RAW Conversion

I shoot in RAW and use MS Digital Image Suite 2006. I love the MS software and the results a much better than the print out I was getting in PSE3. But MSDIS 2006 takes for ever to load RAW images.

So I started opening the RAW images in RawShooter and just converting to JPEG and then editing in MSDIS2006.

My question is am I losing any of the RAW advantages by doing this. I do the color and exposure plus sharpening in MSDIS2006. Do I lose any of the quality by converting to JPEG before the final editing is done? Would the final result be better if I did all editing before converting?

Alter everything you can in RSE, you should just be doing finishing touches in MSDIS. Exposure, white ballance, and contrast are best done in RAW/RSE.

So guess I am losing some quality or flexibility by converting first?

What do you consider "finishing touches" that I should be doing in MSDIS? What about doing the sharpening in MSDIS after coversion done in RSE.

I consider 'finishing touches' things like cloning out unwanted spots; maybe sharpening specific details like maybe the eyes, if needed; lightening specific parts of the image. Changing a complete background or sky could also be considered here.

If you're likely to do major editing to the images, I'd consider processing them from RSE to a TIFF file, then do edits on the TIFF file in your image editing software. You lose image information when you edit and then save the jpeg files. In many cases, this loss of data may not be noticeable to the naked eye but data is lost. Once you've edited the TIFF to your satisfaction, you can then save that as a jpg if you need it in that format.

RSE does its construction of the image in 12 bit depth, but jpg supports only 8 bit, so data is lost when you save to jpg (in addition to losses due to jpg compression). RSE also offers the option of saving to 16 bit tif or 8 bit tif. I don't know if MSDIS supports 16 bit. If it doesn't, that is the main reason for doing as much as possible in RSE, and you are still better off going to tif and saving to jpg only at the end of any additional work in MSDIS.
Elie

As you can tell I am new to the post processing area and all of your comments has been helpful.

What about sharpening? If I use RSE to and then convert to Tiff vs. jpeg, can sharpening be done in MSDIS or should it also be done before converting to even Tiff?

On the subject of sharpening this is a tough one to get use to. How do you know when you have over sharpened? What are the signs? In MSDIS you have a setting for edge width. This really seems to bring details out, but easy to go to far.

Anybody have any input on this?

Sharpening should be the last step after "final" saving, so you can sharpen different amounts at different times for different purposes, like web vs a large print.
Can't help with MSDIS, but one sign of oversharpening is a halo around the edges. There is some help in the "Sticky"s.

JUST TO MAKE SURE I UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE SAYING. I THINK YOU ARE SAYING I CAN GO AHEAD AND CONVERT IN RSE AND SAVE AS TIFF THEN I COULD DO SHARPENING IN MSDIS WIHTOUT LOSING IMAGE QUALITY?

If you save as TIFF you don't lose image quality. Typically do everything that a RAW convertor does well in RAW (which typically doesn't include sharpening but dunno about MSDIS), everything else in PS.

Read this, even if you don't use CS2 RAW.

tim wrote:
If you save as TIFF you don't lose image quality. Typically do everything that a RAW convertor does well in RAW (which typically doesn't include sharpening but dunno about MSDIS), everything else in PS.

Read this, even if you don't use CS2 RAW.

Tim,

Thanks for the input. There are some items I like to do in MSDIS due to the flexiblity vs. RSE. Do you use RSE?

I prefer the way MSDIS handles some exposure and contract items. If I adjust in RSE and then convert to tiff, I should be able to do some fine tuning in MSDIS w/o any image quality loss?

As he said, "If you save as TIFF you don't lose image quality." Depending on what you do in MSDIS , you may lose quality because of it.