Mousey

Hang About;
For this tutorial you will need;

• A Digital SLR Camera (DSLR) that can shoot in RAW
  OR
• A RAW File (Usually downloadable from the internet)
• Adobe Photoshop + Adobe Bridge
• The latest updates for Photoshop + Bridge so it can identify your RAWs
• About 15 minutes

All set? Good stuff, Read on

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Speak to anybody that's serious about Photography and chances are you'll have heard the term "RAW File" being chucked around, But for starters, What the hell is a RAW File? Point and Shoot Cameras (AKA. Pocket Cameras) don't capture RAW as a general rule, But almost any DSLR Camera you care to name on the market does.

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"Raw Files, WTF? "

To cut a long story short, A RAW file is a file containing all the data from your camera when you took the picture. Some of this data includes your Aperture (F Stop Value), Focal Length (Zoom for the rest of us), Exposure Compensation, Shutter Speed ect. ect.

A RAW is also called a Digital Negative sometimes because it's known as a "Negative File Format" which can't be worked with until it is converted into a "Positive File Format" such as JPG, PNG, TIFF, ect.

RAW Files are crucial for Photographers that like to have backups of their work because RAW Files cannot be changed or modified in any way, They must first be converted then the image can be processed, Even if it says ".RAW" or ".ARW" in Photoshop or your chosen editor, It's a copy of the file which has been converted into an image you can work with

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"What Can a RAW Do that a JPG Can't? "

In a nutshell, Not much at all. A RAW's basically a dud file that you can't do anything with, However it contains ALL the information necessary to create an image, And a very high quality one at that which still contains all the EXIF Data (Data pulled from the camera) so anybody that views the properties of your image posted online can get more information about how it was captured

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"Okay, so what do i do with them? "

Here's the fun part, Firstly make sure your camera is set to capture in RAW Format, And go out and snap a picture. Any picture... Go on.

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Okay you're back, Good Connect your camera up and look for a filetype which won't be recognised by Windows. Some of the most common ones are ".NEF" for Nikon Cameras, ".ARW" for Sony Cameras, ".CRW" for Canon Cameras and ".KDC" for Kodak ones, For a complete list check Wikipedia Here.

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Fire up Adobe Photoshop and go to File > Browse In Bridge


This will bring up the Adobe Bridge Window which will look similair to this depending on your version of Photoshop. Once it's up navigate to your Camera's memory card or wherever you have the file located in the left hand panel;

(I've circled the panel on the left where you can locate your camera's memory card)



Select the photos you'd like to convert to .JPG by Ctrl+Clicking them, Then right click on any selected one and hit "Open in Camera RAW"



After you've done this, The Camera RAW Dialogue will appear, It looks pretty scary but don't worry it's really easy. Just hit "Select All" at the top left, Then hit "Save Images" at the bottom left. I've circled and numbered both for you



Now you'll have another rather intimidating dialogue come up, Which is the Convert + Save dialogue. Don't worry, Again it's just a 2 click process; Just hit "Browse" that i'd circled and numbered as 1 and choose somewhere to save the final converted JPG, then click save which i've labelled 2.I've also added an optional step (1a.) to this image, Have a play with the options in this section to change how the converted file is named, You can also add custom Suffixes (After the file name) and Prefixes (Before the file name) for easier identification of sets/shots.



Once you've done this allow the images to be processed! A status readout is at the bottom left of Adobe Bridge, DO NOT CLOSE BRIDGE UNTIL IT HAS FINISHED!Click "Done" at the bottom right when it has finished.

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Now navigate to the folder you specified in Camera RAW And there should be some shiny new photos waiting for you




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I hope you found this tutorial useful!
~ Mousey, HardwareHeaven Graphics Moderator

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Falstaff

Not bad brother, in elements its pretty easy, so I dont even think about it. The interface is soooooo simple. Raw is fun.

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