workflow for a newb

is there a simple way to go through workflow? i shot an event for a friend, and screwed the white balance, so most pics have a yellowish tint. i have a decent spec'd laptop - 2.2ghz, 2gb ram. while it doesnt take much time to open a RAW file in DPP and make adjustments such as unsharp mask, saturation, and fix the WB, it takes a noticeable amount of time to convert to JPG (with resulting files being massive, unless i drop the quality to 2 or 3).

is there a way to process/fix these files faster?

also, whats the deal with JPEG file size and DPP export? i mean, if i bump the quality to 10, i get a jpg file thats as big as the RAW file.

I think that is a matter of subjective perception, whether the jpg is big. Lets consider some objective facts: You have a 18 MP camera. Each jpg pixel carries 24 bits (3 bytes) of data. That's around 52 MB. Reasonable jpg compression gets it down to 12-13 MB. You can compress more, but more compression means less quality. How much quality you need depends on how you are using the image. A 20 x 30 print needs more than a Facebook post.

A RAW file has 14 bits per pixel, around 30 MB, but it is also compressed down to around 20 MB.

A modern RAW workflow is based on archiving only the RAW plus the editing (in DPP it is saved inside the RAW file) and making jpgs only as the need arises and deleting them after they have done their job.

Conversion time depends primarily on your system. On my XP/3.0 Ghz./2 GB computer a jpg conversion which includes resizing takes about 6 seconds. On my Win 7 64 bit/i7/8 GB laptop it is less than 2 seconds.

thanks, that helped. i normally shoot straight jpg @ 8mp, but for the occasion decided to go raw+jpeg. forgot that 18mp jpg is much much larger than 8mp

tzalman wrote in post #12204755
A modern RAW workflow is based on archiving only the RAW plus the editing (in DPP it is saved inside the RAW file) and making jpgs only as the need arises and deleting them after they have done their job.

question about this..... is the RAW editing destructive? if i make changes and save them in the raw file, can i ever revert to the original RAW (lets say a month down the line)?

ekinnyc wrote in post #12205499
...question about this..... is the RAW editing destructive? if i make changes and save them in the raw file, can i ever revert to the original RAW (lets say a month down the line)?

In the DPP menu: Adjustment > Revert to shot settings (Ctrl+Shift+Z).

Works in both the Edit Image Window and the Main Window.

ekinnyc wrote in post #12205499
question about this..... is the RAW editing destructive?

It only alters metadata. But if you for instance need to boost exposure a stop, the image quality will suffer.

ekinnyc wrote in post #12205499
if i make changes and save them in the raw file, can i ever revert to the original RAW (lets say a month down the line)?

Yes.

ekinnyc wrote in post #12205499
thanks, that helped. i normally shoot straight jpg @ 8mp, but for the occasion decided to go raw+jpeg. forgot that 18mp jpg is much much larger than 8mp


question about this..... is the RAW editing destructive? if i make changes and save them in the raw file, can i ever revert to the original RAW (lets say a month down the line)?

Completely non-destructive.
The editing instructions are written into the metadata section of the file, but the image data section is never touched and the original instructions written by the camera are not overwritten. At any time you can select Adjustment/Revert to Shot Settings.

tzalman wrote in post #12204755
Conversion time depends primarily on your system. On my XP/3.0 Ghz./2 GB computer a jpg conversion which includes resizing takes about 6 seconds. On my Win 7 64 bit/i7/8 GB laptop it is less than 2 seconds.

yeh, i have a macbook, C2D 2.0ghz 2gb running OS X 10.5 and it definitely feels sluggish. as soon as i try to do anything with CR2, my system slows down. im wondering if bumping to 4gb would help, but not sure how marginal the difference would be. i think the problem is the video card - its only an "NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory"

as a follow-up....

when exporting CR2 => JPG, if i export @ 300 dpi on quality 10, while preserving the image size, i will get massive JPG files. i am uploading to my friend's phanfare site, and while the site has unlimited capacity, my internet connection makes for a long overnight upload process of 300 images.

since he will most likely not be printing these images, what settings can i export at that will preserve quality, and yield reasonable size files (3mb or so)? thanks!

ekinnyc wrote in post #12220319
as a follow-up....

when exporting CR2 => JPG, if i export @ 300 dpi on quality 10, while preserving the image size, i will get massive JPG files. i am uploading to my friend's phanfare site, and while the site has unlimited capacity, my internet connection makes for a long overnight upload process of 300 images.

since he will most likely not be printing these images, what settings can i export at that will preserve quality, and yield reasonable size files (3mb or so)? thanks!

