Processing RAW (.nef) files step by step..help!

[katahdin]

OK folks..so I'm ready to play around with processing RAW (.nef for Nikon) files. Could someone please post a brief tutorial outlining how YOU do it? I'm talking about from the moment you take the photo to the finished post-processed product. In other words, a simple "work flow" type outline.
A couple of questions I have up front are:
Do you process the RAW image THEN convert to .jpeg, .tiff, and so on, or do you convert from RAW to .jpeg and THEN do your processing?
I'm thinking about purchasing Adobe Elements. Any thoughts on this product?
Thanks for your help!

[zona5101]

Some of the steps in your work flow will be driven by your software but at a high level you will:
adjust exposure
adjust color balance
tweak contrast, levels, and/or curves
apply any special effect processing
apply sharpening and/or noise reduction
save nef
save as jpg or tiff (if needed for export to a printer, email, lab, etc)

[katahdin]

Thanks Zona...that's kind of what I'm looking for and I appreciate your response. So..do the processing...save the processed .nef, then save the .nef as a .jpeg as well. Got ya!

[autofocus]

I'm assuming you have not even seen the Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) interface
So here you go:
1) I use Adobe Bridge to upload my photos from the camera to a selected folder. Within that folder I make a new folder called JPEGs (or use some other suitable name so that you keep the originals separate from the finished JPEGs)
2) Bridge will now load and show all your RAW photos (film strip style across the bottom - my setup)
3) While pressing the Ctrl key (PC) click on all the similar photos you want opened in ACR
4) You now can select all, or open one at a time the photos you want to edit and convert. If you select all, you can make some global changes that will effect all...such as white balance changes
5) The sliders on the panel on the right side will allow you to make exposure, white balance, contrast/brightening, sharpening, and color changes to your image(s)
6) Using the Icons on the top of that panel will allow you to go and do more advanced editing, and also open the curves window among other options. Most basic edits can be done on the first panel that opens
7) When you are satisfied, press open image on the bottom of screen, this one, or all the images you had originally selected will now open in Photoshop where you can put the finishing touches on your image and save to your newly named folder (as in JPEG folder named above)

This is my workflow...others may vary in how they do it

Vinnie

[jml79]

RAW without expensive software

1) Download Rawtherapee Download page revised (Raw processor with basic image aqdjustments)
2) Download GIMP or use your favorite image editor if you already have one. GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program
3) Open the directory you have downloaded your RAW files to in Rawtherapee. Double click the image you want to 'develop'. Select the image in the tab at the top.
4) Follow the same work flow as most other programs - adjust exposure, white balance, black point and white point or curves, saturation and contrast, noise and sharpening, crop and resize.
5) Output to jpg for imediate printing or TIF for further editing (TIF uncompressed makes sure no quality is lost going to another program) or export directly to GIMP.

Gimp and Rawtherapee are a fairly complete combination that can do 95% or more of what the various Adobe products can do but they are legally free and open source. They also are the same in Windows, Mac and Linux. The interface is slightly different from PS but they are very workable. I recomend this combination to anyone wanting to try out Raw or who can't justify/want to purchase expensive software. It is far better and safer than pirating someone elses software and you can get professional results with a little practice.

[katahdin]

You guys AND DPS are awesomoe!