Stumblebunny: fastest route to RAW proficiency?

[Kriekira]

Not born yesterday, but new to photography. Not a snap-shooter. Just discovered PS CameraRAW (v. 5.0.0.178, part of CS4 trial) and Silkypix Developer Studio 3.0. Excited to finally be able to process image data.

Where to start?

My current list of resources, from top to bottom, is:
-- Adobe whitepaper on "Digital RAW": http://www.adobe.com/products/photos...rawcapture.pdf (PDF)
-- Adobe CS4 Help file chapter on "CameraRAW": http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Photosho...A2BC9514E.html
-- The "Cambridge in Colour" website tutorial on RAW file format: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tut...ile-format.htm
-- The Silkypix Help file (large, and seemingly complete and well-written)

I have, of course, lots of questions, some general, and some specific. The following will get me started, hopefully on the right foot:

• What is a good way to get up-to-speed?
• I have downloaded RAW samples from several cameras. I am using a borrowed Panasonic FZ-35. What is the best (free?) way to see/develop/use these image files? Silkypix works with the Panasonic -- will it work with the others? CS4's CameraRAW requires an upgrade for the Panasonic FZ-35, and the upgrade appears to be unavailable for the trial version I am using. Additionally, there is not yet an upgrade for the Canon Powershot G11, which I am considering purchasing.
• Is there a standard built-in batch converter from whatever the camera's RAW format is to JPEG? (I'm curious to see how the RAW software "standard" compares to what the camera does.)

Thanks!

[Chato]

Originally Posted by Kriekira

Not born yesterday, but new to photography. Not a snap-shooter. Just discovered PS CameraRAW (v. 5.0.0.178, part of CS4 trial) and Silkypix Developer Studio 3.0. Excited to finally be able to process image data.

Where to start?

My current list of resources, from top to bottom, is:
-- Adobe whitepaper on "Digital RAW": http://www.adobe.com/products/photos...rawcapture.pdf (PDF)
-- Adobe CS4 Help file chapter on "CameraRAW": http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Photosho...A2BC9514E.html
-- The "Cambridge in Colour" website tutorial on RAW file format: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tut...ile-format.htm
-- The Silkypix Help file (large, and seemingly complete and well-written)

I have, of course, lots of questions, some general, and some specific. The following will get me started, hopefully on the right foot:

• What is a good way to get up-to-speed?
• I have downloaded RAW samples from several cameras. I am using a borrowed Panasonic FZ-35. What is the best (free?) way to see/develop/use these image files? Silkypix works with the Panasonic -- will it work with the others? CS4's CameraRAW requires an upgrade for the Panasonic FZ-35, and the upgrade appears to be unavailable for the trial version I am using. Additionally, there is not yet an upgrade for the Canon Powershot G11, which I am considering purchasing.
• Is there a standard built-in batch converter from whatever the camera's RAW format is to JPEG? (I'm curious to see how the RAW software "standard" compares to what the camera does.)

Thanks!

While Photoshop in general has a moderate learning curce, the RAW converter is a fairly simple program. And you can use it now. Adobe has a completely free utility which converts RAW files to Adobes own version of RAW, ".DNG"

Simply go to the Adobe site and download the free DNG converter. DNG files will load into any version of PS from CS1 on up.

When you have loaded an image into the converter, just go through the various options - They are almost all self explanatory, and there is a preview mode so that you can see the resulting changes instantly.

Dave