Raw Conversion/Workflow query

[Luvwine]

I am rather new to the idea of shooting in raw. I own Elements 3 and have Digital Photo Professional upgraded to version 1.5. Today for the first time I shot using raw and large jpeg (on a 2 gig card). It was a cloudy day. I was amazed when I just set the white balance on DPP for cloudy day and saw what an amazing differnence it made and how easily (I had been lazy at the shoot, did not do custom white balances, and just use AWB). The raw white balance looked better than the AWB did. Anyway, now I want to know how I should go about processing these files. Should I just do it in Elements 3 or should I do it in DPP 1.5 and save as a TIFF and edit in photoshop? Or should I use the Eos Viewer Utility?? Should I sharpen before I convert and save or sharpen in Elements? I am pretty new to all this. Could someone tell me which of these programs to use and also what thinkgs I should adjust before versus after the conversion from raw occurs?

Thank you very much for any suggestions!

Best,

-Luvwine

[Scottes]

Do everything possible in DPP getting the image to look as best it can. Leave sharpening and saturation for PSE, though, since PSE gives you more control for this. Fine-tuning contrast and black point is also better done in PSE, so get them close in DPP but leave a little room. After a bit of experience you'll know which images have contrast and black point set in DPP, but when in doubt, leave a little room for PSE.

RAW is best for setting exposure/white point, tint, and overall brightness of the image. PSE will be better for setting contrast, sharpening, and removing a final small color-cast if it exists. The rest depends on the image and more so on your experience. As you do more images you'll find yourself soing more and more work in DPP. But until then don't kill youself trying to do something in RAW that you know you can do quickly in PSE.

[mdr]

If you do a lot of sharpening, you may want to check out Fred Miranda's Photoshop plugin on http://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/20DCSpro, which appears to be better than using PS's.
I always attempt to get the settings right when actually taking photos, as this saves me spending a lot of time adjusting images in DPP or PS. Less time behind the computer, more time to be out taking photos.

[tim]

This book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/032127878X/qid%3D1104901326/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-2432264-6194560)'s great if you using Photoshop CS - it explains a lot about RAW as well as how to use CS to work on them.