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back country Kamloops, British Columbia:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/deesignphotography/14356175/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos12.flickr.com/14356175_93deb68990.jpg" width="366" height="500" alt="solitude" /></a>

believe it or not, my first ever image in RAW...finally got PS CS (was using 7.0, no RAW plug in)

beautiful country scene......... for me I would have liked the pix without the bike or frame the bike more to the left.......but still a good image....

cheers
bp

IMO it works just fine as is. Like it.

Welcome to Raw-Land, Dee. Your gonna love it and I know you're really gonna kick butt with it.

Agree with Big Pix. This is a nice pic though, the bike sort of blocks the front side of it. Perhaps to the left a snitch, and back a bit (or way up there closer to the pond) even so the back tire is cut off slightly. I think that might open it up a little

Dee, when I first started shooting Raw i was blown away with the improved quality. Have you noticed anything yet? (If not, I'm pretty sure you will)

Edit: BTW that bike is truly awesome. I love it. I must have one. I'm going to find one. Is it yours? It's...well awesome.

The red of the bike looks muted compared to the yellow and greens seemingly bursting with colour in the landscape.

The bike actually adds interest to this pic IMO. Without the bike it is just another country scene.

I like as is

thanks for the critiques

Dave:
yeah, i notice a big difference shooting RAW...
i was telling someone else, shooting fine jpeg was like having a sports car and doing the speed limit...

in regards to the trail bike, that is one of three of the same trail bikes that my dad has..he loves them b/c they have 4 extra low gears and you can climb hills without having any trouble at all... yeah, they are great...

as for RAW, can you guys tell me what is your usual process of PPing?
in the end you convert to JPEG tho right? how about if you were to make prints? any advise is gonna be helfpful to this newbie in the land of NEF

I convert minimally in the first popscreen raw adjuster. Just the WB and Exposure mostly. Then I do everything else PS as normal (make sure you edit in 16 bit. I save as PSD as I do everything in there anyways. I generally print as JPG as most places have difficulty with Tif files unless it's more expensive (I don't do more expensive). Though I've heard that Tif makes really high quality prints, it's the Raw file that makes all the difference in my shots (especially for the prints). Hope that helps. Hey, are you going to go to the flickr going away party coming up on May 27th? Might be fun.

thanks for the tips Dave...


whats the flickr party all about? dont tell me that flickr is closing down
you are the guy who got me hooked on it

umm how do i know if i am editing in 16 bit?
doh!

Let's see if I remember:

Image/not adj but the menu selection right above. There will be 8 bit or 16 bit options. Click the 16.

Dee -

The power of Camera Raw is in the plugin. That's the place to make as many contrast and levels adjustments as you can (including white balance of course). Its adjustments can not be exactly duplicated in PS proper and in the plugin they are only sidecar file settings that never corrupt your original digital negative for future choices of interpretation.

If you are a reader, get Bruce Fraser's book, "Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop" from Adobe Press. You can also read two excellent free articles by him at Adobe's site where they serve up the Raw plugin's.

Good Info, thanks Steve. I can't get the plugin to come back after I'm initially done with it. How is that done?

dooda wrote:I can't get the plugin to come back after I'm initially done with it. How is that done?

Good question, Dave. I just close up and reopen the original NEF again. I know for certain that PS CS2 can go back and forth to the plugin. I've seen tutorials showing it.

I'll see if I can find another way in CS.

The colour in the foreground grass and flowers is so vivid! Like havign the bike as a foreground interst too, makes the shot a little different than the standard landscape shot, although one step to the right might be interesting

I'd also maybe try lowering the exposure just a tad to save some extra detail in the clouds might need to boost shadows a little but worth a try?

That foreground is so vivid, love it, makes the shot...