I have been watching a course on Lynda.com about Camera Raw for Photoshop CS6. You can subscribe to the website on a monthly basis. I have access through my work but I have to tell you, I love Lynda.com! There are so many training videos, and they also have free ones but it only gives you a few free ones from each course. there is so much to learn about Camera Raw and I think these videos are very educating!
When you shoot in RAW you need a convertor or when you open the files your photoshop or whatever you use will just convert them to jpeg anyway. Look up 'camera raw' you need one of those : ) Let us know how you get on with that, I can always do some screen shots for you tomorrow if you need it : )
My camera has the option to shoot Raw DNG files so they are able to be opened in Camera Raw. Also I think the newer versions of PS starting at CS5 will open the PEF files which are what Pentax's version of RAW is. I have CS4 at home and can't open the PEF files but can open the DNG (digital negative) files.
RAW is not a photo, just a data file that contains much more information about an image, as compared to a jpg formatted document. Another way to look at it is that RAW is "lossless", meaning it retains ALL of the information the camera saw, versus a jpg, which is "lossy" meaning much of the info is stripped away in order to make the file size (in mB) smaller. That's why you need a "converter", or a way to see the RAW data file. But the beauty of doing that is that you will always retain all of the original data even after making all of the changes you want to it. Programs like Aperture, and Lightroom have RAW adapters already built in, and programs like Photoshop elements just need another program to allow it to see RAW files. Does that help?
Well, I have PS CS5 at work and CS4 at home. My PEF files were able to be opened with Camera Raw at work but not at home. So when I realized this (I had taken my nephew's graduation photos all in PEF files and thought I couldn't open them after the fact), I took the files to work and they opened for me in Camera RAW for CS5. I converted them all to DNG files at work so I was able to open them at home with CS4. So, I realized that if I would have had CS5 at home then there wouldn't have been an issue. So since then, I set my camera to shoot DNG files as it is an option on my camera. So I don't have any trouble. If you have CS5, I would think if you shot your images in the RAW file format then you should be able to open them with CS5 Camera Raw which will then open in PS CS5; they are connected in the software along with Bridge which I use as well for viewing my photos off of my SD card..
Your camera should have come with software to allow you to open RAW files! If you have CS5 Just open your files with the "open as" and scroll to "camera raw"! Easy as pie! You can do a lot of your processing in camera raw before you transfer your files. That way you don't loos any info before you do any editing!
@michelleyoung@emsabh is 100% right.
And learn to shoot in RAW since you can do so much more with it afterwards. Shoot in jpeg when you just don't care. Also get in the mode of using M (manual) mode on the camera. You make the decisions not the camera - just saying. OK off my soapbox.
Camera Raw is built into Photoshop, so you already have it. By default, if you open a RAW (NEF) file in photoshop, it will first open up the file in Camera Raw. This is just a pop up window in photoshop that you make some adjustments before continuing in photoshop.
Too much to cover here, but I'd recommend books/videos by Scott Kelby on the subject. Basically play with the sliders to adjust temperature, contrast, exposure and so on.
If you look on the right, you'll see some icons. Click on the one that looks like a camera (Camera Calibration). There is a drop down list of camera profiles. Select one you like (it will affect the saturation and contrast of the image). Then in the panel menu (little arrow to the right of the title "Camera Calibration") select Save New Camera Raw Defaults, and then Camera Raw will apply that profile to all your images.
You don't have to do that, but it will give you something closer to the JPG you are used to working with, since the camera boosts sharpness, contrast, saturation when creating the JPG, and the RAW file can look a bit "flat" until you make some adjustments. Applying a camera profile will probably mean you have to do fewer adjustments to each new image.
Anything you do in Camera Raw will be saved/remembered in your RAW file. So if you open it on up in Photoshop, start to edit, then cancel, you'll still have the raw adjustments you did (contrast, saturation and so forth) even though you will have thrown away other photoshop adjustments.
Once you make changes in photoshop, you'll either save as a PSD or JPG
@orangecrush Thank you so much for the "open as" tip. For a long time I thought my ancient version of Photoshop simply couldn't handle RAW files at all. This morning thanks to reading this thread, I discovered that it does have the capability after all. I never thought to try "open as" before, just assumed that "open" would either automatically convert RAW fles if it could handle them, or leave it if not. Great to realize that it does after all!
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@lorraineb OK I will look into it tomorrow, thank you x
Thank you so much.
I have CS5, so would i need to get a converter for that?
Sorry to ask so mny questions.. I am just off to bed, so I will catch up with this in the morning. Thank you for your tme. x
And learn to shoot in RAW since you can do so much more with it afterwards. Shoot in jpeg when you just don't care. Also get in the mode of using M (manual) mode on the camera. You make the decisions not the camera - just saying. OK off my soapbox.
Too much to cover here, but I'd recommend books/videos by Scott Kelby on the subject. Basically play with the sliders to adjust temperature, contrast, exposure and so on.
If you look on the right, you'll see some icons. Click on the one that looks like a camera (Camera Calibration). There is a drop down list of camera profiles. Select one you like (it will affect the saturation and contrast of the image). Then in the panel menu (little arrow to the right of the title "Camera Calibration") select Save New Camera Raw Defaults, and then Camera Raw will apply that profile to all your images.
You don't have to do that, but it will give you something closer to the JPG you are used to working with, since the camera boosts sharpness, contrast, saturation when creating the JPG, and the RAW file can look a bit "flat" until you make some adjustments. Applying a camera profile will probably mean you have to do fewer adjustments to each new image.
Anything you do in Camera Raw will be saved/remembered in your RAW file. So if you open it on up in Photoshop, start to edit, then cancel, you'll still have the raw adjustments you did (contrast, saturation and so forth) even though you will have thrown away other photoshop adjustments.
Once you make changes in photoshop, you'll either save as a PSD or JPG