I just shot about 100 pictures in the RAW format on my new camera. I want to mess with them now in Photoshop CS2 . Can anyone explain how to use Photoshop's file processor to do this? Or, how to use Bridge in compliance with PS to get them into photoshop forediting? I have several books on Photoshop CS2, but none of them care to give steps to easily explain how to do this which is rather frustrating . Well, hopefully one of you guys can give me a hand here .

 

Super simple. Just force the computer to "Open" them with the Photoshop application. (You can select all 100 of them at once.....they open as a big list in Photoshop). Or you can launch Photoshop and choose "Open". But I don't know if you can select multiple files with this method.

Then, once Photoshop launches, you'll be taken to the cool new RAW image viewer (there's probably a more official name). This is where the fun begins. On the right hand side you can select from a variety of different lighting conditions (I usually just choose automatic, but it's fun to play with them). You can also choose the "Syncronize" button and all you photos will adjust to the same settings. For example they will all change from "As Shot" to "Automatic" or what ever.

I never shoot in anything but RAW now. It's much easier to fix photos that have incorrect exposures or the color isn't quite right. Especially since Apple has now made RAW native in the OS. You can just select them all, right click and choose "Slideshow" and view them as a slide show or as thumbnails. (sorry I'm a big Apple fan!)

Hope this helps!

 

Hey,

I appreciate the response. It does not seem to be quite that easy on a PC. When I try to just open one of the RAW files, I get a pop up message that says "Could not complete your request because it is not the right kind of document". Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

Your new camera should've had a CD included that contains the .RAW plugin.

Last month I bought a compact point and shoot that can shoot .RAW. Inside the box was a CD that had Photoshop Elements 3 plus a .RAW plugin. That plugin was the only way I could open up their files, despite already having another plugin I was using to open my Nikon's .NEF files.

Check your kit and look for the software then post back here if any success.


-Juan

 

Hey guys,

I actually just did a little search on google and ended up downloading Adobe's DNS conversion software or something. It worked! Now for some photoshop fun. The pictures did not turn out all that great though.

 

On the PC, use adobe bridge to sort through the photos. Bridge is my starting point once I've dumped the memory card to the PC. My PC has no idea what to do with the *.DCR files (unless you load the WinXP power tool raw file viewer for Canon & Nikon files; IMHO not worth the effort). You don't need a plugin; mac users initially have a different work flow for image editing. Look in your PS books about how to use adobe bridge (it's an easy and powerful tool once you get used to it, but there is a lot of features available that are not initially so intuitive). Use the slide show to sort and rate your images and discard the bad ones.

Adobe bridge shows all the images initially with auto correction applied to the thumbnails. I'm discovering that the thumbnails for a 7 stop bracketed series appears almost exactly the same. So initially if the images are not looking all that great, don't panic! Opening an image from bridge will automatically start PS and bring up ACR (adobe camera raw app). I do most of my photo setup in ACR which will give you the best results. It will take a while to figure out ACR though (at least it did for me ) and reading Bruce Fraser's book helped a lot. Your photos will look much better after you've applied adjustments on them in ACR and the thumbnail in bridge will get updated too once you've opened the image from ACR to PS.

You're starting on a new journey into a digital darkroom. It can sometimes be frustrating in the beginning, but you'll be rewarded with amazing photos if you persevere. I'm personally still learning new techniques for processing my images that surprise me in how easy it is to get what I'm wanting in my mind. I wish the same for you.

Cheers!

 

Hi there. I do the same thing that you do, speednut. I dump the photos into a file on my hard drive, open CS2 and then go to File/Browse. That automatically opens bridge so I can open the files in raw.

If anyone is interested in taking an online PS class, www.betterphoto.com and www.ppsop.com are two places I'm familiar with that have great online photography classes, including PS. I've only had my mini for a week, but i'm psyched to shoot pictures while i'm out in it.

 

Ok I only got to the second post before I died on the floor laughing, maybe its my old technology but open 100 RAW files at once on my laptop then come back in a week to see what you got. I'm same as other when using raw, put on the computer open one at a time in CS and I have the plugin canon gave me with the camera installed.

 

motor on, I think the mac users have quite a different initial workflow than PCs. I couldn't manage the RAW files on my PC without bridge. Yesterday I was able to load 160 compressed 14MP RAW files in bridge in <5 minutes to a fully loaded slideshow for image sorting. I'd still be working on it now if I did this inside PS.