RAW file format

[ukcatfan]

At that price, it would be hard to pass up. I personally do not use it due to the high price. I tried out the pre-release trial version and it was nice, but different looking than anything I have ever seen. I would suggest trying it first to make sure you like how it works. Have you tried the software that came with the camera? It would be free. I beleive that Picasa from Google can also do some basic processing for free.

Kevin

 

[FirstTimertoDiz]

Hi Kevin, thanks for the quick reply. I have the Photo Project software that came with my D50, and I can view RAW files in it, but I can't really do any adjusting, so I have just been shooting jpeg up to now.

I will have to check out Picassa as well. I think I am going to start the trial this weekend; I am afraid it I download it now, I will NEVER get all my "real" work done this week!

 

[ukcatfan]

With the D50, I believe you can still use the free "RawShooter Essentials" if you can find a place to download it. Adobe bought it to eliminate the free competition, so it might be hard to still find out there. It is freeware though, so they cannot legally keep you from having it. This place might still have a valid link. http://www.download3000.com/download_11892.html

It will not work with models released within the past year and a half or so though. If you plan to upgrade your body anytime soon, it might not be worth getting used to it.

Kevin

 

[Master Mason]

At that price, it would be hard to pass up. I personally do not use it due to the high price. I tried out the pre-release trial version and it was nice, but different looking than anything I have ever seen. I would suggest trying it first to make sure you like how it works. Have you tried the software that came with the camera? It would be free. I beleive that Picasa from Google can also do some basic processing for free.

Kevin

Kevin,

Aren't your girls in School? I think they are old enough right? If so, go to campustech.com and you can get it for that price as well Actually its like 95 or so...

 

[fitzperry]

Yes a 2nd grader would count...

You just have to e-mail them a pic of her student id. If she doesn't have an id, I think you have to fax or e-mail something proving she's enrolled in school.

 

[ukcatfan]

Kevin,

Aren't your girls in School? I think they are old enough right? If so, go to campustech.com and you can get it for that price as well Actually its like 95 or so...

They are 14, 10, and 6. I will have to look into that. Thank you.

Kevin

 

[GrillMouster]

FirstTimertoDiz, try downloading Nikon View from Nikon's website. It's got basic RAW tools and is very easy to use. It's completely free.

 

[mabas9395]

It is for sure my favorite RAW software. I shoot RAW about 90% of the time. Lightroom may not be the cheapest RAW solution and it may not be the most technically correct solution (not that I could tell the difference) but I really like how it fits into my workflow. In lightroom, it doesn't matter if some of my shots are RAW and some are jpg, I can see/manage all my photos together. It works great for me as a file management system, I can move/rename files and folder on my hard drive (not just imaginary lightroom folders). I can tag all of my photos with keywords making it super easy to find my 10,000+ photos. I can do all of my color/exposure correction, and croping. I can burn my backups to disk or make slideshows as well as print. Plus I can do simple spot/blemish healing/cloning.

Its an all-in-one solution for managing your digital photos. And when you think of it like that, the $99 price you can get it for is a real bargin.

 

[handicap18]

I was mainly looking for someone to stop me from making a mistake on shooting Raw only. I'm not seeing an argument against it yet though.

I don't think you'll find many people who will think that shooting only in RAW is a mistake. More often than not you'll find people who think not shooting in RAW is a mistake.

I was a JPEG only shooter for over a year. I switched to RAW only back over this past summer. It really hasn't added as much to my PP as I thought it would. The biggest problem I have is that the computer I mainly use is old and slow. Max RAM is 512K. Lightroom takes up a lot of RAM so on this computer it is slow. We're upgrading after we get our taxes back, so that will change things for me.

I try to get the image as correct as I can when shooting, but there are times when that doesn't work. Whether you shoot in JPEG or RAW you'll have to PP those images. I find that with RAW my corrections are better. Even a bit easier.

There are many times where I'll only convert the RAW image to a JPEG so thats about the only extra step.

Lightroom works with PSE, correct?

Lightroom and PSE are 2 different software programs. I don't use Lightroom with PSE. I'm not big into the post editing stuff, so I don't use PSE as much any more. Mostly for cropping. I haven't really gotten into doing the layers and things like that. I'll do any contrast, saturation, exposure compensation, white balance and that type of editing in Lightroom. I like the results better.

 

[Master Mason]

I'm not big into the post editing stuff, so I don't use PSE as much any more. Mostly for cropping. I haven't really gotten into doing the layers and things like that. I'll do any contrast, saturation, exposure compensation, white balance and that type of editing in Lightroom. I like the results better.

Why don't you use lightroom for your cropping? That's where I do mine

 

[fitzperry]

I'm not big into the post editing stuff, so I don't use PSE as much any more. Mostly for cropping. I haven't really gotten into doing the layers and things like that. I'll do any contrast, saturation, exposure compensation, white balance and that type of editing in Lightroom. I like the results better.

