Raw Processing Tutorial

[ricktas]

Starting out with RAW

So, you are shooting in JPG and might be interested in changing to shoot in RAW, this tutorial is written to give you a bit of an overview of RAW processing.

A few things about RAW

When you take a photo, the sensor transmits data to the camera about what each pixel-site “saw”. This data is the RAW information. A RAW file is the equivalent of a negative, in film terms.

RAW files need to be opened in software that can read the RAW data and present it on your monitor. There are numerous RAW programs, often called Raw Converters, available. Which you chose is entirely up to you, but they all allow you to do similar things.

RAW files are much bigger than JPG files, so you might find you will want larger memory cards, if you decide to shoot in RAW all the time.

Some of the advantages of RAW. Edits to a RAW file in your Conversion software are ‘non-destructive”, they can be un-done, changed, redone without any degradation to your RAW file. White balance can be changed, Exposure can be changed, along with many other advantages. For a good description of RAW - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAW_image_format

Things you need to do
- To shoot in RAW, you will need to use your camera’s menu system and select RAW
- You will need to have some RAW converter software installed on your PC.
- You will need to have uploaded the RAW files from your camera to your PC.

This tutorial will use Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), you can choose other RAW converter software, the basic instructions will be the same, and you will just have to interpret them for your software.

There are several ways to open a RAW file into ACR, one of the easiest is to use photoshop and File > Open and locate your raw file on your hard disk and double-click it. Photoshop will automatically open ACR when it detects a RAW file.

http://www.ausphotography.net.au/staff/tutorial/raw/1.jpg

On the above screen capture, there are a few things to look at.
- Above top left of the photo are several tools, these include a crop tool, a straighten tool and more. These are worthwhile experimenting with in your own time.
- Down the right side is a histogram, some more tools and sliders. (to understand how a histogram works, which is worthwhile to learn as you can use the histogram on your camera's LCD to check exposure etc at the time of shooting, read this (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml))

We are going to look at some of those sliders.

White balance can be altered by clicking on the drop down menu and choosing another setting, or you can move the sliders for temperature and tint. You can also type a Kelvin temperature into the box next to the temperature slider.

Exposure, you can adjust the exposure of your RAW file. Note how on the histogram for this photo, there is a lot of bunching on the left hand side (the left hand side is the shadows of your photo, the right hand is the highlights). You can adjust the exposure slider to compensate and correct this photo and produce a better histogram.

Recovery, allows you to recover some of the highlight area, and reduce their brightness. Note that blown highlights are very difficult to recover effectively and its better to get that right in camera, rather than try to repair a blown out sky etc.

Fill light, works on the shadow areas, to bring more brightness to the darker areas of your photo. Over use of this can create noise in the photo.

Blacks, gives the shadow areas (blacks) a rich deep black. Use carefully.

Brightness and contrast, these sliders adjust, well the brightness and contrast, amazingly enough.

Clarity is sharpness, you can sharpen now, though convention says that sharpening should be one of the last things you do in your work flow, and Photoshop (other editing packages) give you more control over sharpening.

Vibrance and saturation, both adjust the intensity of colours in your photo.

So, these are the main controls you can use when processing a RAW file, feel free to have a play with the other settings, to see the results of using them. Remember to watch your histogram as you adjust the settings.

Below is the same RAW file, with the sliders changed to show you the results of adjusting them.
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/staff/tutorial/raw/2.jpg

Once you are complete with your RAW processing you have a couple of choices, you can click Open Image, which will open your processed RAW file in Photoshop for further editing, or you can click Save Image, to save it in DNG (adobe RAW), TIF, JPG or PSD format, for editing in Photoshop at a later time.

This tutorial only breezes over the entire process, but following it you should get a basic understanding of how RAW conversion works.

Below is the same photo, processed with a change of white balance, and some further processing in Photoshop, to show you the scope of what can be achieved from shooting in RAW. It is worth comparing the photo below, to the first one in the tutorial above, to see what shooting in RAW allows you to do.

http://www.ausphotography.net.au/staff/tutorial/raw/3.jpg

[d3funct]

That was good, thanks... I'm still working up the courage to switch mode from JPEG on my SLR :o

[peterst6906]

Nice intorductory tutorial Rick.

RAW converters, especially since the release of the last generation, have expanded significantly in their capability in the last couple of years.

Not that long ago, the idea of a RAW converter was simply to convert the data to an image and get it into Photoshop as quickly as possible. Now they offer almost complete color and tonal adjustment control and combined with batch processing, the post processing overhead that many people dread is very manageable.

