How do I shoot RAW?.....

After all these years of owing digital cameras, I've now decided to shoot RAW.
Why?......because I'd like to get more "sharpness" in my photos.

My camera is a Canon T1i SLR, and I've already made the adjustment for the camera to shoot RAW.

But, do I need any software installation in order to shoot RAW?
Software did come with my purchase of this camera, but I've never had the
occasion to use it at all.

My phot editing is done with Apple's iPhoto and with Photoshop Elements.

I'd appreciate any info

Thanks...

Yep, you'll need raw conversion software. That's Digital Photo Professional (DPP), which is on your CD.

-js

Depending on your version of both the Mac OS and Elements, both of them will handle raw too.

mypoppy31 wrote in post #10806612
My phot editing is done with Apple's iPhoto and with Photoshop Elements.

Elements should have Adobe Camera Raw already installed. Just make sure you have the latest version. Check for updates.

Use DPP/EOS Utility or iPhoto 09. Earlier version of iPhoto do not support the T1i.

One word of warning however: getting more sharpness is not the reason people shoot RAW. In fact, the RAW data does not have even the one-size-fits-all sharpening done by the camera to a jpg. The idea of RAW is that you do your own sharpening (as well as other enhancements) which may be more or may be less than what the camera would have done, but with experience will be better sharpening.

To clarify something: on a Mac, the latest version of Elements, Elements 8, allows you to use the "full" version of the Adobe Camera Raw processor. That is an extremely capable and powerful Raw processor.

So, I'd suggest you ensure that you have Elements 8 and then there is a "shortcut" to open a Raw file from Bridge to the full Camera Raw plug-in (otherwise you open in a "truncated" version).

But I'd also recommend to a new Raw shooter that you install the Canon software. Digital Photo Professional (DPP) is a very nice Raw processor with the ability to get a "quick take" on what an out-of-camera jpeg would be like and total freedom to change things around at will. DPP can help you get up and running with your Raw files quickly and can continue to be a reference as you get up to speed with the powerful features of Camera Raw in Elements.

I think tzalman is the only other person to really hit the key point of this post. Shooting RAW will not give you "more sharpness" in your photos, no matter what software you are using.

I would recommend reading up on shooting RAW and what that means, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of it.

For Example:
What are the images of?
What are you using your photos for?
What us the final output?
Who is going to see them?
Etc.

For many people RAW is just a waste of HD space.