What's the easiest way to process RAW shots for a total RAW noob?

Grimlock · 08-30-2008, 09:13 PM

I took my K20d with my 540 flash to a local convention today and because I was facing lousy lighting conditions I decided to shoot in RAW (why not RAW+? I didn't know how many shots I was going to end up taking, and I only had 20gig of SD cards with me-I'm going to be shooting in RAW+ tomorrow, from here on). Anyhoo, I have Capture One 4 LE installed and told it to batch process what I got, but I'm not sure what I did wrong (I though Capture One would just use the "as shot by camera defaults" for sharpening, NR, etc), because all the jpegs that came out look just like the unprocessed RAW shots. I don't think PS Elements 5 has a batch option for RAW, and I was hoping to avoid processing them one-at-a-time in Adobe Camera RAW. Does the Pentax software have something that'll batch process (I don't have it installed, and I don't have the discs with me right now), or am I stuck having to slough through these shots one-at-a-time? BTW, my brains are currently pudding due to being really tired from tromping around 3 hotels all day today. Thx in advance.

Grimlock · 09-02-2008, 07:50 AM

Anyone at all??

*mithrandir* · 09-02-2008, 07:55 AM

Adobe Lightroom 2.0 will batch process. Try the free trial and see. You could adjust one of the pictures to your liking, create a preset from the adjustments you made, and then apply it to all the other photos.

*Nesster* · 09-02-2008, 10:20 AM

The reason the JPEGs came out looking just like the unprocessed RAW files: you're looking at the latter via the camera default settings. That is, all software will display the RAW via conversion of some sort or another, usually taking the camera settings as guide.

If you poke around the settings a bit, I think you can set different defaults - for JPEG quality and size for example - via the software.

Doing the batch conversion using camera defaults doesn't really buy you much vs. in camera jpeg (I think...) but does give you a RAW file to go back to if you feel the need to fix up a particular image later.

wildboar · 09-02-2008, 12:02 PM

Check out Raw Developer by Iridient Digital.

SpecialK · 09-03-2008, 12:43 AM

Pentax Photo Browser will allow you to "Extract a jpg" in a batch, which is much quicker than converting, even in a batch, with Photo Laboratory. I do this, then "browse" with different software, because Photo Browser is in fact tedious for deleting images - it is very slow, then starts you at the top of the page again...

If you want to convert in a batch, first select the images in Browser, then open Photo Lab. Adjust settings such as the compression level, exposure, WB, etc, that you wil use on all selected images, then click the "Save" button and go do something else for a while.

Grimlock · 09-03-2008, 03:22 PM

Okay, thanks folks.