Raw (ing) again

gopher78

I appreciate the information on taking photo's in RAW setting (sound pornographic?). But I need to go further. I've taken the pictures. I found out the only way I could view on a PC is with the Canon software. Now, how am I able to make the changes to the picture that makes the RAW setting valuable?
I assume I have to do this with a third party program such as photosuite or Essentials? Anyone that can help, Thank you. Keep in mind I almost need step by step help.

Marc

gopher78 wrote:

I appreciate the information on taking photo's in RAW setting (sound pornographic?). But I need to go further. I've taken the pictures. I found out the only way I could view on a PC is with the Canon software. Now, how am I able to make the changes to the picture that makes the RAW setting valuable?
I assume I have to do this with a third party program such as photosuite or Essentials? Anyone that can help, Thank you. Keep in mind I almost need step by step help.

Adobe Photoshop CS can process RAW 10D files - I've done it with files from my 10D and it works great!

Marc

DarkRubiTJ

You can also use Canon's software. At least I can with my Digital Rebel. With the File Viewer Utility you can manipulate exposure, sharpness, color tone, white balance, etc.

cmr164

DarkRubiTJ wrote:

You can also use Canon's software. At least I can with my Digital Rebel. With the File Viewer Utility you can manipulate exposure, sharpness, color tone, white balance, etc.

What he said

Plus. After you have done all that, if you are satisfied then save the result as a Jpeg. If you want to do further more complex editing then save the result as a Tiff that can be edited by PS, PSP, Gimp, etc.

DarkRubiTJ

If you run a web wide search on "Raw Digital Files or Raw Photo Files" you will be able to sift through quite a bit of info. A raw file is the unprocessed information that your camera records when you press the shutter release. In short it's the "negative" of your photograph. What you do to the file is what most cameras do internally when they convert the file for output ie. in Jpeg form. Using the software that comes with the camera allows you to do the processing of the data the camera recorded. Adjusting for white balance, sharpness, color tone, color space, etc are things that the camera would normally do in processing the data for output. A raw file contains all the data available from the image without any post processing in camera or through software manipulation. It also does not compress the image and is a true loss less format. Most raw files are recorded with image data in 12 bit color for conversion to either 8 or 16 bit color files. The format has pointed out to me how much I still need to learn about digital photography, and I'm shooting with my 6th digital camera now.

jimf

DarkRubiTJ wrote:

Using the software that comes with the camera allows you to do the processing of the data the camera recorded. Adjusting for white balance, sharpness, color tone, color space, etc are things that the camera would normally do in processing the data for output.

I've historically gone with the space savings of JPEG but with the 300D I gave up on that almost immediately. I don't know about you other Canon owners but the auto white balance of my Rebel is pretty crappy compared to my old C2500L. I mean, surprisingly bad. And even setting the on-camera white balance using the presets often has unexpectedly bad results. I find it better to shoot raw and then use the software to manually white balance while converting to TIFF or JPEG.

The upside is better quality, for sure, and more control over the finished product. The downside is slower writes and half as many images in the same amount of storage and a hell of a lot of time spent waiting for the Canon File Viewer to do the conversions. I wouldn't do it if I were happy with the camera's white balance.

'Course one of the wonderful misfeatures of the 300D is that if you use any of the program modes of the camera it will /only/ save JPEG. I guess it's lucky that I prefer manual modes.