First try shooting RAW

[Willy wombat]

What do you think?

I have so many questions about editing RAW files using PS 7. Can anyone help me?

http://www.fototime.com/{7D046A88-9BEB-46D0-A4D0-F0DFE22DDDCC}/picture.JPG

[hir0]

hi WW. a little noisy but not too bad. this image looks a tad flat, but it's probably just the color of the fish. nice angle. maybe a slightly looser crop on the front side of the fish would help. also, the fish is a little on the soft side. it may sound like a lot, but you're not far off so keep on shooting. to me it looks like light is your weakness here. what type of lighting are you using?

also feel free to ask any photoshop related questions you have. i'm sure someone can help you.

[paradise]

Hiro pretty much covered the technical stuff.

As far as RAW processing, what is it that you have questions about, give us ideas. My typical PS SE workflow is to adjust exposure till it's right, then use the temperature control to adjust (if necessary). Rarely use tint. Once it looks good, contrast is the final control if the photo needs a little extra "punch".

[hir0]

that sounds about right. i adjust exposure first, tint and color temp i usually only have to adjust if i used the wrong white balance on accident (not uncommon for me o.O), shadow/highlight adjustment if needed, levels adjustment for contrast, curves for a little pop if needed, then i crop. and that's about it. i might throw a little USM in there somewhere if it needs it and resize if i want to post it on the net. of course touch ups are required sometimes. usually the clone/healing/lasso tools can take care of any messy stuff.

[Willy wombat]

It is grainy because i was shooting at 1000 ISO. After converting the cam to RAW mode I was playing around with a few settings, taking shots last night with no flash and then i used the on-cam flash for this one and didnt change the film speed back. You guys are right the focal point is also slightly off. Hiro - lighting is less than ideal on this tank. Only twin flouro tubes.

Anyway so this was my first experience with Raw.
I download the image from my cam (about 6mb each). Then i open PS7 like i normally do.
When i open the image in PS7 a "new" window pops up - letting me adjust exposure, and white balance. I do this and then click OK and then the window dissapears and the image loads like a .jpg would load, and then i continue to edit the image (slight curve adjustment, levels, USM) and voilla!

I think i am missing something. Is the window that appears initially the only difference with RAW? Is there any way that i can get that initial window to come back if i want to do readjustments/experiements, etc?

[hir0]

i'm not sure if you are talking about the same thing i think you are talking about. but you have to delete a file. i can't remember the name but it is a nikon plugin file somewhere in the photoshop folder. i had a problem with raw files and and exif data in photoshop and James (finz) answered my question. it also fixed my photoshop raw editing (which is way more than exposure and white balance)

[Willy wombat]

I will PM finz to see if he recalls which file. I thought there might be something wrong as you guys were talking up RAW so much that i was a little dissapointed when i tried it out last night.

[hir0]

just poke around for it. the file extension is something like ".8xx" i can't remember exactly. look in some of the folders in your adobe/ps/plugins folder. i can't remember the exact name of the file, but it's really easy to spot. it's nikon.8bf or something really obvious like that. if you're afraid to delete the wrong file just save it somewhere else, and put it back if it's the wrong one. make sure you dl the newest adobe raw plugin from the adobe website. you can just do a google search for adobe raw to make it easier. that goes in the plugins/file formats directory. i'm not sure if it's the same for ps7 as pscs but i'm sure it's similar. good luck!

[RazorBlade]

The Nikon RAW Plug-in for WIndows is named "Nikon NEF Plugin LE.8BI File" - it will offer BASIC editing of the RAW file (Exposure compensation, White Balance). Nikon Capture has more capabilities, but you have to buy the software (with the NikonD70, it's only a 30-day trial).

If you have Adobe PhotoShop, download their RAW plugin - it offers features similar to Nikon Capture (Exposure compensation, White Balance & Tint, Shadows, Brightness, Contrast, etc).

If you download and install the Adobe RAW plug-in, you have to delete the Nikon RAW plug-in from your Adobe folder ("...\PhotoShop\Plug-Ins\Adobe Photoshop Only\File Formats"). Otherwise, it would still use the Nikon RAW plug-in and ignore Adobe's RAW plug-in.

I've tried RAW, and I LOVE it. I ain't gonna shoot anything but RAW in future 'cos it just offers so much more versatility! :)

(P.S. Definitely more work post-processing, but it is worth it!).

[RazorBlade]

I think i am missing something. Is the window that appears initially the only difference with RAW? Is there any way that i can get that initial window to come back if i want to do readjustments/experiements, etc?

That window in Photoshop comes up when you first open RAW files. I haven't tried getting that window to open again though.

Usually, I'll make sure I get everything right in that window before proceeding to other adjustments in PhotoShop. If I make a boo-boo, there's always the history palette. :)

[Geistlich]

Well, here is my shot at it. I used adjustments auto color, saturate +10, cropped.

http://img251.echo.cx/img251/4774/picture4zo.jpg

[Obliviou$]

Geistlich: IMO it's to bright of a yellow, and try not to use auto settings in PS, it has the tendencys to destroy the picture completely.
And there's really no meaning of cropping it tighter as it was tight enough from before.

Does seem a little sharper though.

[paradise]

It's actually VERY Noisy now. The background is all pure noise on my monitor. And it IS too bright.

[Ibn]

Too much sharpening, bringing that noise into play. If you can send me the original, I can run it through Nikon Capture.

[Geistlich]

Ack, I see what you mean. I blame the beer. :-P