DIVU and MRAW Question-And I DID RTFM!

normank said:

I really like the idea of RAW photos; it's one of the features that
attracted me to the D7 in the first place. The idea is elegant in
its simplicity: simply bring the entire scene back to your computer
and work at your leisure. Even given the slow processing I'd like
to try using them, at least sometimes. HOWEVER, I can't for the
life of me figure out how you're supposed to do this.

What I'm doing now is as follows: open the MRAW file in DIVU (don't
set the Color Adjustment flag). Then I adjust the WB, Contrast,
Color, etc. to suit my liking in the Preview. I then continue to
Open the file, saving the new slider settings in the header. My
understanding is that if I then SAVE this RAW file as a JPEG then
the new header info will be applied and saved so that the JPEG will
reflect my adjustments. But when I then print this saved JPEG it
looks just like one that was saved and printed with NO header
adjustment. Am I simply unable to distinguish basic changes to the
image or is my procedure lacking?

Can someone (anyone) who regularly (or even irregularly) uses RAW
files to make post-snapping adjustments let me in on the secret
procedure?

Thanks in advance for any info.

=NLK=

Click to expand...

henri said:

henri56123 said:

I really like the idea of RAW photos; it's one of the features that
attracted me to the D7 in the first place. The idea is elegant in
its simplicity: simply bring the entire scene back to your computer
and work at your leisure. Even given the slow processing I'd like
to try using them, at least sometimes. HOWEVER, I can't for the
life of me figure out how you're supposed to do this.

What I'm doing now is as follows: open the MRAW file in DIVU (don't
set the Color Adjustment flag). Then I adjust the WB, Contrast,
Color, etc. to suit my liking in the Preview. I then continue to
Open the file, saving the new slider settings in the header. My
understanding is that if I then SAVE this RAW file as a JPEG then
the new header info will be applied and saved so that the JPEG will
reflect my adjustments. But when I then print this saved JPEG it
looks just like one that was saved and printed with NO header
adjustment. Am I simply unable to distinguish basic changes to the
image or is my procedure lacking?

Can someone (anyone) who regularly (or even irregularly) uses RAW
files to make post-snapping adjustments let me in on the secret
procedure?

Thanks in advance for any info.

=NLK=

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

normank said:

Henri:

The reason I like to shoot RAW is to "stop time"; i.e. to not have
to worry too much about WB, Contrast and Saturation at the time of
shooting but to be able to adjust them at my leisure in front of
the computer.

However, you do make a good point: there's nothing to be lost
(except for a bit of time), once having shot RAW, by saving in TIFF
for printing.

Thanks for taking the time to post and help me out.

Click to expand...

normank said:

=NLK=

henri said:

normank said:

I really like the idea of RAW photos; it's one of the features that
attracted me to the D7 in the first place. The idea is elegant in
its simplicity: simply bring the entire scene back to your computer
and work at your leisure. Even given the slow processing I'd like
to try using them, at least sometimes. HOWEVER, I can't for the
life of me figure out how you're supposed to do this.

What I'm doing now is as follows: open the MRAW file in DIVU (don't
set the Color Adjustment flag). Then I adjust the WB, Contrast,
Color, etc. to suit my liking in the Preview. I then continue to
Open the file, saving the new slider settings in the header. My
understanding is that if I then SAVE this RAW file as a JPEG then
the new header info will be applied and saved so that the JPEG will
reflect my adjustments. But when I then print this saved JPEG it
looks just like one that was saved and printed with NO header
adjustment. Am I simply unable to distinguish basic changes to the
image or is my procedure lacking?

Can someone (anyone) who regularly (or even irregularly) uses RAW
files to make post-snapping adjustments let me in on the secret
procedure?

Thanks in advance for any info.

=NLK=

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

normank said:

The reason I like to shoot RAW is to "stop time"; i.e. to not have
to worry too much about WB, Contrast and Saturation at the time of
shooting but to be able to adjust them at my leisure in front of
the computer.

Click to expand...

Zvone said:

Zvone

normank said:

The reason I like to shoot RAW is to "stop time"; i.e. to not have
to worry too much about WB, Contrast and Saturation at the time of
shooting but to be able to adjust them at my leisure in front of
the computer.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Zvone said:

Generally yes, you can adjust WB, color and saturation with
Photoshop or other program, but, if the settinngs you want are lot
different from those you had at the shot time, you can't correct
them to reach the same details (mostly the color relations) as you
set the camera settings to desirous picture WB and other. There is
no matter if you save as RAW or JPG format, you can also leave
original JPEG unchanged to play with it as RAW. Now, D7 makes
better pics as my old Agfa, where out-of-exposures weren't so
correctabe as D7 pics and the difference is probably less visible.
The big difference will you find if you shot an underlight or
undersaturated picture and try to adjust saturation and colors.
And, you will have a trouble to set right natural colors (not WB)
with computer if you set different WB.
Now, its up to you, what do you want. I found that for my amateur
work, for most of shots, I don't need so good pics to worry about
setings at shot time and am saving mostly in JPEG, because
sometimes had to spend too much time to bring the RAW thru DIVU
than save and open JPEG.

Am I talking about right theme at all?

Zvone

Click to expand...

normank said:

But with RAW (unlike JPEG) you can use the DIVU to actually adjust
the WB, Color and Contrast as if you were taking the picture at
that very moment. At least that's how it works with Canon's RAW so
I presume the same is true of Minolta.

I have found, however, that the RAW files are huge and take forever
to process on my 500MHZ PIII, so I may just stick with Fine
quality. In that case I'll have to be careful about the camera
adjustments when the picture is taken.

=NLK=

Zvone said:

Generally yes, you can adjust WB, color and saturation with
Photoshop or other program, but, if the settinngs you want are lot
different from those you had at the shot time, you can't correct
them to reach the same details (mostly the color relations) as you
set the camera settings to desirous picture WB and other. There is
no matter if you save as RAW or JPG format, you can also leave
original JPEG unchanged to play with it as RAW. Now, D7 makes
better pics as my old Agfa, where out-of-exposures weren't so
correctabe as D7 pics and the difference is probably less visible.
The big difference will you find if you shot an underlight or
undersaturated picture and try to adjust saturation and colors.
And, you will have a trouble to set right natural colors (not WB)
with computer if you set different WB.
Now, its up to you, what do you want. I found that for my amateur
work, for most of shots, I don't need so good pics to worry about
setings at shot time and am saving mostly in JPEG, because
sometimes had to spend too much time to bring the RAW thru DIVU
than save and open JPEG.

Am I talking about right theme at all?

Zvone

Click to expand...

Click to expand...