RAW Question....

[CanonLaw]

I have a 10D and just recently took a vacation down the Oregon coast. I have had the camera about 6 months, but have been shooting jpeg the whole time. After reading this forum for a while, I decided to shoot my trip using only RAW. Now I have a problem. I have photoshop 7, so how should I edit the photos? Should I convert them to TIFF, or does that defeat the purpose of shooting in RAW? I can view the images just fine using Picassa, but how should I go about actually working with them in Photoshop?

I just don’t want to lose any of the quality that RAW gives me.

Thanks....

[Loaded]

im not real good at RAW yet or what programs accept what but i keep everything in RAW unitl its time to print or transfer. I would see if somebody in your HOOD has the 20D software and see if you can use it and go form there.

[IanC_UK]

There are many programs to deal with raw, i personally use this

http://www.pixmantec.com/index2.html and the standard version is free ! :D

[steven]

You have to convert RAW to some format to be edited. The RAW file is unprocessed, has had no white balance applied as well as no color space (or more corect it is in the camera's color space). When you convert RAW you applie these choices and the pick a file format for editing.

I use 16 bit TIFF format myself. This perserves the most information from RAW but also has the largest file size.

My last step is to convert my 16bit TIFF into what I want to print or display.

[jimsolt]

I have a 10D and just recently took a vacation down the Oregon coast. I have had the camera about 6 months, but have been shooting jpeg the whole time. After reading this forum for a while, I decided to shoot my trip using only RAW. Now I have a problem. I have photoshop 7, so how should I edit the photos? Should I convert them to TIFF, or does that defeat the purpose of shooting in RAW? I can view the images just fine using Picassa, but how should I go about actually working with them in Photoshop?

I just don’t want to lose any of the quality that RAW gives me.

Thanks....

You MUST convert the RAW image to some format to be able to use it.

The ULTIMATE product will determine what format is appropriate -- for example use on the web would undoubdtedly be in jpeg. Print usage might well be a different format.

The INTERMEDIATE steps -- the editing (post production) should be done as much as possible using LOSSLESS formats (like TIFF). The real practical thing to look out for here is that each time you record a jpeg, you lose quality. Try to avoid doing that as much as possible.

Preserve your original RAW with a backup. Try to lose as little quality as possible in post production, and end up with a high quality product tailored to your usage.

Sounds more complicated than it is.

Jim

[CyberDyneSystems]

Converting to do will not defeat the purpose :)

In the most basin form.. there are two steps to post work on RAW files.

1: Convert to tiff. You can use the Canon software provided,. or any one of several third party applications do this. Your RAW converter will give you options tthat you can make on your converted images that are not really availble in regualr post processing.

2: Work on Tiff file in Photoshop etc.. Cropping, rotating, noise reduction and sharpening.