raw files

[twon8]

i got a dslr for christmas, i figure its time i learned how to shoot using raaw rather than jpeg. i took some pics today at a mets game, tried to open in photoshop elements, but no go; any suggestions for programs to deal with the raw? thanks in advance

 

[gregr]

The camera probably came with software that will convert the raw files for you. Elements doesn't, as you found out, but the full version of Photoshop does (CS and CS2) will. Other programs will as well- Rawshooter is a good program and a pretty good price. Capture One is the best raw converter, at least in my opinion, but it's very expensive. Breezebrowser is a great program that converts raw files plus a lot more. BB is probably the best bang for the buck because it does so many things and is still the cheapest.
I'm sure there are others out there but those are the ones I know.

 

[twon8]

thanks for the help greg; any thoughts on the capture one le? its 99, so in the ballpark with the others

fyi - rawshooter has this message on the purchase page:

Adobe Systems Inc has acquired the assets of Pixmantec ApS. RawShooter | premium has been discontinued and will no longer be offered for sale or updated. For information regarding the sale of Pixmantec assets please check our newsletter or the FAQ.

 

[gregr]

I forgot all about the LE version- that's what I started out using a few years ago. As far as I know, it's the same converter but doesn't have a few features- mainly ones that you would use if you shot studio portraits.
Full disclosure- all raw converters work well- the differences are subtle. The C1 interface is not quite as simple as the Photoshop or Breezebrowser interface, and about the same as the now unavailable Rawshooter. But it wasn't all that complicated- heck, I figured it out
If you think you are interested in becoming an advanced or even professional photographer I'd say it's definitely worth the money and the time it will take you to learn how to tweak the images to get them just right. I recently shot a bunch of pic in jpeg mode accidentally- luckily I figured it out before I was done and I re-shot the pics in RAW mode. What a huge difference there was- the RAW files were a million times better after the conversion.

 

[IslandCrow]

What version of Elements do you have? I'm currently running 4.0, and I had 3.0 prior to that, and they both open raw files. As a matter of fact, I specifically switched from Digital Image Pro to Photoshop Elements so I could work directly with raw images without having to convert them to TIF or some other format. Hopefully I'm not insulting your intelligence, but be sure you're trying to open the .crw file and not the .thm. Also, if you haven't tried it already, you may have to open Photoshop first and then load the raw file. If in the end you do have to convert using another program, just be sure to convert them to .TIF files so you're working with an uncompressed image and don't lose any data in the conversion.

Anyway, you'll definitely start seeing the difference between working with JPEG and uncompressed images when you start editing them. Your end results will turn out much nicer!

 

[twon8]

ive got 4, but it can't read them in the organizer to load them; ive got an olympus, so perhaps that has something to do with it. im not sure i have a crw file. I found the program that came with the camera, so I have worked with a few raw files already.

 

[gregr]

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