MAC RAW v DPP RAW

couscous007

I have tried everything and now seek advice and help.

I have a Macbook Pro - Photoshop CS5 and both are amazing.
Use a Canon 50D, shoot in RAW, when I upload my photos I always have to convert the files via DPP to either 8 or 16 Bit TIF/JPEG files before I can open them in any capacity. This has become very frustrating.

Been to PC world/Currys and local computer person, tried the different RAW settings on the camera but still no joy.

Can anyone please advise on how to solve this so I can open RAW files with the default converter on the MAC.

Many thanks

TinyExplosions

you'll need the Adobe Photoshop RAW plugin, as PS isn't designed to work with RAW out the box -most people go from Camera -> Lightroom/Aperture -> Photoshop

enda1

couscous007 wrote: »

I have tried everything and now seek advice and help.

I have a Macbook Pro - Photoshop CS5 and both are amazing.
Use a Canon 50D, shoot in RAW, when I upload my photos I always have to convert the files via DPP to either 8 or 16 Bit TIF/JPEG files before I can open them in any capacity. This has become very frustrating.

Been to PC world/Currys and local computer person, tried the different RAW settings on the camera but still no joy.

Can anyone please advise on how to solve this so I can open RAW files with the default converter on the MAC.

Many thanks

The line in bold I don't really get...

Firstly to answer your question, the plugin as mentioned above is probably your best bet.

Be very careful with RAW files though. Make sure to always convert them to JPEG before you move on too far in time. RAW as a concept is not a stable file format as it is not in any way universal. It is possible (and quite likely) that in the future you will not be able to find a software which can interpret your raw files.

Also software based raw conversion is far slower than the on camera method.
Only really to be used for low quantity studio portraiture/"art" focused photographers. (completely my own opinion of course).

TinyExplosions

enda1 wrote: »

Be very careful with RAW files though. Make sure to always convert them to JPEG before you move on too far in time. RAW as a concept is not a stable file format as it is not in any way universal. It is possible (and quite likely) that in the future you will not be able to find a software which can interpret your raw files.

Also software based raw conversion is far slower than the on camera method.
Only really to be used for low quantity studio portraiture/"art" focused photographers. (completely my own opinion of course).

Hmmm.... without want to start a massive RAW debate, there's a couple of points that are a little ambiguous above.

Yes, most manufacturers RAW formats are not entirely stable, but I find it very unlikely that Nikon (or Canon etc) will remove backwards compatibility going forward, as I can't see it changing a huge amount. If that is a worry for you, there is always the opportunity to convert to DNG, which is an ISO standardized version of RAW, and as such is about as safe as any file type can be. Also the increase in cameras shooting RAW means that there's a large base of people who will want to keep any backwards compatibility, so it's not in the manufacturers interests to change it in any massive way.

As for the conversion being slower in software and only good for low quantity portraiture/art etc, well that's just another massive jpeg vs raw debate waiting to happen, so I won't even go there!

TinyExplosions

Also, if you shoot JPEG, there's not 'in-camera' RAW conversion going on. The Camera will save the sensor information as either RAW or JPEG (or both), but does not capture all images in RAW and do a conversion in camera

enda1

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Also, if you shoot JPEG, there's not 'in-camera' RAW conversion going on. The Camera will save the sensor information as either RAW or JPEG (or both), but does not capture all images in RAW and do a conversion in camera

Yeah there is!

RAW is the data as picked up by each pixel on the sensor. Then the camera adds meta data.

To have JPEG on-board, the camera will then add any other stuff you've pre-set such as white balance, B&W etc before/while converting to JPEG.
I'm not saying that the RAW is saved to your flash card and then converted, but that RAW data is what there is in either case before JPEG.

TinyExplosions

enda1 wrote: »

Yeah there is!

RAW is the data as picked up by each pixel on the sensor. Then the camera adds meta data.

To have JPEG on-board, the camera will then add any other stuff you've pre-set such as white balance, B&W etc before/while converting to JPEG.
I'm not saying that the RAW is saved to your flash card and then converted, but that RAW data is what there is in either case before JPEG.

Nope, not exactly... most image sensors use a Bayer Filter Mosaic or a beam splitter to create a full array of RGB image data. This is then converted in firmware to either a RAW file, or a JPEG (or both depending on camera settings). It would be very wasteful in terms of processing to take the full array of data, convert once to RAW and convert again to JPEG, so they don't do it!

enda1

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Nope, not exactly... most image sensors use a Bayer Filter Mosaic or a beam splitter to create a full array of RGB image data. This is then converted in firmware to either a RAW file, or a JPEG (or both depending on camera settings). It would be very wasteful in terms of processing to take the full array of data, convert once to RAW and convert again to JPEG, so they don't do it!

I'd say "stored" as a RAW file, seeing that it is this data which RAW refers to, rather than converted. RAW means the unconverted data after all.

TinyExplosions

enda1 wrote: »

I'd say "stored" as a RAW file, seeing that it is this data which RAW refers to, rather than converted. RAW means the unconverted data after all.

We're splitting hairs here I think, and taking the OP of topic, so lets agree on that

enda1

TinyExplosions wrote: »

We're splitting hairs here I think, and taking the OP of topic, so lets agree on that

True. And you answered his question in the first reply.

TinyExplosions

enda1 wrote: »

True. And you answered his question in the first reply.

Well in that case, lets keep going off topic -RAW is much better than JPEG - JPEG shooter are teh sux, and Film is better than all the above, it's about the grain man

be in no doubt that the above is all tongue in cheek and is not meant to be taken as serious points for debate, sorry OP

melekalikimaka

its all bout the random clump of silver nitrate exposed to a bit of light ftw

charybdis

melekalikimaka wrote: »

its all bout the random clump of silver nitrate exposed to a bit of light ftw

In this thread's spirit of nitpicking: it's actually silver halide.

melekalikimaka

charybdis wrote: »

In this thread's spirit of nitpicking: it's actually silver halide.

on a nitrate base

Heebie

Photoshop should come with Adobe Camera Raw.. which is pretty good, although not fast. (thus.. using Lightroom is much faster since you work directly with the raw files in a non-destructive fashion. Lightroom uses the same engine, but skips the importing step and just shows you previews based on the raw image + the generated meta-data from any changes you make.)

If what you've got is Photoshop.. you should be able to use Bridge to browser your pics, including previews, and when you double-click on something that's a RAW file from within Bridge, it should bring up the Adobe Camera Raw importer, which will "translate" the raw data into something Photoshop can use.. then you can save the image as a .PSD or .PSB file. All of this happens without losing color depth etc.. (as long as you've got your import settings in Camera Raw set not to cut down the color depth.)

5uspect

couscous007 wrote: »

I have tried everything and now seek advice and help.

I have a Macbook Pro - Photoshop CS5 and both are amazing.
Use a Canon 50D, shoot in RAW, when I upload my photos I always have to convert the files via DPP to either 8 or 16 Bit TIF/JPEG files before I can open them in any capacity. This has become very frustrating.

Been to PC world/Currys and local computer person, tried the different RAW settings on the camera but still no joy.

Can anyone please advise on how to solve this so I can open RAW files with the default converter on the MAC.

Many thanks

Just open the RAW files in Photoshop.
Install the camera RAW plugin if you don't have it.
...
Profit