Definitely a subject that can be discussed at length and I hope your tutorial encourages a few people to take the plunge into RAW and to ask a few questions.

Regards,

Peter

[pgbphotographytas]

Really well done Rick.

Paul

[IanB]

G'day
Some people must have lots of spare time; that was well written and I hope some JPEG snappers will now give raw a go. It is worth it and raw puts the photographer in control

Cheers

[ricktas]

G'day
Some people must have lots of spare time; that was well written and I hope some JPEG snappers will now give raw a go. It is worth it and raw puts the photographer in control

Cheers

Not really a lot of spare time, but I have a series of tutorials I want to get written over a period of time to help guide members. So when I do get an hour or two free, I hope to get them done, slowly, one at a time.

[Redback51]

Thanks Rick...a good overview, particularly as I've only recently started shooting RAW. Cheers :food04:

[TigerLily]

Thanks, great tutorial!

[TomAus]

Yeah so glad you posted this Rick, Ive taken the plunge to RAW just this weekend so this couldnt have come at a better time. Its amazing how much you can change an image. Is there a reason you took the original photo so "dark"? like does it let you get more out of the photo come PP. And that link to the histogram stuff is great, been wanting to know more about how to read it.

[ricktas]

Yeah so glad you posted this Rick, Ive taken the plunge to RAW just this weekend so this couldnt have come at a better time. Its amazing how much you can change an image. Is there a reason you took the original photo so "dark"? like does it let you get more out of the photo come PP. And that link to the histogram stuff is great, been wanting to know more about how to read it.

Tom, if you look at the first ACR image in the tutorial, under the histogram, you will see this was taken at f16 for 15 seconds. The photo came out quite dark, cause it was almost dark, well after sunset. My camera (Nikon D3) lets me get away with this a bit as it lets me recover a lot of detail from the shadows, not all camera's are as effective. I chose this photo for the tutorial as I knew I could present a dramatic result in the tutorial.

[TomAus]

Tom, if you look at the first ACR image in the tutorial, under the histogram, you will see this was taken at f16 for 15 seconds. The photo came out quite dark, cause it was almost dark, well after sunset. My camera (Nikon D3) lets me get away with this a bit as it lets me recover a lot of detail from the shadows, not all camera's are as effective. I chose this photo for the tutorial as I knew I could present a dramatic result in the tutorial.
Thanks Rick. :)

[IanB]

I'm just posting this so this thread goes back up to the top where it should be so those who may have missed it will get a look in.

Good reading if you are thinking about going [in the] raw.

Cheers

[roburg]

Thanks Rick I''m another who is experimenting with raw rather than jpeg and its a great illustration of what can be achieved. In previous dabblings with raw converters I couldn't see any great advantage over using jpegs and photoshop, but that may have been due to familiarity. I will persist until I become as familiar with raw converting as I am with my current approach.

[*Bubbles*]

Excellent tut - :)

To those that are a lil scared of RAW - just try it, you will love it!
(now I sound kind of like a pusher LOL)
But RAW is so much fun - just make sure you have lots of room on your memory cards,
as RAW will eat it up pretty fast. :)

[41jas]

I'll have to give this a go. I have a spare memory card now. Might just use that one for raw pics and try this out. You might convert me. Doesn't hurt to try.

[wanderer51]

Ahhh....thanks for that tutorial Rick. I 'switched' to shooting in RAW a week or so after getting the camera because a lot of people on here (and another forum) said it was better. But I never 'did' much with the pics as I didn't understand what all the sliders, etc did. Now I will be a bit more 'adventurous' and give it a bit more of a go. Plenty of room on a 4GB card...think in RAW mode it is 396 images. More than enough for a day out!
Thanks again.

[mrsgrumblebum]

Thanks for the tutorial Rick. I was worried about using raw so i plucked up the courage on the weekend and gave it a burl. I set the historgram on the camera and tried using that. I love it but I still have sooooooooooooooo much to learn.

[matilda]

I haven't read the entire thread yet, but you have no idea how much this thread has been a MASSIVE help to me. I just started shooting in raw and had no idea what I as doing when it came to the processing.

So thanks again.

[stoj19]

Thanks, really appreciate it! Looks like I will RAW more often

[MTV]

This is a fantastic tutorial! I'll definitely be giving RAW photography a shot (excuse the pun :P) as a result of reading this!

