Newbie looking for workflow help??

[sootyvrs]

Hi all

I've only recently started to shoot Raw instead of jpeg and now want to start making my pictures look better?

I have DPP and also Adobe Photoshop CS2 which includes Bridge

What I am confused with is which part to do what in the workflow??

It seems that both DPP and PS do overlapping stuff e.g. Saturation, Sharpness, Noise reduction, Brightness etc...

I know PS does a lot more but which application do you use to do the overlapping stuff?

I'm totally overwlmed by PS and all the different option....

Is it best to do as much as possible with the Raw file before using PS or the other way round?

I have heard that you should sharpen only at the end of the workflow. Does that mean ignore the sharpening at the DPP raw stage?

Confused...

[Dermit]

The way my workflow goes is something like this... Use your favorite RAW converter to adjust exposure, contrast, saturation, crop, straighten, fix chromatic aberation, fix vignette. Then take it into Photoshop and do more specific things such as clone/healing brush, selective dodge/burn, selective blur, etc. and, yes, finally sharpen. I use Adobe Camera RAW which is bundled with CS2, but many people swear by DPP for RAW conversion. More recently I purchased Lightroom and will be playing/using it for my RAW editing work before I port to Photoshop.

[tim]

I work entirely within bridge/photoshop. Have a read of the RAW book linked in the books thread in my sig, it's a great getting started guide, and takes you up to be very competent, good for anyone not just Photoshop users.

[amonline]

Go Lightroom, calibrate ACR for your camera and you'll never look back... then PS is there if you need extensive editing.

[sootyvrs]

Thanks for the info.

I have just opened up Adobe Bridge and gone into Abode Camera Raw. Funny as I've had PS CS2 installed for a month now and I didn't know ACR exsisted. :oops:

Hmmm now which one to use DPP or ACR?? I have noticed ACR has the correct CA and also Vignetting but DPP has the Auto Tone curve adjustment.

I guess I will have to play around a bit.

What's Lightroom? Is that part of the CS2 suite or a separate purchase?

[amonline]

Lightroom has all that you mentioned and more... Google "Adobe Lightroom". It's a new app designed for RAW workflow. Personally, it's cut my PS time down by about 90%.

[sootyvrs]

This looks pretty good. Might try the 30 day demo

[carsanbballs]

That a look a http://www.d-65.com
You can buy their manual on work flow or take the class.
It help me, and now I only shoot RAW.