For personal/Web use, you have only to concern yourself with pixel dimensions and, as applicable, jpeg compression quality. You don't look at size (in inches) or ppi -- those things only confuse you.

So, in the DPP Convert and Save and Batch process dialogs, you slick your Resize option then make sure your units are in Pixels. and the Lock Aspect Ratio option is selected, then you will enter a max number of pixels in either dimension (for example, POTN specifies a max of 1024 in the widest dimension) for viewing. Ignore the ppi number -- it doesn't matter for Web or monitor viewing. You can set the jpeg quality to suit the file size you want -- if you are happy with 3Mb files, then you can go high quality, although for speedier uploads I'd play with, say, a quality of 7 or so.

thanks for that. i am a big proponent of having what i consider "original" images... this is a vestige from my PnS days, where i liked getting the original image from my friends' cameras, rather than save it from a photo-sharing site. now that i am the one behind an SLR, i want to be able to give my friends images that are as original as possible, so even though they are for web viewing, i want them to have the option to download a high quality original.

meaning, that normally i shoot jpeg with my camera, and id just give them those pics. since this was my first time shooting raw, i want to export the same high quality pics without compressing/resizing them too much.

am i misunderstanding resizing? meaning, will it retain the same picture size, but at lesser pixel density?

Well, when you resize an image you are either "shrinking" it to a smaller dimension in pixels or you are enlarging the dimensions. So, what you are saying is that you want to upload the original image without resizing, correct?

If so, then, well, that's where you are running into the uploading slowness -- your T2i has a bunch of megapixels that will take time to upload, period!

The quality setting is the other variable -- lower Quality means more compression and a smaller file size, while keeping the pixel dimensions/resolution. It's a tradeoff, of course, because low quality can cause some unwanted compression artifacts, so you want to double-check things before you upload them, but there can be a fair amount of latitude there. Try, say, a quality setting of 5 and leave Resize unchecked and see what you come up with.

Like I said, the file resolution/pixel dimensions will be unchanged. What this means is that your friend will have a "huge" image to look at. To view it in a "normal" viewer it will have to be shrunk down by the viewing software, or he can view it "full size", meaning it will overflow his display. If that's what you want, then, well, whatever floats your boat!

i see what you mean. yeah, if i leave resize unchecked, a quality of 3 yields a 6-8MB file.

when i shoot straight jpg, i bump the MP down to 8, hence the smaller files. too bad i cannot do this with RAW.

ok, thanks for that. i will try to resize. normally i wouldnt be this anal about it, but because it was his son's 1st bday, i feel that its important to give him the best quality uploaded image.

Well, shooting in mRaw/sRaw (whatever format your camera supports) will do exactly that (give you a lower resolution image out-of-camera) so if that's what you want check out those options.

I've never used one of thoses settings because for one my one camera that provides them is of an older generations so the sRaw file resolution is a tiny 4MP.

Now, if you are really interested in a smaller resolution jpeg, all you need to do is apply the appropriate figure in pixels during your Convert and Save/Batch process dialog. So if you process a Raw file and Resize to, say, 2000x3000 pixels, you now have a 6MP image. See, it ain't that complicated!

i dont believe the t2i has those options (unless im missing something). i can do either RAW or RAW+L

ekinnyc wrote in post #12220993
i dont believe the t2i has those options (unless im missing something). i can do either RAW or RAW+L

Really? I just assumed that all newer bodies could do that. Well, if not, then it's still quick and easy to just do the resize in DPP.