Working with CRW's

[Inactive member 41]

Hey all, untill recently I have been using my G2 as a high end point and click style camera, but I'm looking to start using some of it's more advanced features. Along with this I'd like to explore using the higher quality image modes.

Till now I've used the internal jpg modeand avoided the CW mode due to the difference in the number of files it holds.

So my question is, how extreme is the difference between a top quality jpg and the raw mode? I'm not doing pro work so small differences are okay as long as they aren't limiting my creative options.

And if I move to CRW's what proccess do you recomend for getting them into a workable format? How does Canon's converter compare to the other options? What do you use?

How extreme is the difference between the different converters outputs?

Any suggestions?

[madhg]

I've recently started using RAW. Can't comment on relative merits of RAW and JPG, except that many people say RAW is the way to go.

I strongly recommend the Breezebrowser software http://www.breezesys.com/BreezeBrowser/

It's not expensive, is very good, and has excellent support from the author Chris Breeze. It will convert RAW to TIFF Files, which you can then edit in any image editor, and convert the final version to compressed JPG to save space.

For more details, search this forum for "workflow" - that's how people describe the process of getting final processed images from RAW files.

best wishes,
David Griffel

[UK_Terry]

i can also recommend Breezebrowser.
i have been using it for about 4 weeks, and encountered a couple of problems. an e-mail to them and Chris Breeze e-mailed me back with the solutions.
excellent program and back up.

[Rudi]

Hi Drew,

put me down for BreezeBrowser as well. Excellent program and support from Chris! :)

As to the difference between finest quality JPEG and RAW (CRW), the difference will be amost unnoticeable when viewing the photos on the computer screen. What you are really gaining with the RAW files is the extra colour depth (at least with my D30 you do, I am not quite sure about the G2), and the flexibility of being able to adjust settings such as white balance, colour saturation, sharpening, etc., after you take the picture.

Also, at higher ISO settings, the difference between JPEG and RAW files will be more noticeable, because the JPEG compression artefacts tend to exaggerate and highlight the noise inherent in high-ISO images.

HTH,

[pvdiamon]

If you convert the TIFF files back to JPEG to save space, is that JPEG a superior picture compared to a photo shot directly to JPEG, and noticeable when you print it?

[UK_Terry]

What a great question.......Over to the experts.

[dbostock]

pvdiamon wrote:
If you convert the TIFF files back to JPEG to save space, is that JPEG a superior picture compared to a photo shot directly to JPEG, and noticeable when you print it?


It all depends on the compression (thus quality) settings you use. The camera does it's own compression when you shoot in JPEG mode. If you take a JPEG, convert it to TIFF, then save it, you preserve the quality of that JPEG. This is because TIFF doesn't compress (unless you specifically tell it to).

Saving anything in JPEG mode will cause some compression (even if you set the quality to MAX). Repeatedly saving a JPEG as a JPEG will cause successive losses in quality.

So, I'm sure this is crystal clear, right?

Seriously, the answer is it all depends. Let's say your camera writes JPEG in Medium Quality. If you instead take the TIFF and save it JPEG High Quality then you would have, in theory, a superior picture.

For what it's worth, I copy my CRW's to my computer, use BreezeBrowser to convert to TIFF, then work on them in Photoshop. I save from Photoshop as TIFF rather than PSD, so I can retain the EXIF data. Then when I'm satisfied and want to share the result, I convert to JPEG. I also save the CRWs for the best shots in case I want to go back to the source. Need lots of disk space.

Anyway, probably more information than you wanted but that's my experience with CRWs.


Cheers,
db