 Tara R. Swartzendruber |
Raw Workflow Anyone want to share their Raw workflow? I shoot only JPEGs now and use Adobe Bridge to upload photos and Photoshop CS4 to adjust. Would I need to purchase something additional to process the Raw photos? How does one go about tweaking and converting the Raw photos? Thanks!!
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
You already have Adobe Camera Raw with CS4 but it will only launch when you open a Raw file. I took a Raw workflow class here at BetterPhoto a few years ago, and it is a quick learn. When you double-click a Raw file in Bridge, it will automatically launch in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw), and just work the sliders from the top down to the bottom to your liking and then maybe click the Curves tab and make an adjustment there, and this suffices for 90% of my editing. I don't like the clone tool in ACR so if I do need to clone, I usually save the image as an uncompressed .tif file and open that in Photoshop and use the clone tool there. ACR will do just about everything, though, even converting to black and white, split toning, selective colors, etc. The sliders are also in order from White Balance/tint - Exposure - Fill light - Brightness - Contrast then Clarity, Vibrance, Saturation at the bottom. Then you have additional tabs going across the top in which you can do further edits. Hope this helps.
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Tara R. Swartzendruber |
Thanks, Carlton. At what point, do you convert to JPEG? I have some actions I like to use in Photoshop. Can I run these on a Raw or TIFF file or just a JPEG? I hear a lot of people talking about Lightroom. Is there a reason to use it instead of ACR?
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Hi Tara, You can actually re-size and save a .tif file as a JPEG straight from Bridge - go to Tools>Photoshop>Image Processor - and select the folder, size & JPEG - then run... You can also save the images from ACR as JPEGs or TIFFs or other type. I only tinkered with Lightroom and I never really took to it very well since I am so comfortable with PS. A lot of Photoshop you can figure out by playing with it. Using ACR is very efficient and I do recommend you learn it - Charlotte Lowry teaches a 4-week course on Raw processing you may consider :) Carlton
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Randy A. Myers |
In response to using actions: Actions are only available inside Photoshop and not ACR. When you are finished in ACR, if you click "DONE", it saves a small instruction file for the Raw image, so if it's opened again in ACR, it applies the changes then to the image at that time for further use. If you click on the "OPEN IMAGE" button instead, it applies your ACR adjustments to the image and brings it up in Photoshop. You can then run your actions and make any adjustments you want. That file is then a "PSD" file. That is the native file for Photoshop and is a lossless file. You can save that or you can pick to save as a .jpg or a .tiff file. To preserve quality, I recommend .psd or .tiff files. I only use .jpg for smaller stuff that I send out by e-mail or enter here on BP. Lightroom does a lot of things exactly like ACR but I know people that swear they get a better print when printing from Lightroom than from Photoshop. There is a lot more to Lightroom but I won't go into that now. It's mostly about key words, indexing and file management. I use Nikon Capture NX-2 to process my raw files, then finish the images up in Photoshop. I like the adjustments I can make in NX-2 better than what I can do in ACR, but it's not a big difference. Good luck.
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Kathryn Wesserling |
As a Canon50D and Paint Shop Pro user, I process my images for exposure adjustments in DPP (Canon) and convert to 8-bit TIF with exif-data. However, because TIF are huge, I will batch process all those files to the .psp format (lossless) for the final editing. I keep separate folders for each format (and then move my rawOrig into a second HD.) The TIFs are then deleted, and all my editing is finished in the psp format (some are deleted and others are set aside if not immediately wanted.) I only convert those that are edited and resized for prints and competition to jpgs. It's a tremendous amount of work, but the difference in image quality is worth it. I would love CS5 and Lightroom, but it's beyond my budget. 8-bit is pretty limiting.
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Tara R. Swartzendruber |
Ok, I shot some photos in Raw, opened them in ACR and clicked done. Now, do I need to do some type of bit conversion? I see that it says it's an 8 bit RAW, but it won't open in photoshop, so I assume I need to further convert, right? (but can I save the RAW file also?) How do I save it as a psd file so I can open it in photoshop to do actions/blemish cleanup, etc...? Then, once I've done all my fixes, can I save one copy as psd and flatten it and save another as a jpeg to upload to my website galleries? Just need some clarification for sure on process.....
