First attempt at off-camera lighting + first RAW

[Lebowski]

Below is an image from my first attempt at off-camera flash, as well as my first attempt at RAW (in Photoshop CS3). I welcome any advice, but my main question is how did the RAW conversion turn out? I was a bit lost through the white-balancing and sharpness part. My monitor isn't calibrated, so I tried to trust my eyes and use two monitors. CS3 wanted a sharpness setting of 25, but I went with 20, and I'm worried even with that there may be some noise?

Thanks for anyone's help in developing my "eyes" on this... The Flickr account also has a 1024x768 section at 100%. Of course, it was resaved from a jpeg, so it might not be the greatest way to look at it.



Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: 430ex camera right, fired into white satin reflector

[Klaidas]

Care to share a little more on triggering that 430ex off camera? Pocket wizards? ST-E2? 580EX? Other?

[Lebowski]

Originally Posted by Klaidas

Care to share a little more on triggering that 430ex off camera? Pocket wizards? ST-E2? 580EX? Other?

Triggered by Cactcus V2s. Now, I'd like to trigger them with a brand-new 580EXII, but the wallet's a bit lean for that right now.