exporting jpg's from RAW files in photoshop - questions

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will lattea
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exporting jpg's from RAW files in photoshop - questions

Post by will lattea »

Hi,

I recently upgraded to a newer canon rebel and ended up having to get photoshop in order to view the RAW files. They look great on the screen, but when I "save as jpg" the quality is just getting destroyed. Even photos that I didn't edit end up more dull in color and clarity.

Is there a way to convert my RAW files so that I can share them on flickr, here, etc. without losing quality? I chose max quality... am I missing something here? Should I choose a different format? I don't see much of a point in shooting in RAW if they only look good on my comp while they're open in photoshop...

thanks!!

-Will
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Kevin Price
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Re: exporting jpg's from RAW files in photoshop - questions

Post by Kevin Price »

Are you doing any adjustments to the RAW file? RAW files are stripped down bare bones images that have to be adjusted to look how you want them to. Even if shooting in RAW, the image displayed at the back of your camera is still a jpeg. The RAW image won't look like the jpeg at the time of shooting. You have to adjust for white balance, contrast, color, sharpness, exposure manually within Photoshop. Whatever settings you may have on your camera will not matter when shooting in RAW mode. RAW allows for a much larger lattitude of creativity and exposure adjustments, but it can be a steep learning curve initially. Only after you have made the adjustments you want, should you save it as a jpeg.

After a little practice you'll start to gain a flow with how you process your RAW images. For me, I use Lightroom, my RAW images will take between 1-2 minutes per shot to process, most less than that. From there you can use the jpeg you created for anything you want, such as flickr and this forum. You can't do that with just a RAW file.

Hope this helps.
will lattea
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Re: exporting jpg's from RAW files in photoshop - questions

Post by will lattea »

Thanks for the reply! I'm a little confused about your editing remark. Some I edit, and some I think already look good as soon as I open the RAW image file up in photoshop. I always shoot in RAW in case I want to post edit, but I tend to make a lot of manual adjustments in the field so I can end up with something I like without tons of post processing. Most of my keepers are those where I got the settings more or less right in the field.

So for those I'm satisfied with, I need photoshop to open the RAW file- even if I don't want to adust. All I do is click "save as copy jpeg" but side by side the two will be drastically different. It's not just the clarity/ compression issue, it looks like the white balance ends up all out of whack. Reds and greens in particular are just destroyed... both end up with an ugly brown tint. If I took a shot of a bright red piece of paper, and the RAW looked bright red when opened in photoshop, the jpeg copy would be pure brown. It's drastic enough that I'm wondering if I have some type of RGB pre-set checked that I'm not sure about... I've been shooting in RAW for a while (had an xti, moved up to a t2i... both .cr2 RAW files) and haven't had a problem this bad but I just got a new computer set up with the creative suite 5.5 and I hadn't used photoshop for about 10 years. Are you saying I have to "over/ under" adjust the RAW image (so it may look weird when displayed in photoshop) in order to compensate for the compression when converting to a jpeg? How can I make adjustments so that I can see what the jpeg will look like before I save as jpeg?

Thanks!!

w
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kit fox
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Re: exporting jpg's from RAW files in photoshop - questions

Post by kit fox »

It sounds like an issue during the conversion. I would edit in Adobe Camera Raw, then save as a JPEG in Photoshop, not in Camera Raw.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/editing-ra ... amera-raw/
bgorum
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Re: exporting jpg's from RAW files in photoshop - questions

Post by bgorum »

It may be a color space issue. If you have the color space set to AdobeRGB in photoshop and save the jpegs with that profile, then open them a browser that only supports sRGB, or is not color managed at all your results will not look right. I always convert to sRGB for images that will be displayed on the web. Other people suggest not imbedding any color profile at all for web images. A lot depends on which web browser you use, wether your on a Mac or a PC, etc.
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Kevin Price
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Re: exporting jpg's from RAW files in photoshop - questions

Post by Kevin Price »

This may help, or confuse the issue more. I'll use a recent image from last week as an example. If I save a RAW image as a JPEG without any edits at all it looks like this: pretty damn flat and boring.

