CS2 and RAW-frustrations..!! (HELP NEEDED)

Hi,

Just purchased the CS2. Very excited.

I am extremely dissapointed though with the opening of my RAW-files in CS2. Even when I do not use the Auto-adjustments (I push Ctrl+U) my images appears much darker and more out of focus than when I open the RAW-files in Nikon Capture 4.2.1.

Do you think I have a wrong color profile or something like that?
(I have not changed anything after the installation!)

Also - when I convert the RAW-files to JPG in PS2 - even in highest possible quality - the images appear even darker and even more out focus!!!
Do you have an explanation?
I am really frustrated!

Thanks a lot for your comment!

BonoHugo
http://www.hougaardfamilien.dk

Try creating your own personal camera raw defaults for your D70. Open a typical D70 Raw image in Adobe Camera Raw 3 and press Ctrl+U to turn off auto settings. In White Balance set as Shot. Next adjust the Exposure and shadows sliders while holding the Alt key this will let you see where clipping is happening. If the image has some blowout Highlights or areas that have no light a little clipping is OK. Set the View to 100% and adjust the brightness contrast and saturation to your liking. Next click on the details tab and set the three sliders there to you liking. For this your first try leave the other tabs at there defaults. Not that this image is looking more like what you wand from camera Raw save these setting as your new Camera Raw defaults. You do this by clicking on the little triangle net to the setting pull-down. Clicking on this will cause the setting menu to pop-up. Once it does click on save an new Camera Raw defaults.

In the future if you find yourself making the same adjustments over and over to your images sane the as you new camera raw defaults.
--
JJMack

You can get pretty decent images with adobe camera raw on CS2, but it needs a lot of work on your part. There's a lot of fine tuning involved. I switched to rawshooter essentials because the workflow is much easier and the results I get are better than CS2.

FYI, see my comments below. This may explain your JPG output issues:

I have discovered a human factors engineering flaw in CR:

When saving a file, selecting JPEG and Maximum Quality generates a numerical number of 10. Any reasonable person would assume that "Maximum" would produce the highest quality output. It does not! Being somewhat anal retentive (a requirement for Engineers) I started plugging in different numbers. Any number greater than 12 generates an error dialog box and tells you that 12 is the highest number. This is poor human factors engineering on Adobe's part, as nothing tells you that 10 is not the highest number until you guess you should try higher. The only way I found this out was my curiosity was peaked when I noticed CR generated JPEG images had smaller file sizes than images saved as JPEG files from Viewer. Maximum should mean Maximum, per Webster's. Fortunately I have not developed too many images yet. I pity the poor person who spends several hours and/or days developing a project and then realizes they have a QC issue with the JPEG output.

I attempted to contact Adobe and inform them of this issue. I was given the run around for 45 minutes, at my long distance expense. I was eventually told the only way to tell them about a bug was to root around their website to find a bug report form, which requires me to spend even more time and effort trying to help them, or I could agree to authorize a credit card charge so I could pay for the privilege of telling them about their problem. When I asked to speak to a supervisor, I was told none were available and I would have to wait patiently for a call back in the next two days. If I were not available, the process would have to start from scratch.

I don't know about anyone else, but this is the last product we ever buy from Adobe.

Scott

Scott, this is not a bug. This numbering scheme is by design.

skennedys said:

When saving a file, selecting JPEG and Maximum Quality generates a
numerical number of 10. Any reasonable person would assume that
"Maximum" would produce the highest quality output. It does not!
Being somewhat anal retentive (a requirement for Engineers) I
started plugging in different numbers. Any number greater than 12
generates an error dialog box and tells you that 12 is the highest
number. This is poor human factors engineering on Adobe's part, as
nothing tells you that 10 is not the highest number until you guess
you should try higher. The only way I found this out was my
curiosity was peaked when I noticed CR generated JPEG images had
smaller file sizes than images saved as JPEG files from Viewer.
Maximum should mean Maximum, per Webster's. Fortunately I have not
developed too many images yet. I pity the poor person who spends
several hours and/or days developing a project and then realizes
they have a QC issue with the JPEG output.

Click to expand...

Folks should know that most people believe that the human eye cannot tell the difference between an image saved at JPEG 10 vs. JPEG 12 image all the way up to 11x14 prints, yet a JPEG 10 is way, way, way smaller than a JPEG 12. So, if you are just saving a file for viewing/printing and don't intend to make a giant print out of it and don't intend to edit it a whole bunch further (you really shouldn't be saving as any JPEG if you intend to edit further), then JPEG 10 might actually be your best option. Run your own experiment and see if you can tell the difference visually.

--John

"more out of focus" What the heck does this mean? ACR has absolutely nothing to do with focus.
--
Steve Bingham
http://www.dustylens.com

Steve Bingham said:

"more out of focus" What the heck does this mean? ACR has
absolutely nothing to do with focus.

Click to expand...

It could be that ACR's default sharpening is less than other converters.

--John

In "Preview Only" mode it does not do any sharpening. Check your preferences.

so what alternative is there for photoshop?
--
beam me up scotty

im giving it all shes got captain

Check where you are still running your original monitor profile, Adobe products have a bad habit of forcing Adobe Gamma over the top or your perferred profile and that will definitely cause some minor grief.

For the person asking about other convertors, there are many, some free, some expensive:-

Bibble, RSE 2005 (Corel site), BreezeBrowser, Capture One, probably other camera specific ones that I am not aware of.

--
my 2 exposed flashcubes worth.

Ian the pbase supporter.
http://pbase.com/ianm_au
An amateur with dreams of being a good to excellent photographer.