shooting RAW

[Bushman]

Good morning!

I just received my 20d from buydig.com today! woo-hoo!

(They had a great price $1307, body only, and great service)
I have the Digital Rebel, but have never shot RAW before and want to try it now. Do you need to download to your computer directly from the camera, or will a flash card reader transmit all the data effeciently?

Any advice for a RAW novice?

Great forum everyone!

Mike

nistudios.com

[mdr]

I shoot RAW and JPEG, transfer to my computer through a CF reader and use DPP for processing.

[donlavange]

You can use the flash card reader. Then use Photoshop or your camera software to make adjustments. The original RAW files stay intact as you save into Tiff, or whatever format you plan to use.

[pierrot]

Do you need to download to your computer directly from the camera, or will a flash card reader transmit all the data effeciently?
You can't, need a card reader (no direct cable connection).

Btw, an excellent book is Bruce Fraser's "Camera RAw with Photoshop CS".

[Bushman]

mdr: What is dpp for processing?

[mdr]

Canon's Digital Photo Professional. It will be on the CDs you got with your camera. once installed, download the latest update from Canon's website to ensure you have the latest algorithms and therefore the best output. After processing in DPP I use Photoshop CS for further manipulation if required and printing.

[ssim]

DPP = Digital Photo Pro. You should have a CD with your camera and it will convert your RAW files for you. There are a couple of other very good options as well. I personally use only C1 (www.phaseone.com (http://www.phaseone.com)) and have used breezebrowser in the past (www.breezebrowser.com (http://www.breezebrowser.com)).

The conversion to shooting RAW and taking the time to get the hang of post processing these can be a little time consuming at the start but well worth the effort. Once I started shooting RAW I never looked back. I probably haven't shot a jpg through my cameras in over a year.

[steven]

I would also recomend reading "Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS".
While it is specifcally aimed at the RAW converter in Photoshop it does a great job at explaining what the settings do and why you want to do some in the RAW converson and some later.
I have found it a great help in understanding RAW.

steve

[bigadg]

i also am new to shooting raw with my 20d

worked out how to use dpp but what do you have to do to the pics once open in photoshop to correct things
stu

[tim]

That book everyone's recommending is absolutely invaluable for using RAW with PS CS. I shoot raw pretty much exclusively after reading it.

[milou]

Excellent review here: http://www.mwords.co.uk/pages/reviews/bookRWCR.htm

[jimsolt]

Just the note that Photoshop Elements 3.0 -- considerably cheaper than CS -- also supports Canon Raw files (.crw). I'm not sure, what if any RAW features CS offers that Elements 3 doesn't.
Jim