[Nanny]

I don't think my hubby would like me shooting in the RAW lol
another good tutorial Rick thanks

[ricktas]

I don't think my hubby would like me shooting in the RAW lol
another good tutorial Rick thanks

I have a sneaking suspicion, you might be wrong about your hubbie, nanny :eek:

[Nanny]

Rotfl

[Derek-C]

Thaks for that Rick .

Have been looking at changing to RAW so now will give it a go.

Derek

[NikonNellie]

Thanks Rick
That was very helpful. I have been shooting in RAW for a little while and use the program you did the tutorial with. Most of the time I would click on the "auto" button because I wasn't sure of some of the slider's function e.g. the Recovery slider. I will try to process my files now manually rather than Auto.

Also, I have noticed that I am unable to view the properties of a file e.g. F Stop, Exposure time etc. unless I shoot jpg files. Is there a way of viewing this data with Raw Files (NEF files on my Nikon)?

[Cathi]

I'm very interested in the RAW side of things, but I just can't seem to find the Camera Raw program in my PSE6.. says its supposed to be there?? Maybe I'm just not looking in the right place LOL Which is highly possible ;) I've only had my PSE6 for about 4 months...

[Cathi]

Ummm.. never mind.. I found how to open it! LOL

[mish13]

Thanks Rick, I am glad I found this web sight, I only joined tonight and I have learnt heaps already. I keep having a go at shooting in Raw but kept going back to Jpeg because I didn't know how to make the adjustments. With your help I can now give it a go.
Michelle:th3:

[MCS_80]

Thanks for the tutorial Rick.

I have used the RAW converter with my current JPEG images to test it out and it is fantastic :D

I will be shooting my next Automotive photoshoot in RAW and will upload the results here once done. :D

Cheers

Mick

[R1titan]

I'm also a RAW convert.
Once you start shooting in RAW, you cant go back to JPEG...lol

[draco]

thanks for the very nice tutorial rick.. as alwasy :D

but my question is, from the above tutorial, it seems that the main advantage of raw is you can really do a lot of editing, but can't you also do that on a jpg?

[dbax]

thanks for the very nice tutorial rick.. as alwasy :D

but my question is, from the above tutorial, it seems that the main advantage of raw is you can really do a lot of editing, but can't you also do that on a jpg?

yep you can but.... a jpg has already been processed in camera, sharpened/saturation/contrast etc a RAW file is just that RAW you control what adjustment YOU want as well as being able to make exposure adjustments if you got it a little bit wrong.
thats the short answer;) its a discussion that will continue for decades:D

EDIT Oh yeah, and a jpg file is already compressed eg a jpg file might be 2M and a RAW file of the same scene might be 10M thats 8M of detail you can't get back.
thats a little more of the simple answer...... and yes I shoot both jpg and RAW

[ricktas]

Raw processing (till recently) has been 'whole of photo' processing. Ie you couldn't work on specific areas of your photo. RAW processors let you change the white balance, adjust shadows, etc. A RAW file is the data straight from the sensor (after analog->digital conversion).

A JPG is a processed photo. Your camera processed a JPG and saves it based on a series of instructions set in your camera. As dbax says, a RAW file might be 10MB of data, but the same JPG out of the camera might be 3MB..where did your other data go? Your camera just removed 7MB of colour information, pixel information etc that your camera sensor 'saw'. Does that sound the best way to get the best result from your captured image?

Yes you can edit a JPG just as you can a RAW file, but you are editing something that has already been striped of a lot of information. I know which one I would rather work with.

[jev]

Raw processing (till recently) has been 'whole of photo' processing. Ie you couldn't work on specific areas of your photo.
Strictly speaking that is arguable at least. Canon's DPP has had features for healing and cloning for years. LightZone (agreed, not a very well known RAW converter) provides things like dodge and burn, regional edits etc. It offered these features since day 1 (back in 2005 or 2006 or so). And those are just two converters I've been playing around with, there are many, many more out there.