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Randy A. Myers |
When you click done, it just saves the changes you applied in ACR in a small .xmp file to be applied when you open the raw file again. There are a couple of ways to save the file. You can click on "Open Image" after you make your raw adjustments and the image will open up in PhotoShop. You can then do a "Save As" and pick the type of file you want to save from the drop down menu. You can also click on "Save Image" on the lower left of ACR. This brings up a dialog box with drop down menus. You can chose the type of file you want to save in the "File Extension" drop down menu. This will save the file to the type selected, but it doesn't open that file into PhotoShop at that time. It only saves it. You can go back and open that new file at any time and make your adjustments. Now to address the 8-bit part. When you have the image open in ACR, look at the bottom of the ACR panel. You will see blue text stating the color space, bit depth, size and PPI. If you would prefer something different than what's shown, click on the blue text and it will open up a dialog box. You can then change these settings, color space, bit depth, size and PPI, and ACR will apply them to the image. I save my working files as PSD. I then make a seperate folder and reduce the image to a smaller size and do a "Save As" and save as a jpg for uploading to BP. You don't have to do the seperate folder, but that is just how I do it. Hope this all makes sense.
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Tara R. Swartzendruber |
I think I'm following you....I can either save it with the RAW information when I press "done" to be opened later....OR, I can "open image" and work on it in photoshop. From here I can process as I usually do...which is save each image and what I did to it as a psd file, and when I am ready to order, I save as a high quality jpeg, which is what my lab wants. If I want to save for web, I use a batch action to do this to get them ready for my website...for clients to see. Please correct me if I'm wrong!! (I also have separate folders for different steps...just easier to find!)
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Randy A. Myers |
You have it. When pressing "Done" it just saves the changes to be applied to the raw file, but it doesn't create an image file. Don't forget the "Save Image" option if you don't want to immediately open the image in Photoshop after making your raw adjustments. Sounds like your on your way.
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Tara R. Swartzendruber |
Thanks!!
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Tara R. Swartzendruber |
maybe i'm too used to jpeg, but I wasn't prepared for the RAW photos to look so.....weird. They were a touch overexposed compared to the jpegs (I shot in RAW+jpeg) and the skin was much more "stark" for lack of a better word. What needs to be applied to make these look more natural? I can upload examples if needed.
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
This is because jpegs are processed in the camera and raw files are not which is why raw images look kind of "flat". RAW files are a bunch of unformulated information that needs to be arranged (edited) and until this processing step is taken, they dont look like much. Just like film had to be processed, so do raw files. The biggest advantage of raw files is that things like Exposure & White Balance can be easily corrected. In ACR there is an eye-dropper tool that you can select and click on anything in the photo that is 18% gray, and it will automatically select the correct color balance for that image. Cant do this with a jpeg and it makes a huge difference. I have discreetly placed a white balance card or gray card in a photo at times so that I could perform this step later in post. You can also shoot an image on a white balance card and once the histogram shows correct balance - set that photo as a profile in your camera which sets the WB and alleviates the post processing step. Unless you have consistent lighting and are shooting quite a few images in that same light, it is sometimes just easier to correct the WB in post. Maybe you should try shooting raw+jpg for a while and practice matching your editing techniques to the jpeg. I have long preferred raw file as they are easy to make them look as I want them to. I have noticed that my Canon 5D Mark II raw files do come out of the camera looking almost perfect and requiring very little post processing. This image is a raw file converted to jpeg that is straight out of the camera so there have been some advances with newer technology in this regard. Hope this helps, Carlton
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Randy A. Myers |
You can't just open and raw file and then click done. RAW requires work. You have to make adjustments to make it look right. If you don't want to use the adjustments, you are better off shooting jpg or converting with Capture NX. Capture NX recognizes the settings from your camera and applies them. You can tweak from there. Check your histogram to see if the image is overexposed and make sure to set your black and white points in curve adjustments or in levels adjustments. Either place works. Don't be afraid to play with the sliders in ACR.
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