Raw processing

[Kolourl3lind]

I just have a few questions on processing canon raws.

1. I just learned that Adobe lightroom throws away all picture styles so that what I see on my LCD screeen is not what I get in lightroom. I saw the picture style correctiong thing, and I have set it to standard.  I wanted to know what else may be affecting my pictures.

2. Is there way to convert raw files to DNG while savingthe jpeg style information?

3. Metering. I keep reading about matrix metering. Is that the same as evaluative metering?

[ebiggs1]

The whole idea of RAW is the fact it captures exactly what the camera sees.  It does not process the image at all.

When you shoot RAW, the expectation is you 'want' to do the settings and manuplication.  It is simple to restore them in LR or PS, howerver.

JPG is distructive and loses a lot of the data.  That data is unrecoverable.  You simply threw it away.

If you want jpg's shoot jpg's but if you want the best possible results shoot RAW and decide yourself what the photo should look like.  It is more work but you need to decide if you want it.

Matrix metering is the same thing as evaulating metering.

[Kolourl3lind]

I am interested in having what i shoot on my lcd screen match what I get in lightroom. HOw do I do that besides shoot in just jpegs

[jrhoffman75]

Lightroom has profiles that try to emulate Picture Styles. They are all the way down the bottom of the right panel in the develop module.

[ebiggs1]

"HOw do I do that besides shoot in just jpegs"

If you want the shot to look like a jpg, why are you shooting RAW in the first place?  The whole concept of RAW is to make sure your shot does NOT look like a jpg!

RAW can be dumbed down to look like a jpg because you can do way more adjusting in it than you can in jpg.  But I can't understand why.

Just shoot jpg's from the get go. Jpg's are not bad and RAW is not for everybody.  You should always shoot your reuirements. Not something somebody somewhere else may have told you is better.

Shoot what works with the least amount of trouble.

[Kolourl3lind]

Forgive me I was under the impression that what I shot in the LCD screen was representation of what I was seeing through the view finder and my file whether it was jpeg or raw. Now that  I know this not the case. It make me rather sad, but what can you do?

I

[FloridaDrafter]

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@Kolourl3lind wrote:

Forgive me I was under the impression that what I shot in the LCD screen was representation of what I was seeing through the view finder and my file whether it was jpeg or raw. Now that  I know this not the case. It make me rather sad, but what can you do?

I

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@Kolourl3lind,

I've tried several different RAW editors and found them not to be what I expected, for the same reasons you stated. I use Didital Photo Professional, yes, the free version that comes with your camera. It doesn't change your RAW file, but it DOES bring in the settings you had in the camera for that particular shot, i.e., white balance, contrast, color saturation, etc., for the initial view when you first load the RAW files. I know a lot of photographers that depend on their RAW editors to "create" a final product. Personally, and this is just a preference, I like to leave a shoot with a useable product, as much as can be expected. Images don't always need improving or tweeking and I don't particularly like setting up a profile for all my cameras, although I did with a couple of RAW editors. I still found DPP to fill my needs.

If you like the way your images look on your LCD, you will love the way they look on your computer using Digital Photo Professional. Just make sure that DPP has the latest update, which is 3.14.15.0 for 32bit opperating system and 4.?? for 64 bit. The 64bit version only supports full frame cameras, at least that's the way it was the last time I checked.

The only problem I see for you using DPP, is that you want a PNG file (which for you that don'y know, uses lossless compression) and DPP will only export JPeG and TIFF. However, there are plenty of free or low cost image editors that will do the conversion from TIFF to PNG. For most uses, exporting from DPP, even commercial, a JPeG set to its "best" quality, will do the job. Excepting Hi Resolution printing, then I go with the RAW or TIFF to my printer.

I hope this helps,

-FD

[jrhoffman75]

I agree that DPP does a good job and may be all some folks need for minor tweaking, cropping, etc. I am assuming that if Kolourl3lind opens a JPEG in LR that he/she is happy with that look (i.e.it looks like the camera LCD) and when printed the print looks like the monitor. In other words there is no problem with monitor calibration or printer profiles.

However, if Kolourl3lind is comfortable using LR and wants to stick with it then go to the bottom right of the Develop Module:

By clicking on the Profile that says "Adobe Standard" a popup window opens and there are profiles called "Camera Standard", "Camera Landscape" and others with "Camera" prefix.

These are Adobe's attempt at emulating the in camera Picture Syles. They aren't perfectly exact but they are very close.

[Kolourl3lind]

I was just looking into DPP this morning. I didn't know I had it. All hear about LR and PS. I really just skipped over this program. To me, it doesn't matter what the format of the file is along as it's close to what I percieve I am taking a pictures of when I shoot through my view finder. I would like to know I have a good base to start working off when I make edits.

I am more in the camp of learning the photography and get it right at the time of the shoot. I have often walk home satisfied with my photos after viewing them on the LCD screen only to upload them in LR and scratch my head thinking this doesn't look like the picture I took.. I thought my screen must not be calibrated correctly.

Now that I know what's going on, it just make things easier. Just a large pot hole on the road of photography.

[FloridaDrafter]

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@Kolourl3lind wrote:

I was just looking into DPP this morning. I didn't know I had it. All hear about LR and PS. I really just skipped over this program. To me, it doesn't matter what the format of the file is along as it's close to what I percieve I am taking a pictures of when I shoot through my view finder. I would like to know I have a good base to start working off when I make edits.

I am more in the camp of learning the photography and get it right at the time of the shoot. I have often walk home satisfied with my photos after viewing them on the LCD screen only to upload them in LR and scratch my head thinking this doesn't look like the picture I took.. I thought my screen must not be calibrated correctly.

Now that I know what's going on, it just make things easier. Just a large pot hole on the road of photography.

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That's great. As I mentioned, make sure your version of DPP is current because they have added more functionality in the past months, for instance HDR using RAW, better compositing, better "preferences" control, just to name a few. No, it doesn't have some of the deep bells & whistles of LR, ACDSee, or AfterShot Pro2, or PSP-X6, but it is the right price and does a lot more than people think.
What I've done is when I catch myself making the same adjustment more than a few times, I make a custom picture style in my camera and apply that when I am shooting a similar situation. I may have a style where the color saturation is boosted a click or 2, or sharpness, or boosted brightness or contrast. Also, in DPP, after you have made some adjustments to an image, you can "right click" and copy those edits as a "Recipe". You can paste it to another image during that same session, or save it to a file and apply it in another editing session.

-FD