Image

But after adjusting for white balance, exposure, color, sharpness, setting black and white points, and so on..., then save that as a JPEG the same image looks like this:

Image

bgorum is correct about always converting your images to sRGB, and once done in Photoshop you should not have to change it each time; it becomes the default setting. The RAW image is just that, RAW. It needs defining and tweaking everytime to look good in the end. Make your edits in ACR and then save in Photoshop. I am unsure on what kind of adjustments you are making in the field since the camera does not retain any of those settings on a RAW image. Your adjustments will show on your LCD, but that is a JPEG and not the RAW file you will download to ACR.

I hope I'm not misinterpreting your question, if I am I apologize.
gabrielgartner
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Re: exporting jpg's from RAW files in photoshop - questions

Post by gabrielgartner »

Color space is a completely separate issue from from RAW vs. JPG. You can set your camera to shoot in any color space you want. For instance, my nikon can be set for AdobeRGB, or sRGB, or if you import into lightroom, ProPhotoRGB. Nearly all web images need to be converted to sRGB because the wider gamut of AdobeRGB does not reproduce well on computer monitors (but can be reproduced by very high quality inkjet printers).

My guess--though this is possibly incorrect is that you are not converting to sRGB when opening your photos in photoshop. Do this:

1) open PS and go to EDIT->color settings
2) Under Working Spaces, set your RGB to sRGB
3) make sure to check the box labeled "profile mismatch"
4) Open one of your photos. If the native profile (from your camera) is sRGB, you will receive no warning when opening this photo, but if it's different, photoshop will ask you what you want to do. If there's no profile, you will ASSIGN it the working profile and if there's a mismatch, you will CONVERT to the working profile.

Finally, it's worth noting that sRGB is best if viewing things on a monitor, but has a narrower color gamut then the other two mentioned profiles. One solution is to work in Adobe or ProPhoto and then use the "Save for Web and Devices" option under the File dropdown menu (you may have to reduce the resolution first to 72 dpi or so under the IMAGE SIZE option in the IMAGE dropdown menu). Once there, you should see a "Convert to sRGB" box to the right of your image, click it. Usually if you toggle back and forth on this box, you can see a drastic difference. You can also save your photo to a reasonable output size for web viewing (or sending emails etc.)--usually between 150-200K.

Here's a good website that should get you in the right direction

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutori ... ement1.htm


Cheers,
Gabriel
gabrielgartner
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Re: exporting jpg's from RAW files in photoshop - questions

Post by gabrielgartner »

will lattea wrote:Thanks for the reply! I'm a little confused about your editing remark. Some I edit, and some I think already look good as soon as I open the RAW image file up in photoshop. I always shoot in RAW in case I want to post edit, but I tend to make a lot of manual adjustments in the field so I can end up with something I like without tons of post processing. Most of my keepers are those where I got the settings more or less right in the field.

So for those I'm satisfied with, I need photoshop to open the RAW file- even if I don't want to adust. All I do is click "save as copy jpeg" but side by side the two will be drastically different. It's not just the clarity/ compression issue, it looks like the white balance ends up all out of whack. Reds and greens in particular are just destroyed... both end up with an ugly brown tint. If I took a shot of a bright red piece of paper, and the RAW looked bright red when opened in photoshop, the jpeg copy would be pure brown. It's drastic enough that I'm wondering if I have some type of RGB pre-set checked that I'm not sure about... I've been shooting in RAW for a while (had an xti, moved up to a t2i... both .cr2 RAW files) and haven't had a problem this bad but I just got a new computer set up with the creative suite 5.5 and I hadn't used photoshop for about 10 years. Are you saying I have to "over/ under" adjust the RAW image (so it may look weird when displayed in photoshop) in order to compensate for the compression when converting to a jpeg? How can I make adjustments so that I can see what the jpeg will look like before I save as jpeg?

Thanks!!

w

I should have added that when viewing the raw photo in Adobe Camera Raw, do not use the "save as jpeg" option. If you're satisfied with the photo, just click done or open (whichever one opens the photo for you in photoshop). Then proceed with the steps I mentioned below!
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