Raw Shooter Essentials/PS7 - DPChallenge Forums

01/14/2007 10:01:31 PM · #1

OK, I've finally been pursuaded by many on DPC to start shooting RAW (some of the time at least), but I have a couple of questions:

1. All the info provided about RSE categorically states that no permanent alterations are made to the RAWs so that one can go back and re-edit if desired. However, after processing and saving as JPEGs, when I use RSE to reopen the RAWs, they open again complete with my edits. I can't find any back-ups of the original RAWs, so what am I doing wrong? To get back to the original RAW is it simply a matter of clicking the button to 'undo' the editing steps (except for changes made to white balance I note) made previously or should there actually be a back-up somewhere?

2. In many cases I'll still use PS7 to do some additional editing after using RSE to create my JPEGs. So am I better doing sharpening, noise removal, saturation etc in RSE or waiting to do them in PS7. Just how much editing do folks do in RSE?

Cheers,

Q.

01/14/2007 10:07:20 PM · #2

1) All the edit info is stored in a database or separate "info" files, no changes are made to your images. No worries, just undo the edits and you're ready to start over.

2) If you are going to do more work in PS I'd save all the sharpening for the last stage of PS work. You can do the noise reduction in RSE. As far as saturation goes, it's all a matter of preference. I usually do it in PS.

You might want to convert to 16 bit TIF files instead of JPEGs to import into Photoshop. By going straight to JPG you are losing some advantages of working with RAW files.

01/14/2007 10:09:12 PM · #3

1.) RSE isn't modifying the RAW data; what it's doing is saving the settings, so when it later reopens the same file, the previous setting are used.
2.) Do as much as is practical where tones will be modified. Get exposure, contrast, color balance, etcetera as close to the intneded result as possible. This minimizes tonal changes after converting to 8-bit. You'll need to convert to 8-bit to do much in PS7, since 16-bit files are not fully supported (only some tools will be available).

01/14/2007 10:11:01 PM · #4

Originally posted by kirbic:

You'll need to convert to 8-bit to do much in PS7, since 16-bit files are not fully supported (only some tools will be available).

I forgot about that.

01/14/2007 10:12:54 PM · #5

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

I forgot about that.

LOL, blocked it out, eh? I tried, but I keep having flashbacks every time I *still* need to convert to 8-bit grayscale to do do a quadtone :-P

Message edited by author 2007-01-14 22:13:07.

01/14/2007 10:14:05 PM · #6

Thanks guys. So, if I need to send my original RAW into DPC for validation etc, what exactly do I send? If I send the RAW it'll go with the edits won't it?

01/14/2007 10:17:56 PM · #7

Originally posted by kirbic:

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
I forgot about that.

LOL, blocked it out, eh? I tried, but I keep having flashbacks every time I *still* need to convert to 8-bit grayscale to do do a quadtone :-P

I wonder if they fixed that in CS3?

01/14/2007 10:18:45 PM · #8

Originally posted by Qiki:

Thanks guys. So, if I need to send my original RAW into DPC for validation etc, what exactly do I send? If I send the RAW it'll go with the edits won't it?

Just send the RAW file. Unless you did something wacky in conversion SC can figure it out from your notes :-)

01/14/2007 10:21:20 PM · #9

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

Originally posted by Qiki:
Thanks guys. So, if I need to send my original RAW into DPC for validation etc, what exactly do I send? If I send the RAW it'll go with the edits won't it?

Just send the RAW file. Unless you did something wacky in conversion SC can figure it out from your notes :-)

Yup. Send the RAW. RSE does not affect validity of RAW files, at least not that we've ever seen.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

01/14/2007 10:21:49 PM · #10

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

Originally posted by kirbic:

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
I forgot about that.

LOL, blocked it out, eh? I tried, but I keep having flashbacks every time I *still* need to convert to 8-bit grayscale to do do a quadtone :-P

I wonder if they fixed that in CS3?

Not in the beta they didn't :-(

Makka

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

01/14/2007 10:22:07 PM · #11

Adrian, you'll find that Rawshooter stores all it's info for the RAW files in a folder called .RWSettings. You'll find this folder in every folder that you work on RAW images with RSE. As mentioned, the actual RAW files themselves are untouched.

01/14/2007 10:23:45 PM · #12

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

My what? Notes? HAHAHAHAHA! I just fiddle around aimlessly until I reckon something looks vaguely passable (check my work - that should be fairly obvious).

01/14/2007 10:26:41 PM · #13

Originally posted by kirbic:

Yup. Send the RAW. RSE does not affect validity of RAW files, at least not that we've ever seen.

OK. Coming from an SC member, that's good enough for me! Thanks.

01/14/2007 10:26:46 PM · #14

Originally posted by Qiki:

My what? Notes? HAHAHAHAHA! I just fiddle around aimlessly until I reckon something looks vaguely passable (check my work - that should be fairly obvious).

I had to go through validation once because all I had in my photographer's comments was "lots of PS work on this one" :-)

01/14/2007 10:30:18 PM · #15

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

I had to go through validation once because all I had in my photographer's comments was "lots of PS work on this one" :-)

They just wanted to make sure the cheese hadn't been added in PP eh?