Shooting in RAW (was old digital cameras)

Hi John, well at least you are on your way with it. To be fair you won't see much difference looking on the screen on the camera because what you see there is a JPEG. the difference comes when you start to process the RAW file on the computer.

If you have a look at the current issue of Digital Photo they have done an excellent introduction to using RAW and also an accompanying DVD which is well worth looking at if you want to understand it a bit more. As with most things it looks far worse than it is. best got on with some work now and catch you later....

 DIGITAL PHOTO  ISSUE 171       girl in a boat on the cover.....

Before going to the expense of Elememt 11 which is around £70 i think try downloading FASTSTONE it is a programme that can read most RAW files and gives similar options to Elements but maybe not quite as sophistcated......... and it is FREE ! ! !

www.faststone.org/FSViewer  or just type FASTSTONE in Google and choose the FSViewer download.

The RAW file size is so big simply because of the amount of information gathered  as oppossed to the 'in camera processed' jpeg. When you have done basic adjustments to your RAW file you then save it as a jpeg which automatically reduces the sizeof the file. BUT you have far more detail in that jpeg that would be in the 'in camera' processed one. As has been said before John, always think of your RAW file as the negative you used to put in your enlarger. It always stays the same and you can make as many different versionsof the image as you like. Hope that makes sense. But also you should have a CD or DVD with your camera which somewhere will have the camera manufactures own RAW converter mayb worth looking for that, cos that will open your RAW files for certain. Most adjustments in RAW editors are simple sliders, although ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) which comes with Elements does have other options aswell, but the majority work on sliders so you can see the effect and adjust it accordingly to your own taste before saving to jpeg. A difficult subject to explain quickly but i hope you understand a bit more now. Any further questions please ask

Just checked the Faststone site John and it does support Panasonic RAW files in the format ' RW2 ' that is the 3 digits that follow whatever record your camera gives you  ie..    image 1234.RW2     as opposed to a jpeg which would be     image 1234.jpg   

Panasonics own programme   Silkypix Developer Studio    should be on the disc you would have got with the camera. If you can't find that try looking at the panasonic site at the following link 

    http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/silkypix

somewhere on the site there should be an option to download the Silkypix programme

Just think how you learned to ride a bike ..... that was daunting at first with someone holding the saddle for you, but with a bit of perseverance you were away on your own........ Getting to grips with RAW is a bit like that....... once you've got the basics you will never look back. 

I was very wary before I started using RAW cos it seemed so complicated but now I shoot 95% in RAW. 

That's good news John. Keep on playing, because the diferences you can get are amazing. I'm not 100% up on the workings of Faststone as I tend to use it mainly as a viewer but occasioanlly have a dabble in colour or contrast just to get an idea before going intp Photoshop. But the programme does get very good reports, knocking 5 star ratings on the download sites....... so must be OK. One of the most useful tabs is 'CURVES' it is quite a powerful little thing and can give superb contrast changes.

But keep on thinking that the RAW file is your negative and that you want to get the best out of it that you can. I don't think I ever printed a negative without some ducking and diving somewhere.....

Above all have fun with it

No problem mate will have look before starting work in the morning and get back to you. To upload to poe you will have to save pics as jpeg. Am on my phone now. Did you use Faststone?

You might to try this one John, it is Panasonics own programme of which a version should have been on the cd that came with the camera.....if one did!!!

It should be a free download but you may have to register.

http://www.isl.co.jp/SILKYPIX/englis...port/download/

It will be a lot more sophisticated than FASTSTONE and thus give you for more control over the final result