Just out of curiosity, why don't you just crop in Lightroom. The crop tool in Lightroom bugged me a little at first because it's sort of the opposite of PSE's in that you're sort of moving the image behind the crop lines instead of moving the crop lines, but now I like it better.

 

[handicap18]

Why don't you use lightroom for your cropping? That's where I do mine

Just out of curiosity, why don't you just crop in Lightroom. The crop tool in Lightroom bugged me a little at first because it's sort of the opposite of PSE's in that you're sort of moving the image behind the crop lines instead of moving the crop lines, but now I like it better.

I actually hadn't figure out the crop tool in Lightroom. I thought I saw it once, but then couldn't locate it again. I'll have to look into it more and play around with it. It would be better to do it Lightroom, this way I would lose much less resolution. Cropping a JPEG makes the image small enough as it is.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Master Mason]

It is under the developement tab.

to the left of the redeye correction button.

Under settings you can check the constrain size if you would like as well so you keep them at 4x6 ratio.

 

[DueyDooDah]

After using a few solutions, I have settled on LR. As I shoot only RAW, it works nicely for me. I seldom, if ever, need to do anything that LR can't handle so have been remiss in getting more familiar with PS. LR just allows me to do more than the default software that came with my camera and still is easy enough that I don't have to spend the time a full-blown editing package (i.e., PS CSx) requires.

Actually, I like PS Elements (I was using v4 until Vista, now the cataloging is broken) cataloging better but the workflow process is not as easy as in LR. To do what you can do in LR, you have to switch between the different apps in Elements, which detracts from the processing. Also, the controls in LR are more flexible and powerful.

 

[DueyDooDah]

I'm sure Vista does it but I'm not one to recommend upgrading.

Yep, Vista does it outta the box.

 

[dpuck1998]

I've recently taked to using iPhoto, I still use CS3 and I haven't really gone 100 percent one way or another....

 

[dpuck1998]

With the cost of HD and Storage space why not shoot both? A 1 TB external HD can be bought this weekend for $169. Plenty of space for JPG and RAW!!

 

[geetey]

I know I am late to this thread but since we did just upgrade our computer and I do have to purchase new software (to work with Vista), I want to make sure I am understanding this correctly.... could I use Lightroom only and not have to purchase PSE6 in order to process my photographs?

Our old computer was SO old, I could not shoot in RAW - the machine was overtasked with simply uploading the jpgs. I am planning on shooting RAW now but thought I needed to upgrade my Photoshop Elements to work with Vista and add Lightroom for RAW.

I am excited to get started because we have a 'beast' of a computer now AND a big extermal hard drive!

 

[DueyDooDah]

You may not need anything except Lightroom, for most images. Lightroom was developed to get back to Adobe's root application - to process images, and nothing else. Photoshop started that way but eventually outgrew it's original concept (something to do with profit margin, I believe). Now, Photoshop meets the needs of everyone, not just the casual photographer. Know, though, that if you want to go beyond standard image processing (adjusting tones and colors, simple cropping, etc.), such as removing wrinkles, taking weight off a subject's thighs, or anything that requires layers to complete, then you may need additional software to aid in those cases.

If I were you, download the demo (ensure you upgrade to v1.3 if you have to DL 1.0), take the 21 day(?) spin and I'm sure you'll be hooked. It is a very nice piece of software. (BTW: Borrow a book about LR and look at the tutorial links on Adobe's website to get a feel for what you can so with it.)

 

[Groucho]

I actually hadn't figure out the crop tool in Lightroom. I thought I saw it once, but then couldn't locate it again. I'll have to look into it more and play around with it. It would be better to do it Lightroom, this way I would lose much less resolution. Cropping a JPEG makes the image small enough as it is.

Thanks for the info.

IMHO it's really worthwhile to learn a few of the keyboard shortcuts for Lightroom - I'd go bonkers having to navigate the menus for every option. Off the top of my head, the key ones are:
G - grid view
E - loupe view
D - develop module
R - crop/rotate
N - remove spots
W - white balance picker
J - show clipping (I actually just found this one - very handy!)
B - quick collection
L - lights out
Z - zoom in or out
6-9 - set color flags (I use these when creating multiple collections at once - for example, when going through WDW pics, red tag means they're going in my public gallery, yellow tag means they're going in my private gallery (family photos and such))

There are many more, those are the ones that I use fairly regularly. I also use the keyword sets in Library to quickly add recent keywords. For these, you use the number pad on your keyboard. (Obviously, this wouldn't work so well on a laptop's keyboard!)

Once you have some of them memorized, it makes it much quicker getting around the program, IMHO.