Shot in the RAW.

johno · May 18, 2005

Well here is one of my first RAW shots.

Can anyone tell me how much you can adjust a shot in RAW? In PS CS you import your RAW pic and it lets you make adustments.

How much is to much?
Are there any guides to follow when working with RAW?

Honestly, did I do ok with this file? Any suggestions?

Peace.
johno~

rahmonster · May 18, 2005

I don't know anything about RAW but I love this shot.

gus · May 18, 2005

Ive only been shooting RAw for 2 months now but i cant believe how long i ignored it for...its soooo much better.

I do the same as i used to do in Jpeg....just adjust until it meets my eye...that simple for me.

If i think im over cooking a shot.. i do several at diff levels of the same shot & then open them full size on the monitor to check out what does what.

Good luck.

Gus

johno · May 18, 2005

Thanks Humungus... I tried to play with this shot and printed it out on my computer's printer... It didn't look like the screen shot. Somewhat "posterized" in some of the colors. So I was checking on how much is to much.

I love some of the control in RAW that's for sure.

anyway.

peace.
johno~

ginger_55 · May 18, 2005

Johno, I am not even going to ask what color space you are working with in PS CS.

But it is an idea, my stuff has always printed pretty true. And I don't have anything calibrated, my printer is a cheap HP.

I use sRGB, in case that gives you an idea.

I keep reading different stuff about the RAW controls, I apply them as I read them. By now I am totally confused, but pretty much do it to my satisfaction, too.

Except there is a cool little trick on the exposure slider. It involves holding down the ALT thing on the key board, if it is windows (i don't know anything about MACs). Then using pushing the slider thing to the right, I think, until it has gone too far. You can tell it has gone too far because colors show up. Then you back off until the colors go away. You have to be holding down the alt thing and the mouse button on the slider, both, for the thing to go black.

You can do the same, except maybe a diff direction, for the other one, the dark one.

Pathfinder told me about this, I think, or Thomas, someone. But I have seen it in the CS books. I do have the book on RAW called Camera Raw and by Bruce Fraser. Everyone told me to save my money. Finally I decided my sanity must be worth something and I bought the book, sure I don't use much of it, but if I do have a question............

And Scott Kelby has some info in his book. But don't look to Kelby, yet, on color space, he will steer you wrong, and you will have that printing problem. He has it corrected, I understand, but I haven't seen that book, amazon doesn't get it til summer some time.

That is all I can think of right now. Pathfinder is great at answering questions, as are some others. I understand PF very well, no words much over my head.

Color space was until a few weeks ago, sorry. That is why I didn't want to mention it. And it has nothing to do with RAW.

am tired, sorry, you know that......... but hope I have given you something that you can at least ask someone else about.

ginger

ginger_55 · May 18, 2005

Oh, the flower is very nice.

But the subject title, JOHNO! I was expecting more............or less....

but from you?

g

pathfinder · May 18, 2005

ginger_55 wrote:

Johno, I am not even going to ask what color space you are working with in PS CS.

But it is an idea, my stuff has always printed pretty true. And I don't have anything calibrated, my printer is a cheap HP.

I use sRGB, in case that gives you an idea.

I keep reading different stuff about the RAW controls, I apply them as I read them. By now I am totally confused, but pretty much do it to my satisfaction, too.

Except there is a cool little trick on the exposure slider. It involves holding down the ALT thing on the key board, if it is windows (i don't know anything about MACs). Then using pushing the slider thing to the right, I think, until it has gone too far. You can tell it has gone too far because colors show up. Then you back off until the colors go away. You have to be holding down the alt thing and the mouse button on the slider, both, for the thing to go black.

You can do the same, except maybe a diff direction, for the other one, the dark one.

Pathfinder told me about this, I think, or Thomas, someone. But I have seen it in the CS books. I do have the book on RAW called Camera Raw and by Bruce Fraser. Everyone told me to save my money. Finally I decided my sanity must be worth something and I bought the book, sure I don't use much of it, but if I do have a question............

And Scott Kelby has some info in his book. But don't look to Kelby, yet, on color space, he will steer you wrong, and you will have that printing problem. He has it corrected, I understand, but I haven't seen that book, amazon doesn't get it til summer some time.

That is all I can think of right now. Pathfinder is great at answering questions, as are some others. I understand PF very well, no words much over my head.

Color space was until a few weeks ago, sorry. That is why I didn't want to mention it. And it has nothing to do with RAW.

am tired, sorry, you know that......... but hope I have given you something that you can at least ask someone else about.

ginger

Ya got it all right, Ginger. Hold down the alt( or option ) key while sliding the exposure or black point slider and you can see which pixels are being pushed beyond the limit. Bruce Fraser's book Camera RAW with Adobe Photoshop Cs is a great resource to help understand just what you are attempting to do in RAW conversion.

Th flower picture does not look posterized on my monitor.

coldclimb · May 18, 2005

I like the depth on this. My RAW experience is pretty close to nil, so I can't offer much advice, but I can say this is a cool picture, so I think you did a good job.

colourbox · May 18, 2005

johno wrote:

How much is to much?
Are there any guides to follow when working with RAW?

If you have Photoshop CS2, you can turn on the Highlight and Shadow clipping warnings so you don't have to hold down that key while dragging the sliders, and the red and blue warnings will show you where your highlights and shadows are clipping so you can back off on the sliders before ruining the image.

I have found Bruce Fraser's book to be very useful for "thinking like" Camera Raw does and understanding the controls.

The following PDF is informative specifically for how it describes how different amounts of tonal detail are stored at different parts of a digital image's tonal range. It has caused me to avoid underexposure at all costs and when editing, to slide the Exposure control as far to the right as it will go without clipping.
http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/linear_gamma.pdf

Shot in the RAW.

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