RAW - im switching - final questions

[UKBob]

Inspired by diddyman I decided to take the day off and go shrooming with a friend in the fields and forests of Sussex today. After taking 1 RAW photo this weekend, and discovering I couldnt open it, of course I went out and forgot to switch back to JPEG mode.

What RAW software is free to download, and will allow me to work with canon RAW files?

Im not 100% sure where my canon disks are (will have a look in a mo) but I am 'fairly' sure I installed everything that came with the camera when I bought it. I could be wrong, but Im guessing that if I cant open a RAW file then the software didnt come with the camera. Does it usually?

Recomendations please. Which is best, what should I download and install (and are any of them free?) Many thanks

[angrys3owner]

I'm pretty sure all the cameras at least come with software that allow you to open RAW files, I know the Nikon / Fuji cameras do for sure. I'd check all the disks again first.

[miniman]

What version of Photoshop do you have? CS2 comes with Adobe Camera Raw. You can get it for earlier versions (i.e. 7) but I think it's something like $99.

More info and a couple of other alternatives here:

www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/camera-raw.shtml

[miniman]

angrys3owner said:

I'm pretty sure all the cameras at least come with software that allow you to open RAW files, I know the Nikon / Fuji cameras do for sure. I'd check all the disks again first.

Quite right - Canon ZoomBrowser EX will convert RAW - but not sure what processing options you get with it though...

[robdickinson]

Zoombrowser does.

Whats the state of rawshooter thesedays?

[Mad Dave]

If you can get a copy of RAWShooter, get it - I use it and it is truly superb. Failing that, the software usually comes with new cameras, and once it's installed, i've always found that Photoshop can then open them too.

[graham@reading]

Rawshooter Essentials is still available

www.pixmantec.com/products/rawshooter_essentials.asp

[UKBob]

thanks to ed, I found out why photoshop couldnt open my raw files... I downloaded an adobe update which was necessary to enable it to open 30d files.

Now, about raw. First impressions were

Every single setting is auto enhanced, and the noise levels were astranomical. So it seems I have to manually uncheck every setting, reset the values to zero, before carefully scrutinising and deciding how much noise I can get away with.

Can anyone answer this question: Does shooting Raw enable me to manipulate colours/levels/brightness/contrast ect MORE than jpg, whilst simultaneously creating less noise.

When manipulating JPEGs, I can only tweak them "so much" before noise levels become too great for the images to be suitable for stock. Even if raw files gave me 100 times more control and enhancement potential, if the ratio of "enhance one notch = 1 extra notch of noise" - if adjusting the levels by 10% in raw creates the same amount of noise as a 10% JPEG level adjustment, then I cant see the point in shooting raw, because for me, noise is the limiting factor.

does that make sense?

[robdickinson]

RAW stores more detail. 12bits per pixel instead of 8. This is most apparent in the darker fstop range as typicaly jpeg doesnt handle this better, you can effectivly push raw 1 or 2 fstops brighter than jpeg.

[graham@reading]

UKBob said:

Can anyone answer this question: Does shooting Raw enable me to manipulate colours/levels/brightness/contrast ect MORE than jpg, whilst simultaneously creating less noise.

Yes.

[UKBob]

Thanks

[graham@reading]

Ooops..caveat

Have you got noise reduction turned on in your camera?

If so, jpgs out of the camera will be less noisy than RAWs but it's nothing to do with the format.

[Major Bloodnok]

Get RawShooter Essentials while you still can. Get to know all the settings on the camera. I've got a book by a fella called Thom (?) about the D70 and it's been very valuable, in that it explains in much greater detail than manual what all the settings do and the best settings to use for general purposes. I don't know there's an equivalent for the 30D, but there must be something around (check Amazon).

Good workflow's the key: download the RAW images, burn to CD, RawShooter to tweak white balance, exposure, saturation and loads of other things - export to TIFF. Open in PS (or PSP or Gimp); Neat Image for noise reduction, if necessary; sharpen; crop, etc. Print.

[_dobbo_]

You can turn off the automatic adjustment in Adobe Camera RAW. I found it to be arse, it regularly whacks the exposure up and ruins your photo.

[UKBob]

graham@reading said:

Ooops..caveat

Have you got noise reduction turned on in your camera?

If so, jpgs out of the camera will be less noisy than RAWs but it's nothing to do with the format.

Cripes! I thought only cheap cameras had (usually crappy) noise reduction software. Can anyone confirm whether the 30D has this feature, or not. As far as Im aware it does not. Yet jpeg's Do look less noisy. Although I havnt finished tweaking/playing with raw settings yet

_dobbo_ said:

You can turn off the automatic adjustment in Adobe Camera RAW. I found it to be arse, it regularly whacks the exposure up and ruins your photo.

Each time I open an image, it seems I need to uncheck each of the "auto adjust" boxes myself. Im sure I'll find out how to turn it off.

[_dobbo_]

Don't have CS2 infront of me, but I think you can go into settings, turn off the "auto" option, then save the settings as the default.

[Oakey]

I noticed that RAW files looked a lot more noisy when opened in CS2 than they did when opened in CS.

[monkeyhanger]

Oakey said:

I noticed that RAW files looked a lot more noisy when opened in CS2 than they did when opened in CS.

The CS2 RAW Conversion is utter balls.

Many recommend Rawshooter, although i tried it (Premium) for several months and didn't really like it. I went back to using Breezebrowser Pro for conversion and CS2 for any PP.

[monkeyhanger]

UKBob said:

Can anyone confirm whether the 30D has this feature, or not. As far as Im aware it does not. Yet jpeg's Do look less noisy. Although I havnt finished tweaking/playing with raw settings yet

Assuming it's the same as the 20D, then the only in-camera noise reduction is for exposures over 1 second and only if you've enabled it in the Custom Functions.

[recalluk]

Vote for Capture One LE here, I used RawShooter for a while and can also recommend it. I just find it easier to get better results from capture one. You can download a 30 day trial from www.phaseone.com. Sandisk are also giving it away with their extereme III CF cards. Although you have to be a little careful you do get one with the code in the package as a lot of place still have older stock as the offer is very new.

For the Records I find the Adobe Raw convertor VERY noisy in comparison and doesn't extract so much detail.