Original RAW image? Where?

[Gilly B]

Just when I am getting the hang of the different settings and sliders in Adobe Bridge RAW Converter - I'm stuck! After reading tutorials on how to adjust this and that, they then go on to say that one advantage of shooting in RAW is that you always have the original unadjusted RAW image to go back to at a later date. How? :shrug: whenever I adjust an image you either have the option to open in CS2 window or save and close or just close.

Can someone help me please? Do I need to upload my RAW images from the CF card and save them first onto CD/DVD/Hard Drive? :bang:

 

[CT]

Can someone help me please? Do I need to upload my RAW images from the CF card and save them first onto CD/DVD/Hard Drive? :bang:

Erm yes!

It's a logical first step just to download all the images from your card onto your hard drive. That frees up your card for immediate re-use and also takes the pressure off you once the RAW files are safely stored on your hard drive.

What I do Is create a folder on the HD named RAW files. For each download I create a sub folder and name it with the date and anything else that helps identify the shots eg. 1/1/2007 - Dudley Zoo. Try to create a logical directory structure or you can soon get in a bit of a mess with it.

I usually have a quick look through the files on the HD and delete any dross before converting the better ones to TIFFS. The whole point though is that the original RAW file is always there should you need to go back to it.

Hope that helps.

 

[Gilly B]

Doh Sorry CT, it's late and I'm tired. I didn't put my point over very clearly - however, you guessed what I was drivvlin on about and answered it perfectly. I meant, after downloading the RAW images onto my PC and into a folder (like I do with JPEGS) did I then have to copy on to CD/DVD blah blah. Oh! I tell you what, I will just shut up and go to bed...

I am not really this thick CT - honest :bonk: :bonk: :bonk:

 

[CT]

ROTFL. Sorry Gilly!

Well what you do after that depends how much disc space you have at your disposal - these files soon start to fill up a hard drive. You should think about backing the RAW files up anyway as hard drives can and do fail, and you've lost the lot which would be heartbreaking!

What I do is back up everything to a second hard drive initially and then burn to DVD from time to time as I acquire enough new stuff to fill a DVD. It's all a bit belt and braces, but you just can't have enough back up copies.

 

[Steep]

When Adobe Bridge saves your image it will most likely be as a TIF or possibly a PSD file. The original RAW file will have a CRW ending on it, as long as you know where to look for the CRW file on your hard drive you will always be able to go back to it to reprocess the image from scratch.