Raw Post Processing Blues

I'll tell you how bad I am at post processing. I just finished loading about 15 pictures on the computer. I used RSE to adjust. When I was done I created the jpegs. My wife was passing by and said that it seems like I have dropped my camera because none of my pictures looked good any more. Really since I started shooting raw. It kinda took the wind out of my sails but I am determined to hang in there and learn raw post processing. Is there a guide, book, thread that will help me in the basics of post processing? Any tips, ideas, suggestions are welcome.

My lady uses my camera. I tell her to set auto levels (exposure, shadows etc), open the file then bump contrast +10 - then do a USM of 300 and .04.

She seems to do ok with those simple settings.

Same issue here. I have switched back and forth between JPEG and RAW many times i suck at PP. I'm still reading Chapter 1 in the PS CS tutorials. To make u feel better, i just learned how to remove red eyes using PS this past Saturday.
The PP learning curve is soooo deep for me, but i shall conquer it one day.

Jpeg seems to have a lot more contrast I found which makes the colour more vivid so now when I shoot RAW in PP I ad a new layer for Brightness/Contrast, select vivd and adjust till I like it. Not always though

Try this book out: http://www.amazon.com …v=glance&s=book​s&n=507846
There is a version for PS CS as well, same author. This book really solidified my raw workflow.

Thanks all. I like the white balance for raw and feel ok with that. I need to work on understanding the sharpening. Oh yea and everything else.

Learning the post processing of RAW images can sometimes be undaunting but in the end it will be well worth it. The real trick is to get your images exposed properly to begin with and then doing just a straight conversion without alot of tweaking. It is just a matter of practising. Don't give up.

FWIW, I very rarely ever use the sharpening in the RAW conversion. I always do this in photoshop as one of the last steps.

Set your camera up as you would for jpeg with your usual parameters. Then shoot raw. If you select "settings as shot", you Raw conversions should be identical to your jpegs. Then you can go back and convert again(as many times as you want) adjusting different parameters. Usually the only thing I adjust in conversion is Exposure and White Balance. My camera settings are all Neutral(0).

A USM of amount 300 and pixel radius of 0.04? That small a pixel radius won't do anything. I set sharpening to 0 during raw conversion and use amount 375 and pixel radius of 1 for ISO 100 images at 0 threshold.

The documentation that goes along with the TLR Sharpening Toolkit has an excellent explanation of how Unsharp Mask works.

Maybe not on your pictures, but it works just enough for mine. It actually does something that my eyes see as pleasant.

Overly sharp pictures do not print that well (4x6) imho.

Actually it can do quite a bit. You've obviously never tried it. Funny how one can form "knowledge" with no experience.