then you'll have that JPEG file to post on the Net or whatever. When you extract the RAW file and convert it to a TIFF then you can manipulate it forever without losing quality. Always keep your CRW and their corresponding THM files for future use as software improves.

One thing I will suggest is to read those manuals to understand what a RAW file is, what you can do with it and its attached JPEG companion.

You have alot to learn. Have fun and enjoy it! It's a blast and feel free and glean information from this forum. There's a great group of folks here.

[DaveG]

:oops: Ok this is my first post so take it easy on me...ok, I took a picture with my 10D in RAW, then I loaded it on the computer, ok.....when I open it zoombrowser makes me decode the picture for "temporary viewing" if I save that image as a JPEG do I still have the quality of the RAW picture (I hope this makes sense to someone). I need to save it as a JPEG because I want to burn it on a disc and take it to get a print.

The RAW file extention is CRW (what is that) and can a store print this??

Thanks alot for any help

I go into the computer and I download the files from the card into a specific file. I usually choose only the RAW files. My 10D is set up to inbed only the smallest jpegs, which at 11K are useless, so why save 'em?

Now the RAW files are sitting in the computer as CRW files. I need a program to decode them. Canon provides one but it's awful, so if you can get a third party RAW conversion program - like Photoshop CS - then you'd be well served to do so.

In any case you need to convert the RAW files. Once you are in the RAW converter program you'll change this and that and then you press "OK" and the image is converted to something that an image manipulating program can deal with. But at this point the file is not a tiff or a jpeg or anything. In Photoshop CS the program will now take you to the image manipulating part, ie the real Photoshop, where you can do more things to the image file.

At this point you should save it and your choices are many. I like to save the file at this point as a .psd (Photoshop) file since I may use layers and such. I like to use some of what the 10D has named the file but not all of it. The file name at this point is something like CRW_5123 and I'll "Save As" the file as X5123. This preserves the RAW file in its pristine state, and I know that from my workflow, that any Xfile (sorry) has been worked on.

Many people will want to give their file a better name, like "Fall River rocks in stream" and that's OK. From my perspective I can use my naming system to get back to the origial RAW file more easily, and if I'm doing a bunch of images I'd have to invent a numbering system anyway like "Fall River rocks in stream 2" and "... in stream 3", and so forth. You'll also see the subtle and useful changes that I can make to these file names as I change the files. But this isn't right or wrong, it's what works for you.

Then I get into the real Photoshop work. After I've made some changes in the image I'll SAVE AS as X5123A.psd. This slightly modified name indicates to me that it's a modified file.

Once I'm completely satisfied with the file I can decide what I have to do next. If the file needs to be big and still to go to a client, then I'll just Save As a tiff file, with the same basic file name as the Photshop file. So the file is now X5123.tif. Even if the client is using Photoshop, they can still use tiff, and tiff has become a universal donour, shall we say. If I'm sending it by email and to a newspaper I'll Save As a jpeg, with a file name like X5123A j.jpg. If I'm emailing it to a friend I'll take the.psd file, change the image size to something around a megabyte and then save it as a jpeg as X5123A j small.

So this goes from RAW, to PSD, to tiff to a variety of jpeg sizes. Do all of your work on non jpegs and convert to jpeg as the last thing you do, since each jpeg SAVE will compress the file and lose you information.

All these files take up space on my hard drive and it's one of the many reasons that I've just added 120 gigabytes of space to go along with 80 gigs on my C drive.

[PacAce]

Why does most everybody say the Canon conversion utility is awful???? I've used it exclusive since I bought the 10D and never found it to be awful. I now use Photoshop CS but I still don't find Canon's to be awful.

I'm now under the assumption that a lot of people are confusing the Canon ZoomBrowser program, which I DO admit is awful, with the File Viewer Utility which does the actual conversion for ZoomBrowser. FVU can be used standalone, in case some people didn't know that, for converting the RAW file to TIFF or JPEG. Yes, forget the ZoomBrowser program but don't shy away from FVU just because you heard that the Canon programs stink.

