Please help! Question on importing RAW into PS7, and 1 more

[Adam Hicks]

So I was messing around and picked up a Canon i9900 for the house. Holy moly that thing is sweet! I have a little CP300 I take with me for 4x6 dye-sub prints, which never ceases to amaze me for a printer that fits easily in my camera bag. The i9900 will be only for photos, while I have a third printer, an Epson for text.

So I heard that shooting RAW / AdobeRGB yielded excellent results with the printer (any opinion there?) and I've not shot RAW before. I'd like a plug-in or some way to directly and easily open these images into Photoshop (and I'll pay for it if needed.) Can someone help me out there?

Also, I've heard people on this board say they run Parameter 2 on the Drebel. Can someone explain the difference between this and the AdobeRGB setting and why I'd use one or the other?

Forgive my noobie question, I've just been so busy enjoying the camera for the last 6 months that I've not gotten to the point of actually PRINTING any or playing with RAW. I searched the board but didn't find exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks!
Adam

[bigdave]

Adobe RGB is an example of a color space. If that sounds like greek, no worries... it's basically a portion of colors that your eye can see. Another good way to think of color spaces is to see them as containers for raw color data. Adobe RGB is widely regarded as a superior color space because it encompases a larger volume of colors, whereas brightness is about the same as sRGB. Many will argue this, but for most printing purposes, you need only use sRGB, because few printers if any can reproduce the entire space of either one. Long story short, shoot in sRGB, and if you need to, convert to Adobe RGB using photoshop.

As for converting your files in Adobe, I've read on the forum that there are some better options, but if you insist on Photoshop, either invest in the 7.01 upgrade which will cost ~$100, or divvy up for Photoshop CS. Either of these will convert your RAW files to tiff or jpeg, often resulting in sharper images. Honestly though, I recommend tiff, because otherwise transitions in the shadows especially won't be smooth (fewer colors/shades).

And finally... Parameter 2: I have absolutely no idea! I'm just a lowly camera store guy, and I won't buy my 10D till mid august. In the meantime I get to play with our demo and any lens i want everyday.

Happy shooting!

[evilenglishman]

either invest in the 7.01 upgrade which will cost ~$100,

that wont help as Adobe dont sell the camera raw plug in for 701 anymore

[Belmondo]

EvilEnglishman is right. Adobe stopped offering it when they released CS. CaptureOne LE will handle your RAW/TIFF conversions, and many swear by it as being superior to CS. I have no opinions, but would probably invest in the CS upgrade just on general principals.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Also, the upgrade to PS 7.01 is FREE.. allways was.. it was the RAW plugin sold seperately that was $99.00...

But as EvilEnglishman says,. it is no longer available for sale.

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Long story short, shoot in sRGB, and if you need to, convert to Adobe RGB using photoshop.

This is wrong advice on two counts. First, while it is true that there aren't any printers that can printer the entire gamut of sRGB, there are plenty of printers that can print colours outside sRGB, sometimes even outside Adobe RGB.

Secondly, there is no point in converting from sRGB to Adobe RGB in Photoshop. You will have already clipped colours by shooting in sRGB and you cannot get them back.

One advantage of shooting raw, however, is that you do not have to choose destination colour space until you actually convert the raw file, at which point you can choose Adobe RGB, sRGB or if you go with Capture One a colour space such as ProPhoto RGB which will avoid any possibility of clipping colour.

Regards,

[CyberDyneSystems]

So I heard that shooting RAW / AdobeRGB yielded excellent results with the printer (any opinion there?) and I've not shot RAW before. I'd like a plug-in or some way to directly and easily open these images into Photoshop (and I'll pay for it if needed.) Can someone help me out there?


Thanks!
Adam

On this point.. I think you may serioulsy want to simply upgrade your PS7 to PSCS... the upgrade cost is not so bad and there are a lot of features in PSCS that make it worth while.. even without the addition of the excellent RAW support.

[Adam Hicks]

Thanks for the help guys. I just dropped $428 on the printer (newegg.com, no shipping or tx) and it is absolutely amazing. You just 'feel' better installing 8 ink cartridges... it's like screwing on a white lens :)

I'll look into the CS upgrade in a month or so and go that route. My sister is a teacher... so I can get it cheap. Is that cheating? :oops:

Thanks again,
Adam

[bigdave]

Good advice Roger! thanks for setting me straight. BTW, you mentioned some printers can print outside the range of both color spaces... I'm wondering in what sense? brightness? Just trying to learn like everyone else!

Oh, and Adam, you won't be dissappointed by PSCS. I'm about 1/4 through Deke McCelland's Photoshop CS Bible, and there seem to be some great new additions since version 7. Maybe I should go back and reread the Defining Colors section in Chapter 4!

As always... Happy Shooting!

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Good advice Roger! thanks for setting me straight. BTW, you mentioned some printers can print outside the range of both color spaces... I'm wondering in what sense? brightness? Just trying to learn like everyone else!

Dave,

If you check this page (http://www.rogercavanagh.com/helpinfo/27_gamuts.htm), I have a few comparison plots of print spaces and colour spaces. They are 2D so they don't really tell the whole story, but the bottom line is some printers will give more colour saturation, often in the blues-cyans-greens than can be reproduced in sRGB. Of course, if your pictures don't include these colours, then you won't see any benefit. But I have some examples on that page of the colour gamuts of fairly average scenes that show how easy it is for colours to be captured that would be clipped by using the sRGB space.

I do all my own printing, but some of the real experts like Andrew Rodney and Ethan Hansen have poured scorn on the notion that lab printers like the Fuji Frontier are only capable of working with sRGB. It's just not true (as the comparisons on my site show) and is either incompetence because the lab doesn't know how to use its equipment or deliberately misleading customers (thus producing less than optimum results) to give themselves less hassle.

Regards,