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leaving me feel RAW

Learning curve strikes again......

Shot my first NEF's tonight, just a couple of dozen as an initial exercise....

After some initial pfaffing tonight i managed to get to view thumbnails in Rawshooter Essentials but that was as far as i got...converting them was beyond me:oops:

Think some of it is simply trying to understand computer speak, the other part is the digital photography learning curve - even i could upload a CF card full of JPEGs and save it to my preferred folder - evidently RAW is much more involved.....

So, please will someone give me an idiots guide to the workflow process of using NEF files, starting with taking the CF card out of the camera and putting it into the reader - yep that basic - may as well make sure i'm getting it right from the start!

With a suggested workflow i can go away and read relevant instructions / user guides, but any little hints / tips on using RSE also gratefully rec'd

Apologies for the silly question and thanks in anticipation..

Chris

Chris,

I've got to dash out for work, but I'm sure other people will help you...

This maybe a silly question, but have you looked at the excellent user guide that comes with Raw Shooter... It leads you through the whole workflow process step by step...

It is a PDF file and should be in the same folder that you installed RawShooter.

Chris,

the instruction manual for RawShooter is quite good so have a read of that, as suggested above

If your a man like me who never reads instructions, than just move all the sliders on the right hand side of Rawshooter up and down until you see what you like (start from the top starting from the white balance and work your way down). Once this is done go to the batch convert tab and save the file as a JPG.

You will not need to change some setting in rawshooter depending on the shooting situation an example of this is adding noise suppression to a bright daylight shot. I also avoid changing the sharpness setting most of the time as well. BTW Be careful with the skin tone on Rawshooter as I found they look too saturated sometimes.

Silly question, but where can I get hold of a copy of Raw Shooter?

Bob.

From memory it is a free download.

moggy wrote:Silly question, but where can I get hold of a copy of Raw Shooter?

Bob.

Just google rawshooter

Evenin' all, thanks for the answers (i've just logged in at work )- i had found the instruction manual before i hit the hay last night, and per my post i'm happy to get stuck into it, what i was seeking was confirmation that i'm following a sensible work flow - ie not missing something out that will come back to haunt me when, say, i search for an image in years to come........

having slept on it i guess this is the info i was seeking.........

load CF card to RSE - convert images - save images on hard drive as either TIFF (for printing) or JPEG (for use on the web).......backup to CD if they are that good!! - i guess the RSE manual will explain


the other thing was - where do the raw files get saved?- can i not simply load the raws in to a folder and then pick them up from there for conversion in RSE??- last nights experience seemed to indicate that i could only work on them on RSE whilst the CF card was in the reader - not my preferred option in case of corruption...

Cheers

Chris

chris1968
First of all Rawshooter is an outstanding program and some folk are using it in place of Photoshop. It does everything to a very high standard. This is how I use it....After downloading all RAW files to a folder I open Rawshooter and open the folder. I then slideshow through the images clicking the rubbish bin icon for those I don't want to keep. I then open the batch file tab and tell the program where I want it to put the processed files. I then work on an image and then click the little "cogs" symbol when I am finished and Rawshooter will process it in the background and save it to the folder...or...after enhancing 1 image I save the enhancements to the clipboard....go the the thumbnails...choose all the thumbnails similar to the image I have just enhanced...and hit CONTROL+C which copies all of the changes to each image. I then hit the cogwheel and go and have a coffee. But please...read the instruction to get the best out of the program.

Thanks Guys, have just downloaded it from the supplied link.

Bob

mattk - thanks for that - give me the basics - readn the instructions is the next step

moggy - guess you worked it out from here but rawshooter is very highly thought of, and not just because its free.

it jusr won plaudits in 2 GB magazines - only faile dto get top spot in one group test becuase it does not support Fuji captured images or customer curves....and they dont affect too many users!

Hi Matt

given that you are our (well at least mine) photoshop guru and reading this comment..

Matt. K wrote:First of all Rawshooter is an outstanding program and some folk are using it in place of Photoshop.

...I have to ask, do you use it exclusively/mostly/hardly ever for your RAW conversions?

I have never seen this program, and am about to download it, but given that my abilities are miniscule, I would like to know an experts opinion. I do have access to photoshop CS2, but in your "expert" opinion, which is best for RAW conversion?

Cheers
Deb

Hi Deb
I use Rawshooter where I have a very large number of images to process for someone else...or even myself, providing they don't require selective or localised processing. Rawshooter does not have selection tools. I might process 60 or 70 images through Rawshooter, and then pick the very best to fine tune in Photoshop. It is very fast and fairly intuitive to use...but read the help files first. I think many of the tools mimick tools in Photoshop so the learning curve is transferable.

Recently, i found a past thread about rawshooter browsing this website and I subsequently downloaded the program. It is a great little program, and its free, good for previewing NEF files, categorising them and basic and quick PP .

As someone who is a newbie to photography, for every good picture, i take about 4 bad ones....some worst than others. Unfortunately, some include basic focus and exposure errors. Just following on from the discussion, to what extent can a photo be "saved" by PP software and are their any recommendations on intro books on photoshop?


Thanks,
Danny