What I find a little puzzling is that Breezebrowser gets a lot of "thumbs up" when in fact (unless this has changed very recently), it's using the same Canon SDK for raw conversion as FVU.

Just had to get that off my chest. :)

[DaveG]

Why does most everybody say the Canon conversion utility is awful???? I've used it exclusive since I bought the 10D and never found it to be awful. I now use Photoshop CS but I still don't find Canon's to be awful.

I'm now under the assumption that a lot of people are confusing the Canon ZoomBrowser program, which I DO admit is awful, with the File Viewer Utility which does the actual conversion for ZoomBrowser. FVU can be used standalone, in case some people didn't know that, for converting the RAW file to TIFF or JPEG. Yes, forget the ZoomBrowser program but don't shy away from FVU just because you heard that the Canon programs stink.

What I find a little puzzling is that Breezebrowser gets a lot of "thumbs up" when in fact (unless this has changed very recently), it's using the same Canon SDK for raw conversion as FVU.

Just had to get that off my chest. :)


Well my big problem with it is that I can't get real time changes to the previews as I make adjustments. I have to guess at how much I'd want to change something, rather than see it change instantly like in PS CS.

For example say I want to change the exposure. I don't know how much I'll need, so I'll go to the File Viewer Utility's Digital Exposure Compensation slider and I'll guess +1. When I do this nothing happens until I increase hit OK or Preview. In both cases the image will process. Can I toggle back and forth to see how it looked seconds before? No I can't.

All of the adjustments in the File Viewer Utility work the same way and it would take forever to process a bunch of images unless I settled for much less "fixability" than RAW offers.

With CS when I change something, it happens on the screen instantly, and this allows me to fine tune the adjustment. That's why I think that the Canon RAW decoder is awful. Until it changes the preview in real time there is far too much guessing, yoyo'ing back and forth, and just plain settling for "that's good enough".

[PacAce]

Well my big problem with it is that I can't get real time changes to the previews as I make adjustments. I have to guess at how much I'd want to change something, rather than see it change instantly like in PS CS.

For example say I want to change the exposure. I don't know how much I'll need, so I'll go to the File Viewer Utility's Digital Exposure Compensation slider and I'll guess +1. When I do this nothing happens until I increase hit OK or Preview. In both cases the image will process. Can I toggle back and forth to see how it looked seconds before? No I can't.

All of the adjustments in the File Viewer Utility work the same way and it would take forever to process a bunch of images unless I settled for much less "fixability" than RAW offers.

With CS when I change something, it happens on the screen instantly, and this allows me to fine tune the adjustment. That's why I think that the Canon RAW decoder is awful. Until it changes the preview in real time there is far too much guessing, yoyo'ing back and forth, and just plain settling for "that's good enough".

Yes, I agree with you there. Comparing FVU to CS is a no-brainer for doing RAW adjustments before the actual conversion. CS wins even with both hands tied behind it's back.

I guess I was more interested in getting feedback from Breezebrowser users and users of other utilities that also make use of the Canon SDK for raw conversion. FVU is free. The others you usually have to pay for and I was wondering if there really is that big a difference.

[mackb]

:D , Thanks to everyone for all the help, I understand alot more now and I will continue to sudy and read more to take good pictures, One more question though. If I'm done editing a file and I just want to print it, do I have to take that 18mb picture to the local pros or can I compress it to a JPEG and have a print with the same picture quality (again assume I don't want to make anymore changes to the file).

The reason I ask is because everyone at the store seemed surprised when I walked in with an 18mb pic...

[defordphoto]

Most kiosks will not be able to handle that large a file. Just save to JPEG with least compression and you'll be fine. It will make a superb print. If you do want to print the 16-bit TIFF file, then you'd have to take it to a pro shop. Call ahead to ensure they can handle a file that large.