I need help

[Dwayne27]

Just got back from Ophir Hills- thanks Mike, Stu, Crystal and other Mike. It was good to meet you guys and hopefully will be able to get out with you more often. That was a good time.

So, I know none of my pics will be that great till I can get one of those nice flashes, but I want to keep the ones I took tonight- but I decided to start shooting in RAW, and I cant find a way to open them, convert them, or work with them... I just get the message 'Could not complete your request because it is not the right type of document'

Any suggestions?

[Mike]

There are quite a few different ways to open a Raw image. You said you have photoshop CS3, if photoshop cannot open it using either bridge or directly, try Adobe Camera Raw 5.2.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html

Follow the instructions for patching v4 that you currently have, and that should work.

If it does not, your camera should have come with software to that can process the image as RAW and work with it as a 16-bit image.

Let us know if that doesn't fix anything!

[Mikezauner]

I prefer to use Adobe's implementation of raw editing over the software Nikon included with my camera, however I'm a Mac user and a Nikon user, so things might be different for your Windows/Canon setup. I'd recommend experimenting with both and seeing what you like best.

[Dwayne27]

I hope you guys are ready to answer a lot of questions. I am glad I found some photogrpahy experts...

When you first open a RAW image- is it suppose to be all grainy and tinted blue?

[Mikezauner]

it might be grainy because no anti-noise was applied and you're using a higher ISO setting. The blue is because no white balancing was applied. You will need to adjust white balancing before doing anything else. Play with settings until you find something you like, or if you're using adobe's camera raw there should be an "auto" setting option. That's generally the best starting point.

[Dwayne27]

Thanks for the info Mike.

So it seems like a lot more work to shoot in RAW. Am I really losing that much shooting JPG?

[Mike]

Well you are loosing quite a bit of exposure information, which is extremely important when shooting underground. Try using adobe camera raw 5.2. It should make it even easier than standard jpeg, imo.

[XXX Snow]

Get the program lightroom from adobe for managing you images. It also can do all the post processing too. If you can get the student price its only $99.00. I put my white balance on auto. Having a good flash really helps.