Photo Editing, about RAW format.

[Ganoderma]

I guess this goes here?

I am taking RAW photos now (mainly caus ei am told its better....) but i don't know how to edit them. i have photoshop 7.0 and nikon editor 2.0 i think (my camera is nikon). i was told that photoshop and the manufacturers photo editing is good. but what exactly am i looking to change? any advice? websites? this is really confusing to me...i can only crop and size it seems

thanks for any help.

 

[Randolph XX()]

get photoshop cs 2
cs is a lot better

 

[Lasiodora]

Photoshop CS2 allows you to edit RAW images without the need of other software. I'd only use RAW if I want total processing control.

Here are some helpful links:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/RAW-file-format.htm

-Mike

 

[Ganoderma]

excellent thanks! seems many poeple recomend cs so i will get that in a bit.

thanks for the link, i especially like the last. the first one was good, but not great. too much filler for me

thansk guys

 

[Lasiodora]

Your welcome.
Actually the first one is better than the second in my opinion. It makes great points about not having to use raw for most of your photography. If I were you, I'd take the time to read it.

 

[TheDarkFinder]

Unless you are doing professorial work, and need it, save your self about 200 bucks an get Nikon capture 4.4 it runs about 90 bucks. CS is nice but it really does beat a dead horse. I have CS, CS2, elements, and gimp. For straight photo editing, sharpening, color balance, curves, and black and white adjustment. Gimp works the best. It is a simpler version, but does the job.

So for 90 bucks you could get nikon capture 4, the best raw editor, imo and gimp, which is free.

Or you can slap down 300 for CS2. Great program. But I find that I use the little drop programs to get through the 4 or 5 hundred pictures a month I go through. I hardly open it. It takes forever to open, compared to gimp and gimp does the same thing. It is your money.

You do sound new to digtal and CS2 is like a newbie getting a P. mettilca as the first tarantula. Nice to have but pricey for what you get out of it.
thedarkfinder

 

[Ganoderma]

excellent thanks! i read both, an both have valid points.

good point about cs2. i thin ki will look fo rth enikon one here first and go from there. if i get interested i may get cs. i am not actually too new to digital, i have just enever learned anythign about it the whole time i used it...no wi have a prosumer that i decided to try it out with. learning the basics now and trying to get a full idea of whats going on.

so if size is of no concern is there any reasons not to shoot in TIFF? i know they are large, my TIFF are 15mb and teh JPG are only 2.5 so thats an advantage. but i will only take a max of about 60ish a day and i have a large computer. i like how t does not compress a all, but are there some hidden things that make it not so nice?

thanks guys, tons of help!

where can i safely download gimp? i am prone to getting viruses from downloads thanks!!!

 

[Lasiodora]

Tiff is a better archival format. Jpg tends to deteriorate the more it is processed on your pc. I shoot jpeg just so that I have a lot of room on my card and convert the pics I want to keep to tiff when I work with them on my computer.

 

[Ganoderma]

ya space is an issue but i have a lot of cards. so maybe i will use tiff at home and jpeg in the feild. thansk for the tips all. good stuff. any other tips? especially when photographing bugs? i have a heck of a time with shiny things and glare (even with/out flash of paper or screens etc:8o ).

 

[Raqua]

Tiff is a better archival format. Jpg tends to deteriorate the more it is processed on your pc. I shoot jpeg just so that I have a lot of room on my card and convert the pics I want to keep to tiff when I work with them on my computer.

This is complete nonsense, as jpeg is lossy format and when you convert it to tiff it gets not better, it just changes its size, but the quality stays the same as jpeg. If you want to exploit tiff advantage (which is looseles storage thus better pic quality) you have actually capture your pics into tiff format.

 

[Lasiodora]

I'm sorry Raqua, I don't know what you mean by lossy format. I did not say jpeg gets better when you convert it to tiff. Please take your time reading someone's post before you call it nonsense! I said it is a better archival format. This is one hundred percent true. Tiff slows down your camera and takes up a lot of space much like raw. You might as well shoot in raw if you are thinking of using tiff. Raw will contain the most information.

I was just giving Ganoderma an idea of what his options are. I like to photograph as much as I can when I go out, especially nature shots. I myself don't want to spend time post processing a large number of raw files. This is why I only shoot raw when I am doing a specific project. I am not saying don't use raw or don't use tiff. In the end the format we choose will always be based on what you want to do.
-Mike

 

[priZZ]

Hi Martin,

This is complete nonsense, as jpeg is lossy format and when you convert it to tiff it gets not better, it just changes its size, but the quality stays the same as jpeg.

Tiff is a better archival format. Jpg tends to deteriorate the more it is processed on your pc.

Lasiodora is right my friend. He just wrote ".tiff is the better archival format" .jpg even in it's best quality (also at the time when it's saved on Your card after the shot) is too much compressed and the quality is poorer then that of a same .tiff.

