You can batch convert them using the utilities that Canon included with your camera. There are numerous other image management apps that can handle this (e.g. Aperture, Lightroom, etc.) but Canon included software with your camera. I'll talk about one approach... then I'll caution you on why you might want to take an alterante approach.
Launch Canon's "Digital Photo Professional" (DPP). You'll inititially get a folder view (if not click the "Folder View" icon at the top). Navigate to the folder containing your RAW images. Select the images you'd like to convert (if on Windows you can click the first image to select it -- then shift-click the last image, and it will select the entire range OR you can ctrl+click each individual image (if you don't want the entire range.)
Having selected the images in the folder view mode, click the "Batch Process" icon along the top of the window (far right). This will open a new window with your options for batch processing.
You should see the list of file names in the left margin. In the panel on the right you can select the output file type you want (e.g. Exif-JPEG is the default I think... that's normal JPEG files and the conversion will not strip out the EXIF data (camera info and exposure settings, etc.) which is in the file.
Check the box that says "Resize" and enter the dimensions you'd like to use for the image. You may either (a) set the dimensions in pixels (preferred), or (b) set the dimensions in centimeters or inches BUT NOTE that just above there's a box that says "Output resolution" and has a value (e.g. 300 dpi) will be used. E.g. if you ask for a 2" x 3" image and the DPI box is set to 300 dpi, then it means you'll get a 600 pixels (2" x 300 dpi) by 900 pixels (3" x 300 dpi).
You'll notice you can also set your "save folder" and you can also have it rename them as it converts them.
Click the "Execute" button when you're ready and it will create JPEG thumbnails from your RAW images (the original RAWs are left alone.)
Straight-forward enough... but you might not want to do it that way.
The "problem" with just doing a straight batch conversion is that these were "RAW" files. RAW means the camera wont apply any changes that would result in the loss of original data. This means that the camera will not have applied any "white balance" adjustment, exposure adjustment, sharpening, noise-reduction, etc. etc. that would oridinally have done if you shot in JPEG.
This is why people who shoot RAW will often use software that specializes in RAW workflow (Adobe Lightroom is extremely popular and probably the most popular software for this.) Assuming all images were shot in the same light and using the same settings, you'd adjust the first image in Lightroom and then "sync" your changes to the rest of the images in the shoot. In addition to global adjustments (light white balance) you might want to do individual adjustments (e.g. use a retouch tool to clean up dust specs that might have been on the jewelry, etc.)
Once you are satisified with your adjustments, you can export the images as JPEGs (and you can do a whole batch of them at once.)
Using the Canon software, you can individually open, adjust, and save each image. But while Canon's DPP is powerful, it doesn't have the fast workflow of tools like Lightroom. It's a bit more tediuous because you open each image, adjust, and save... one at a time. With tools like Lightroom you can apply certain "global" types of changes to the entire shoot all at the same time -- and yet still put in individual tweaks unique to each image.
Tim Campbell
5D III, 5D IV, 60Da
