One more duh-uh question

[MiniChris]

How many of you experienced PS users work as much in PS as you do in RAW - and, for that matter, how many do90% of their work strictly in RAW editing?

[whited3]

80% ACR, 20% CS5.

In ACR I do colour, exposure, distortion correction and sharpening.
In CS5 I do levels, crop and straighten, BW conversion when required.

But then I'm not an experienced PS user and am still learning the product.

[Colin Southern]

In ACR I batch white balance - exposure - black clipping point - fill light - brightness - vibrance & saturation. Initial crop & leveling.

In Photoshop I do sharpening - fine tune the crop - artifact removal - detailed editing (mostly for portrature) - fine tuning of levels etc.

ACR is very powerful, but it's a different tool from Photoshop; generally the rule is "anything you can do in ACR you SHOULD do in ACR" (because ACR tailors the conversion (in 1 pass) whilst the image is still in linear gamma, which is far less destructive than doing it in Photoshop later on) - the exception to that rule that I work by though is sharpening; it won't do a sufficiently low radius to satisfy Canon's recommendation for capture sharpening, and it would introduce content/creative & output sharpening at the wrong part of the workflow.

So when I'm processing 400 to 600 images for the client to make initil selects from then ACR is ALL I use (mostly just levels and crop) then batch to low res JPEG. For print shots and/or web shots then after ACR it's always into Photoshop.

Basically, ACR's strength lies in (mostly) global adjustments (especially to many images at once) whereas Photoshop is for more detailed local manipulations.

[Dave Humphries]

I do what Colin does - hardly a surprise, since he's pretty much taught me everything I know about digital PP

Just I don't batch process (no real need)

[MiniChris]

At 3:00 am this morning, I kind of came to the same conclusion as Dave in regard to batch work as I rarely shoot the smae thing at the same settings at the same time in the same manner as would a studio photographer. This morning, I worked with doing everything in ACR while in bridge and am now seeing if I have better control working in RAW but in the PS environment.
I am probably trying to learn way more than I need at any one sitting, but so far, it has been lot of fun...though frustrating at times and I find the book I am working with has TMI in areas I don't need - yet. So far, though, between this forum, the books I have and sitting in front of the monitor and playing, I am getting there.

[carregwen]

About 70% ACR and 30% CS5. People comment a lot on my shots saying they have great clarity, tone, and colour, and that 'stand-out' quality. It mostly comes from my ACR processing. Anyone who doesn't shoot RAW and process heavily in RAW is setting themselves a really difficult task in trying to produced high-quality images.

Do as much as you can in RAW processing. (You can pin that up on the front of your fridge!)

[MiniChris]

I pinned it up above my computer monitor instead...if I go to the fridge, I get pudgy. But, good advice wherever I read it.

[Dave Humphries]

..if I go to the fridge, I get pudgy.

Oh, so that's what causes it

[Geoff F]

Working with Raw conversion before finishing in the main editing programme is the same for most editing software not just Photoshop.

For me, trying to calculate a percentage would be impossible due to the varied nature of my photos. If it is a fairly basic image which has been well exposed etc at the time of capture then most of the work is done during Raw conversion.

But some images require quite a lot of tweaking with layers, masks etc. Selective sharpening and local adjustment of brightness, contrast and colour, etc, for example; in which case at least half of the editing would have to be done after Conversion.

[whited3]

I found this tute to be helpful in setting a basic work flow.

http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/ACR...oBridge_SM.mov

[brabason]

I use Lightroom for RAW conversion and most editing, occasionally linking to my old CS2. 100% Lightroom and about 1% also in CS2.

[arith]

I always do RAW, in fact have never done anything else with a dslr, but, I only do colour temperature in ACR, nothing else. I use Topaz DeNoise and Topaz Detail to do the bulk of the 16 bit work, then Helicon Filter for distortion, cropping, cloning since it is easier to use than PSE and 16 bit, finishing off in PSE for border, layers, ect.

I like the Richardson Lucy Deconvolution of Topaz and Mitchell interpolation in Helicon Filter.

[LenG]

80% ACR, 20% CS5.

ummm....what is ACR? -_-

[Colin Southern]

ummm....what is ACR? -_-

Hi Len,

Adobe Camera RAW. THe RAW converter from Adobe that ships with Any version of Photoshop CS, PSE, or LR (Photoshop Creative Suite, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom).

[LenG]

doh >.< I have CS5 but I'm still learning much of how to do digital post processing and such. I think I do about 50-50. Check shoot modes, detail, recovery, etc in ACR then the rest like sharpen, reduce noise etc in CS5.

[Peter Ryan]

doh >.< I have CS5 but I'm still learning much of how to do digital post processing and such. I think I do about 50-50. Check shoot modes, detail, recovery, etc in ACR then the rest like sharpen, reduce noise etc in CS5.

Hi Len,

Do yourself a favour and get hold of Scott Kelby's book on CS5. Simple to read, well structured and very, very useful.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Len,

Do yourself a favour and get hold of Scott Kelby's book on CS5. Simple to read, well structured and very, very useful.

And if RAW is your thing, pick up a copy of Real World Camera RAW with Adobe Photoshop CS5 by Fraser and Schewe.

[mnphotos]

I'm seeing the acronym CS5 thrown around. Just what is it? I'm new at this type of software and don't know what most of these acronyms are yet. Thanks for understanding.

Ed

[Dave Humphries]

I'm seeing the acronym CS5 thrown around. Just what is it? I'm new at this type of software and don't know what most of these acronyms are yet. Thanks for understanding.

Ed

Hi Ed,

It is the industry (and advanced hobby) standard photo editing program.

Best Adobe tell you;
http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/pho...atisphotoshop/

[mnphotos]

Thanks Dave. It's best I didn't know what it was anyway since I won't be able to afford that software in this lifetime.

Ed