[ricktas]

I agree Jev, thats why I said until recently - meaning the last few years

[Inspired]

HI Rick
I have been shooting in RAW and JPEG as i cant seem to open RAW photo's on my pc, (so shooting in both as a back-up and until i learn enough to go soley RAW). I have CS4 with camera RAW, do i need another program to be able to open the photo's or should that be suffiecent? as at the moment it says it doesn't recognise the file - having no trouble opening the JPEG's though.
Do i need to download another type of software to be able to open the RAW images?
Thanks so much
Nicole

[ricktas]

HI Rick
I have been shooting in RAW and JPEG as i cant seem to open RAW photo's on my pc, (so shooting in both as a back-up and until i learn enough to go soley RAW). I have CS4 with camera RAW, do i need another program to be able to open the photo's or should that be suffiecent? as at the moment it says it doesn't recognise the file - having no trouble opening the JPEG's though.
Do i need to download another type of software to be able to open the RAW images?
Thanks so much
Nicole

Have you downloaded the latest updates for CS4? When in CS4, go to Help menu and check for updates. Download any/all, repeat till everything is up to date, then try again

[Inspired]

Have you downloaded the latest updates for CS4? When in CS4, go to Help menu and check for updates. Download any/all, repeat till everything is up to date, then try again

Yay it worked THANK YOU> I have downloaded the updates a couple of times and it never worked, this time i just kept re-updating after one finished (maybe the update kept timng out).
SO excited! Just tried it out, and your right i could get more detail out of the same photo i had taken in JPEG and RAW, still not confident to go RAW on its own yet incase something happens and i cant open them again, glad i have the option to take both at once.
Thank you again.
Nicole

[nouveau1]

G;day all,
I've just downloaded a gimp2.6, from the development team as specified on their web site, but find the thing a bit difficult..
for example, it doesn't seem to recognise raw format, and the on-line tutorials seem (I say seem as I'm not all that aux fait with complex programmes...) to describe dialog boxes that have little relation to those appearing on my computer.

Does anyone have any constructive suggestions? (other than give it all away or spend a 1,000$ on PS?)

I sometimes wish we all stuck to film....

cheers

[ricktas]

You dont need to spend $1000s - go get a copy of Photoshop Elements, much cheaper and does most of what photoshop does

[Bill44]

When I got serious about photography again after a break of many years one of my old pro mates turned up on my doorstep with a copy of Lightroom. His words were "If I catch you shooting JPEG I'll break your fingers". Best favour he ever did me.:D

[nouveau1]

Marvelous!

Thankyou VERY much.

[graffitisurf]

Thanks for this tutorial.It convinced me to give it a go and so far I am happy with the results,although I am now concerned about storage and organisational issues.

[makro]

thanks for that tutorial Rick, PP is one of my weakness which I need to address and this is tutorial shows me what is possible

[rob149bm]

great tutorial rick i wish i had seen it before entering into the world of raw Photography some 6 years ago and once you go raw you will nether go back as it give you total control your digital file anyone thinking of going to raw should invest in a great book by Bruce Fraser called
Camera Raw its the bible on refining your workflow
rob149bm

D300/D2x/f601x 70-200vr 18-200vr 35-70 50mm 500mm 12-24 Nikon lens 70-200 sigma 90mm Tamron sb800

[kingfisher29]

Very nice write up. I just started using Lightroom and boy that programme is good. I may try out a few others out there to see if they are any good as well

[Saleems]

Excellent tutorial Rick! I was wondering whether people recommend shooting in RAW and JPEG mode at first and then moving onto RAW only? Also, if you have a lot of images, can you batch process images? And would it produce the same quality as if you processed each image individually.

[ricktas]

Very nice write up. I just started using Lightroom and boy that programme is good. I may try out a few others out there to see if they are any good as well

Lightroom is so much more than a raw converter. There are lots of alternatives and it is really a personal preference to which one you settle on. But when you do, learn as much as you can about how it works


Excellent tutorial Rick! I was wondering whether people recommend shooting in RAW and JPEG mode at first and then moving onto RAW only? Also, if you have a lot of images, can you batch process images? And would it produce the same quality as if you processed each image individually.

Hmmm. up to you. My suggestion would be swap to RAW and take a heap of test shots one day, in the house, backyard, neighbourhood. Use those to learn with. Then you should not go wrong just shooting in RAW. Yes you can batch process, but remember you are applying the same adjustments to every photo. Often if you are changing settings as you go, on your shoot, using a batch method may not be the best option, as it will work on some photos but may overprocess, over-expose, under-expose others, depending on the original file settings.

[savme]

great Tut Rick.. I shoot in raw but hubby gets my camera and always changes my settings ..OMG Leave alone please :P

[ameerat42]

My 2c worth. I'm a recent convert to raw, only because I only recently got a camera that can do raw. Somewhere in a recent thread I said I have ditched jpeg. Well, it's not quite true. When I only need "a quick shot" of something I might just use jpeg, and for posting here. But now, for anything else, it's raw to 16-bit tiff for keeping, and then a really better quality than straight-out-of-the-camera jpeg.

