Raw virgin needing help please

C

craiginuk

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Name
Craig
Edit My Images
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Hi all,

I hope you can help. I've been shooting JPEG since about 2004. I've tried to move over to raw a few times but get into a huge muddle with the files.

At present I download files into a folder eg. "2012-05-05 Brands hatch"
Then open Picasa 3.
Picasa 3 finds the new files straight away.
I then do any edits in Picasa 3 and the files stay where they are.
If I need prints, I export at best quality from Picasa 3.
Job done - but I know I am missing out on photoshop etc.

So I recently shot in Raw.
I have PS Elements 7 loaded.
Also downloaded Camera raw 5.2 so that I can view files NEF files shot on my Nikon D90.

This is where the wheels fall off I am afraid. Could someone please explain in Layman's terms what I need to do in terms of workflow? Starting from getting the pics off the card onto the PC.

What I have tried so far:
Insert card in card reader.
Save NEF Files to folder "2012-05-05 Brandshatch"
Open Elements 7
Click on edit photo.
Then click file - process multiple files.
Camera raw 5.2 opens and I then seem to end up with a NEF and a PNG file for each picture.

What do I do then? Which file am I supposed to edit?
Now when I flick through the organiser in elements I get 2 of every photo..

Very confused. Want to try to learn photoshop/elements but can't seem to get my head round the first simple steps...

Please could someone help with simple instructions? Or a link to a tutorial that deals with the workflow rather than the clone tool :)

Thanks

Craig
 
I'm not a Nikon shooter but I think you're seeing a RAW file and a processed file?

AFAIK NEF is Nikon RAW and PNG is a sort of JPEG type thing.

There's probably an option to save processed RAW files as JPEG or TIFF. Tiff files can be huge so personally I keep all of my RAW files and also produce JPEG's.

PS. You should work on RAW files and save them as JPEG or maybe TIFF if you've got a really fast PC with a huge hard disk :)
 
Last edited:
I think what's happening in your case is that you are just converting the raw files into jpeg. You need something like Lightroom which can actually work with the raw files directly. If you convert raw to tiff then you can work with the tiff files which is at least a bit better as you have more colour depth and no lossless compression. You are still missing out of the benefit of raw in that the original files are left unchanged and Lightroom stores a list of all edits applied. If you want to change the contrast for example just open the file and you can see all your edits and just tweak the contrast.
 
gblades said:
You need something like Lightroom which can actually work with the raw files directly.
Click to expand...

It looks like the OP has Elements 7 so Lightroom may not be needed.

OP. I think you should open the RAW file (NEF in Nikon speak,) do any adjustments you want and then save the file as a JPEG.

The beauty of RAW (or NEF) is that you can't really change it, the changes you make are just stored as change details within the file but you always have the original RAW file to revert to. JPEG's however degrade a bit as you play with them so they should really just be left as the finished image.

It might be worthwhile going to Youtube and typing in "Elements 7." There are lots of vids there you can watch plus there's some good stuff on the Adobe site too or just type something like "Elements 7 tutorials" into Google or use the Help prompt in Elements.
 
I think that where you are going wrong is in the "process multiple files" step. Here is how to process multiple raw files in Elements.

http://www.photokaboom.com/photography/learn/photoshop_elements/batch_processing/1_batch_processing.htm#Raw

After you have done this you will see each .nef file will have a .xmp file associated wth it. The .xmp file is where all the changes you have done to the .nef file are kept. If you move the .nef file to a different place you must move its associated .xmp file as well or the changes will be lost.
 
Its not so hard Craig but it helps if you set up all your folders first and sort out your workflow so you know what your going to do next and where pics are going to be saved.

I would recommend creating a folder called "Raw file vault" and saving all your dated raw file folders in that.
Then treat your raw files like you would negatives in the old days, you can go back and work on them from scratch at any time then.

One aspect I noticed from what you said is the saving after raw processing.

You should process the images in camera raw, then choose select all at the top, then instead of hitting save, hit "open images".. this will open all those images in PSelements so you can crop, alter the size and work on them in there.. then save them into a separate folder that you keep for processed images.

In this post you will see first my explanation of my workflow, but if you scroll down I also show how I arrange my folders.. if you sort that part first and move all your current images into it, then adding new images will be a doddle and you'll always know where everything is.

Post on workflow etc here
 
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