RAW Photos Only

[Drax]

In case you can't convince him, let me know. You may have a surprise.

[private]

I like suprises...if they are good ones...

[Al Elms]

private,
What a great thread you started! Just found it today. Thanks.
I began shooting RAW about a year ago. I only had the Canon DPP to work with. I upgraded to the latest version, used it, and then did my final stuff in Photoshop Elements. I found, even with the shortfalls of DPP, it was well worth it to shoot the RAW. The ability to pull out the parts of the shot that I saw when I took it but couldn't see in the picture was worth the limitations of DPP. I encourage you to check out the DPP web site to learn more if that is what you are using. The latest version is 3.2. You can get to it, and some tutorials, from a tab at the top of the page at the following link:
http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=HomePageAct
And while you are "suffering" through the limitations, remember that DPP is free and you are getting more than you had in jpg (I'm an optimist!).
When the budget frees up, Bridge and PS3 are awesome for RAW. I have not used Lightroom, but I read all the time that people who use it, love it.
Lately I have been working with sunsets and silhouettes. You just can't capture the range in a jpg that you can in a RAW. Here's one of my recent favorites.
Al


http://www.flickr.com/photos/28601398@N06/2836223126/

[private]

THat is a great shot - I will check out the link - I do use DPP - but I am not sure if I have the latest version - but I will find out soon! Thanks for the tip!

[jtailspin]

This picture was done using raw (except for the signature). I got the idea and method from the tutorials on the NAPP web site. This is called a grunge effect, using only raw sliders.

Before



After



Better viewed larger.

[Sbmoot]

Originally Posted by shutterbug_wannabe

Thanks Lori, I wish it was that simple. The Camara Raw 4.5 plugin is not compatible with CS. You have to have CS3 for it to work. This is where I am, I am going to have to upgrade to CS3, alass...big $$$. Then I can get Lightroom too and all will be well. I need some more photo shoots to pay for this.

Hi Shutterbug,

If you still find that you have to upgrade to CS3 and this is too expensive (which I completely get - I only have it because they bought it for me at work), you could try the GNU Image Manipulation Software, or GIMP. It's free, open-source software that will do nearly (but not quite) anything Photoshop will do... and it will open my RAW files in a really good little editor.

You can find it by going to http://www.gimp.org/ and clicking on "downloads". It's available for all platforms. Personally, I think it's great software and recommend it to people all the time.

good luck!

[private]

jtailspin, can you share your methos with us -it looks awsome!

[crunch]

I shoot raw and large JPG. If the JPG file is what I want, then great! I prefer to spend an hour in the field fine-tuning the photo in-camera than an hour in front of my computer fiddling with Camera Raw in CS3.

That being said, it's nice to know that you can 'rescue' the raw file in case something's gone wrong.

BTW: TIF vs JPG: JPG is a lossy compression standard, whereas TIF is lossless.

[private]

I am not sure but my RAW files are sharper than the jpg - even when I convert them - Does anyone know why or am I just on a a RAW kick?

Tif is lossless, but it takes up soooooo much room, the files are just huge.

[snahamap]

I use DPP by Canon after I tried Lightroom for a while.
In my opinion, DPP works faster and smoother, even though it has less features.
I just load in my day's work, edit the RAW images, hit the batch process-button and out comes a nice bundle of jpg's.
Once I learned the benifits of RAW, I have never used the standard settings on my camera again.

Here's some work I shot last week at a school.









These are RAW-images I shot during the day and showed that afternoon at supper. The editing was no more than a little color-tweaking and some little stuff, but it came out nice.