And that's on of the main things I learned from this forum: what raw files are and how to appreciate the information they contain. Am.

[Jorge Arguello]

G;day all,
I've just downloaded a gimp2.6, from the development team as specified on their web site, but find the thing a bit difficult...for example, it doesn't seem to recognise raw format, and the on-line tutorials seem . . . .

Hello:

I will take this tutorial, thanks a lot!
I am also using GIPM. I need to convert my RAW picture to TTIF and then GIMP can open the file. I will try Photoshop Elements.

[Chilli]

Thanks for this tutorial Rick, it has opened up an entire new world for me.
Can anyone help me regarding camera raw preferences.
I have PS elements 8 , under preferences 5.5.0.97 it asks for
a choice between saving file as Camera Raw Database OR Sidecar ".xmp" files.

which box should I tick ?

it also asks should camera raw automatically sharpen images. should I untick this and sharpen myself at the end of my editing ? Or leave as is..

Many Thanks... :)

[ricktas]

Lightroom uses XMP sidecar files and I have found that works well for me, so go that way if you like. Really it is probably just down to personal choice. I do not let my images be sharpened at that stage of my processing. Sharpening is done as the final step, so say NO to that one.

[Chilli]

okay, thankyou.

[ctorry]

Thanks for the tutorial Rick.

I am now going to give Raw a go.

[darkmerlin]

thanks Rick, Great overview of the difference between raw and jpg - just what I was looking for.
What's sold me is when you consider how much info/data you loose when shooting in jpg compared to having it all available in raw it's a bit of a no brainer - raw from now on :th3:

[David]

Have to say Im sold on shooting only in RAW now and having ACR helps to smplify the basic editing process before switching over to Photoshop for more processing.

The only thing is you need more memory cards of become more confident/exclusive in what you shoot and shoot less images on the day. That is a good thing.

I don't suppose it matters if you convert to JPEG or TIFF to do further work in Photoshop but I have a feeling someone is going to say no convert in TIFF because it does not compress the pixels whereas JPEG will .. Right ?

[ricktas]

Have to say Im sold on shooting only in RAW now and having ACR helps to smplify the basic editing process before switching over to Photoshop for more processing.

The only thing is you need more memory cards of become more confident/exclusive in what you shoot and shoot less images on the day. That is a good thing.

I don't suppose it matters if you convert to JPEG or TIFF to do further work in Photoshop but I have a feeling someone is going to say no convert in TIFF because it does not compress the pixels whereas JPEG will .. Right ?

TIFF or PSD David. Once you move to JPG you introduce a 'lossy' file format that strips part of the information in the image file. My photos are important to me, so working in the highest quality is the way to go. I only use JPG for conversion at a final stage for uploading to AP etc. All work is done using a image file of the highest quality.

[exwintech]

Rick - Thanks for that so-clear explanation in "real words".... As an over-60 just learning into photography, I do find those on-line "techy detail" Guides rather hard to follow, without knowing the 'advanced terms'. They might indeed be very good, but they assume that the reader is already a photographer.

As part of my learning-towards-a-DSLR plan, I bought a Bridge Zoom - Fuji HS10 - which does the RAW files my Canon SX10 doesn't.

I'm using Digikam in Linux as my RAF RAW processing application. (With the latest version of DCRAW it now handles the HS10's RAFs, which very few other tools yet do.)

While experimenting with the RAFs, I'm getting the idea of doing the WB, Saturation, Gamma, Levels, so on, then "Sharpen last" with USM, and Save to TIFF. However - while I'm sometimes getting clearer and more detailed images than the "very camera processed" same-scene JPEGs (it does do RAW + JPEG) - other results are little different, if any, from the JPEGs.

So I'm a bit (?) confused - certainly it could be that I'm not "getting the lighting and detail out" as well as could be done.

But also, those RAFs are coming from a very small - compared with any DSLR - sensor, the HS10's 10Mpix BSI 1/2.3 CMOS. Is there any 'special processing mode' that's better for RAWs coming from such a sensor - or, due to the size, is it just not capable of recording the amount of data the larger DSLR sensors do?

The HS10 RAF RAW files average 15.2MB, which suggests that they do contain more "quality detail" than the JPEGs.

As more P&S and Bridge Zoom cameras with small sensors are now doing RAW, I'm possibly not the only one wondering about this.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Dave.

