Advice on RAW pics and Photoshop

[puckrup]

Hi,

Met Flat-plannedCrank at Knockhill yesterday and bugged him for some advice! This picture taking malarky aint easy by any way shape or form! Probably binned well over 300 pics with 100 left-over. Of that 20 not too bad although framing, exposure and sharpness could be better. ( see http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Couple of questions, hope you don't mind!

1) I use Canon DPP to open RAW images. Only tool I use is Adjustment/Tone Curve Assist then save as CR2 file. Is there a method to sharpen image here?

2) Do you export as 16 bitt TIFF to get PS to mod or do you save as JPEG

3) How do you sharpen in PS and is this where you convert to JPEG. (how do you sharpen image in PS?)

4) I batch process the PH photos to be 750 pixels wide as per PH advice, is this correct?

5) Majority of binned shots were out of focus / blurred. Is 1/50th too slow to start with, should I use 1/125th or higher?

As you can see I'm a complete newbie to this (and to track days too!)

Thanks

Neil

[kybo]

Hi puckrup,

Firstly, Snap! I binned the majority the first time out, too. Practice, practice, practice panning. You'll see a marked improvement in your images. I have and I'm still practicing.

I started at about 1/200 whilst getting the technique right (more good shots than bad to keep your confidence up) then steadily dropped down throughout the day to about 1/100. I only usually shoot as low as 1/100 as anything slower result in images too blurred to be any good.

Why not use camera raw in PS? Is your camera not supported for the version you have? I've never used the Canon software so cannot comment on that.

Not a big fan of any form of PS sharpen filters (as i can't get a decent end product ) but they're under 'filter' in the toolbar.

I usually don't convert to jpg until I am saving the finished image. If I am half way through editting I will save as a PS image file to maintain all the layer information.

Novice myself but this is what I do and it seems to work for me.

Wait for the experts to comment - then we'll both learn something worth knowing

Scott

[KenP]

This is based on my Nikon experience, but should transfer to Canon since it is a software issue, in CS3 when you load a RAW file into PS, you have a sharpening option with 4 parameters Amount-Radius-Detail-Masking.
Sharpening should never be a substitute for poor focussing.