I did my first RAW Images today with a little success

[grandpawrichard]

Hey guys and gals,
I finally broke down and tried using Straight RAW on one of my cameras today (40D with a Canon 18-55 IS lens). I think they came out pretty decent, but I would love some pointers if you have them.

I took about 150 photos, so it took me Forever to edit them all, save them as Tif files and Jpg files.(I'm also saving the Raw images to a CD. )

I hope you don't mind wading through these photos. These are some of my favorite out of all the photos I took.

The first group is of a sap that comes out of our Bing Cherry Trees. I thought that it was unique and an interesting subject:







I also found this little gem as I worked my way around the tree: (I hope you can see the spiderweb)



These are of my wife's little miniature Tom Thumb Tea Rose that she planted outside:







This is a Rose Hip that is on her Rose of Sharon bush:



Here is a baby Sunflower:



Some Fuchias that are budding out all over the place:





and last, but not least some Orange Trumpeter Vine flowers that should have been long gone by now:





I'm anxious to read what you think about my first attempt with Raw Imaging Photos.

Dick

[bowsandhose]

cool pics

[boneaddict]

I really like how you caught the light in the sap, especially the second one.  Very neat subject indeed.  You are going to make me run out to my orchard.  How do you like that lens.  I need to find one in that range.

[grandpawrichard]

I really like how you caught the light in the sap, especially the second one.  Very neat subject indeed.  You are going to make me run out to my orchard.  How do you like that lens.  I need to find one in that range.

Thanks Bone,
The Canon 18-55 IS lens is a really nice little lens, but I have just had it One whole day now.  I did notice that it has a tendency to be just a little soft on the focus, but it isn't anything that you can't fix as you edit. I wish I could have been able to afford a little faster lens than I got (3.5-5.6), but I had to battle with my wife over the cost. I do love the IS though! It's wonderful to hand hold at super slow shutter speeds!

Dick

[popeshawnpaul]

Good stuff richard.  Raw helps me do a few things.  It helps to fix light and dark photos much better than you can with jpgs.  It also helps me because you can change the white balance, contrast, and colors so much better in your raw converter like DPP or Adobe much easier than can be done with a jpg.  You can also change settings like the in camera sharpening to different values after the fact. 

[grandpawrichard]

Thanks Shawn! I would love to sit down with you someday and have you teach me a little of the stuff you have learned. I bet I would be a much better photographer.

My old Adobe PS won't do RAW, so I'm stuck with the Zoom Browser, Gimp, Picasa and Infraview. My budget won't allow me to buy the newest photoshop.

Dick

[popeshawnpaul]

You don't need the newest photoshop.  Any photoshop will work on Tiff images.  Use Canon Digital Photo Pro or DPP to fix your raw images and then save them as a Tiff.  You can then fine tune the image in photoshop for stuff that DPP can't do. 

I'm always willing to go shooting...