[ricktas]

I think you have answered your own question here. if you compare a DSLR sensor of say 10MP to a P&S or bridge camera sensor of 10MP. The smaller sensor on these smaller camera's means that each one of those 10million pixels has to be a lot smaller. Science shows that the smaller each pixel, the less light hits it. We are getting down to photons of light here. One side effect of these very small pixel sites is they do not tend to capture shadow detail so well, and can also introduce noise into the result. You will find that a RAW file from a small sensor, compared to a RAW file from a DSLR of the same MP, will not be as 'flexible' when editing in RAW, and things like shadows adjustments may not result in the quality in the shadow area you were expecting. Having said this, DSLR also experience this, which is why medium format sensors and camera's are available too. In the end every system is a compromise in some way, we just have to get to know the limitations of our gear and work with it.

[exwintech]

Rick - Thanks for the prompt reply.

I'm aware of the size problem re P&S / Bridge-Zoom camera sensors, but I'm wondering if there's "anything extra" one can do in processing to at least partly compensate?

There must be differences in data-content and resulting images between FF sensor cameras and the 1.5/1.6-crop cameras. So when PP-ing a say 1.6 crop sensor RAW, what is done to make it look as much like a FF sensor image as possible?

I can't find anything on that by Googling... Maybe nobody but eccentrics like me thinks of such things...

You can see where I'm coming from... If there are things done in PP with crop-frame sensor RAWs to improve them towards the IQ of FF sensor RAWs - couldn't similar be done with RAWs from the smaller 1/2.3 sensor RAWs...?

Obviously that still wouldn't make them even nearly as good as those from the 12+ times larger crop-frame DSLRs, but any improvement would be nice!

While the camera makers are very likely using the "also saves RAWs" as advertising points for their somewhat overpriced higher end P&S / Bridge cameras - having RAW is probably more educational than the "Vanishing People" and "Automatic Scene Recognition" gimmicks that infest the recent versions.

So RAW in small-sensor cameras is unlikely to "go away" any time soon. What seems to be missing is any Guidance or Tutorials from the makers on how to get the best results from small-sensor RAWs.

Perhaps the folk who do the Digital Camera Tutorials you can find by Googling - some of them very good, if rather "technical" for folk newer to Photography - just assume that small-sensor RAWs from the P&S "Toy Cameras" aren't worthy of specific attention.

While Entry Level DSLRs are indeed becomong relatively less costly - not everyone wants to go there, if not because of cost initially, because of the complexities and the need to buy at least several lenses to cover the various things they will want to do.

So I'd guess that the upper-end P&S and Bridge cameras - with RAW - will keep increasing in popularity. Maybe the makers think that having RAW capability just looks good in the advertising - and that few folk will actually use the function anyway...

But some will, particularly those who want the learning experience before making the leap to DSLR. Perhaps somebody will begin a "Club Site" or a Forum Section for "Small-Sensor P&S RAW Users".

Regards, Dave.

[ricktas]

There is not a way to process them that is different to processing RAW files from a cropped sensor DSLR, Full frame DSLR or even a medium format digital back. You are stuck with the limitations of the equipment used to capture your RAW file. All you can do is process it and push that processing to the limit of the data available in the RAW file. There is no magic solution that can give you better results. The entire process is limited by one thing, the quality of the original RAW file!

[exwintech]

Rick - Well, thanks for clearing that up! So on the rule of "People take pictures, not cameras" - I'll work on getting better data in the first place - then upping the PP-ing abilities...

From what I've seen shown in some places, the HS10 is quite able to get very good P&S-small-sensor level results, so I'll keep working at it!

Do appreciate the prompt and friendly replies, too.

Regards, Dave.

[Adrian45]

Thanks Ric. Very help full indeed.

[drako4]

Thanks Ricktas for the great tutorial. I have had a fear of shooting in RAW and your advice on how to edit has encouraged me enough that I will give it a try. I only have Photoshop Elements 5.0 for the time being so hopefully this program will allow me to gain some valuable experience. I know I am not always happy with my results shooting in JPEG but always seemed much easier when you did not have a clue of what to do with RAW images.

Thanks again:)

[Elvie]

Thank you for this great tutorial, I have always been unsure what to do with raw images, so have not used the raw shoot very often, but this has inspired me to go for it. Elvie

[Fletch]

Thanks, I will give it a go. This photography caper is a lot more fun (and complex) than I first thought. this is a great site!