Help with RAW, Colour Space and PS CS3

[miikeboyle]

Hey Guys,

Ive only ever taken JPEGs with my camera but ive decided to start shooting in RAW as well. I usually use the windows picture downloader that pops up as i plug the camera in but i found that it only takes the JPEGs off the card and leaves the RAW files still on there. Whats the best method to remove these? I have PS CS3, is there a way using that or should i buy a memory card reader and just pull everything off using that?

Ive started to do a PS CS3 tutorial and in the first section it has gone through setting up everything and the guy recomends setting the Colour setting to Adobe 98 as it has a larger gamut. I only just understand the differences between AdobeRGB and sRGB but im confused as my camera is currently set to sRGB, should i change it to AdobeRGB? I figured i shouldnt have to in the camera as my JPEGs will be sRGB which is good for posting on the net etc, and the RAW files should not be affected by what setting is on the camera for this. When using PS CS3 should i changed the colour settings depending for the output of my work or leave it set to Adobe RGB?

Thanks
Mike

[DaveB]

Get yourself a card reader: it will make your downloads much simpler.

The colourspace setting in the camera (AdobeRGB/sRGB) only affects the JPEGs and thumbnails/etc generated by the camera: you're right it doesn't affect the RAW files. Setting your default RGB space in Photoshop (via Edit->Color Settings) to Adobe RGB is a reasonable move, along with setting the profile for images generated by the ACR RAW converter plugin (via the underlined text at the bottom of the ACR window) to Adobe RGB also.
Once you're used to using RAW you'll probably find you won't bother generating JPEGs in the camera as well: it's simple to get Photoshop to generate sRGB JPEGs from the RAW files when needed.