 

[rattler_mt]

a quick note about photoshops products.................99% of ppl will not use 95% of its features. it is mainly geared twords profesionals. my wife uses CS alot here at the newspaper which is what photoshop was orinally designed for. ive got a copy of photoshop elements on my computer and dont use 1/4 of what it can do. check out the cheaper programs before diving in to Photoshop CS cause its unlikely you will need that kind of power. hell the only reason im using Elements is cause the wife is familiar with photoshop so if i get stuck i can ask her for help.

 

[Jeff_C]

a quick note about photoshops products.................99% of ppl will not use 95% of its features. it is mainly geared twords profesionals. my wife uses CS alot here at the newspaper which is what photoshop was orinally designed for. ive got a copy of photoshop elements on my computer and dont use 1/4 of what it can do. check out the cheaper programs before diving in to Photoshop CS cause its unlikely you will need that kind of power. hell the only reason im using Elements is cause the wife is familiar with photoshop so if i get stuck i can ask her for help.

What he said....Just download Picasa 2 from google (it's free) and go to town on your photos. It process RAW and jpg images with ease and you can actually use it.

Just my $.02

Jeff

 

[Ganoderma]

excellent thanks guys! about lossy/lossless, this link explains it nicely: http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=compression

i thin the confusion is that Lasiodora is saying that the high jpeg format is good enough for him, and he converts it to tiff as to not loose any more quality, and when editing is complete he saves as jpeg. correct? he is not trying to gain quality via saving as TIFF. just prevent loosing it by avoiding saving it as jpeg over and over which makes pictures look ratty. i think anyway.

so now i know the programs, there are still some photos i would like to edit in RAW, even if they don’t prove useful its a skill i would like to learn anyway. are there any good tutorials you folks would suggest? i have read a few things in web developer forums, but frankly websites aren’t aiming at high quality photos like photographers are. not that i am doing anything remotely close to professional, but i find photography a very interesting/fun new hobby (despite my lack of attention over the past years)


i want to download these programs but i don’t want any viruses. i have gone through 2 hard drives in 2 years from downloading crap and now use a separate computer that is not connected to the internet for photos, websites, editing/processing etc... this computer is our office computer, and i would really hate to ruin it

anyone have any links to safe places to download "Picasa2" and "Gimp"? really appreciate the help!

 

[Jeff_C]

Picasa is from Google and is 100% safe.


Just make sure you download the program from: http://picasa.google.com/


hth

Jeff

 

[Raqua]

I'm sorry Raqua, I don't know what you mean by lossy format. I did not say jpeg gets better when you convert it to tiff. Please take your time reading someone's post before you call it nonsense! I said it is a better archival format. This is one hundred percent true. Tiff slows down your camera and takes up a lot of space much like raw. You might as well shoot in raw if you are thinking of using tiff. Raw will contain the most information.

I was just giving Ganoderma an idea of what his options are. I like to photograph as much as I can when I go out, especially nature shots. I myself don't want to spend time post processing a large number of raw files. This is why I only shoot raw when I am doing a specific project. I am not saying don't use raw or don't use tiff. In the end the format we choose will always be based on what you want to do.
-Mike

Sorry, I undersood your post the way, that you shoot into jpeg and then convert it to tiff and archive it, which would be nonsense of course.

Converting it to tiff for processing is not nescesary to me as well, because I use photoshop and when working with pics, if needed, I save them to .psd format which does not detoriate the quality as well. I agree though, that saving pictures into jpeg multiple times during processing is not the best idea.

 

[TheDarkFinder]

http://www.gimp.org/

GIMP is made by GNU which is develop by many companies.
Many coimpanies make GNU products possible. IBM, intel, hp, sun, nokia, google to name a few.

I have never downloaded a virus from this site ever. http://www.gimp.org/ is where companies get it from. You should aways run a antivirus on everything you download.

PS if you are getting hit that much, try SUSE 10.1. it is free. Just download it. http://www.novell.com/products/suselinux/ It comes with all you need, text editor, spreadsheets, database, gimp, and other stuff.

I use it to surf the web and general stuff. I have xp on the same machine, I just reboot to go from one to the other. I do not worry about virus with it because the can not excute code without my promission. I have to type in a password inorder for it to excute. It can not work around this. It is the core of the os. The funny thing is that there is a anti virus software that comes with it, It has does not have do anything, ie no virus have manage to be a problem, yet, but just in case it is there. IF one get around it will be updated and protect against.

thedarkfinder

 

[Ganoderma]

excellent thanks a ton!

all my viruses came using IE, non since i use mozilla. i have the windows firewall and norton antivirus always on, and hp has a firewall of some kind that i have just left alone set to on. i always got hit by websites, never e-mail...but seems good now. thanks for the link! be trying that very soon.

 

[Marcelo]

I shoot 95% of the time in jpeg format. I only take pictures in raw format when I know I will photoshop the picture itself.