Help with RAW

Brainless · 05-16-2007, 03:06 PM

From what everyone is saying, RAW is the way to go because it is more flexable. I have the K100D wich does RAW, but it uses the PEF extention. I have rawshooter, but it dosent see PEF files. Pentax Photo Laboratory, wich comes with the camera, only converts PEF to JPEG. Does anyone have any solutions for this?

WMBP · 05-16-2007, 03:29 PM

Originally posted by Brainless

From what everyone is saying, RAW is the way to go because it is more flexable. I have the K100D wich does RAW, but it uses the PEF extention. I have rawshooter, but it dosent see PEF files. Pentax Photo Laboratory, wich comes with the camera, only converts PEF to JPEG. Does anyone have any solutions for this?

At the risk of confusing you by making things too common sensical, I will offer a few thoughts.

1. I shoot Raw almost exclusively. But I don't think you should feel compelled to shoot Raw just because it's the thing to do. If you're unfamiliar with it, if you're happy with the results you get with JPEGs, then shoot JPEG while you learn more about Raw.

2. If you do decide to shoot Raw, you will want to have good Raw workflow and editing software to take advantage of all that data that you've got. I know only a little about Rawshooter - namely that it's been bought by Adobe and some of its ideas were incorporated into Lightroom. There are lots of choices here and they've been discussed in detail in other threads. I've never used the Pentax software that comes with the camera but I have been told that it's really quite decent, and it would not be a bad place to start.

3. There's nothing wrong with PEF files, aside from the fact that some programs don't know what to do with them. I tend to shoot Raw as PEF in my K10D, although I have the option to save the files as DNG. I do so because Pentax compresses its PEF format files and doesn't seem to compress the DNG (or at any rate, they're considerably larger). I convert on my computer from PEF to DNG. But that is by no means necessary. Because Raw file formats are an evolving technological issue, there's NO single Raw format that can be described as a standard. Adobe would like DNG to become the standard, but it is far from being a standard at the moment. So don't feel bad about keeping your files as PEF files for now. You can view and edit them in Photo Lab.

4. If you really want to use something else, consider upgrading to Lightroom. I am pretty sure that Adobe bought Rawshooter and was offering a free or heavily discounted upgrade from Rawshooter to Lightroom. Google "Rawshooter upgrade Lightroom" and you'll find some info. If you're a registered user of Rawshooter you should have gotten a notice in your email about this.

Will

macdaddy · 05-16-2007, 03:32 PM

You'll have to spend the $$ and get ANY version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to get the Adobe camera RAW converter that works with those files! Sorry; that's the curse of technology sometimes! The good news is that Elements is around $40 USD-not outrageous to get the functionality!
Rob W

Brainless · 05-16-2007, 03:58 PM

Thanks for the thoughts. I currently shoot in JPEG. I feel I am getting good results. But I would like to experiment with RAW to see what I can add to the results. Right now I am using Photoshop 7.0. So far, I havent seen a reason to throw more money on more software just to experiment.

MShawn63 · 05-16-2007, 06:10 PM

Will,

May I ask how you convert from RAW PEF to DNG? I have both Photo Elements 5.0 and Lightroom, but I have not been able to change a PEF format to a DNG.

Shawn

neighhoma · 05-16-2007, 06:10 PM

If you are getting good results with JPG, then you should use it. You should give RAW a try as it may enhance your photos further to your liking. It is not easy to manipulate RAW at first. Many on the forum can give you good advice.

**barondla** · 05-16-2007, 06:41 PM

I use Pentax photo browser (Silky Pix engine) to open raw file. Then select save as and save it as a tif. This then goes into Photoshop for enhancements. Never could figure out how to open a raw image in Pentax lab! Did once but never could again. Another person had the same problem. Raw is great just give it a chance. In many ways easier than shooting jpeg.
thanks
barondla

Rico · 05-16-2007, 06:43 PM

Shawn, Adobe has a standalone application called DNG converter. You can download it with the latest release of ACR. You have to launch it as a separate application to import and convert files. I am not sure if you can launch it from Lightroom or not as I do not have Lightroom. I do have PSCS3 which I am equally not sure if you can launch DNG converter from it either.

jeffkrol · 05-16-2007, 07:26 PM

Originally posted by Brainless

From what everyone is saying, RAW is the way to go because it is more flexable. I have the K100D wich does RAW, but it uses the PEF extention. I have rawshooter, but it dosent see PEF files. Pentax Photo Laboratory, wich comes with the camera, only converts PEF to JPEG. Does anyone have any solutions for this?

I'm assuming you were just referring to PEF or DNG. Photolab converts PEF to TIFF as well as JPG.
You'll really appreciate RAW when you screw up the white balance on a bunch of photos

Pentax photobrowser will save a PEF as a DNG file ..............

WMBP · 05-16-2007, 07:55 PM

Originally posted by macdaddy

You'll have to spend the $$ and get ANY version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to get the Adobe camera RAW converter that works with those files! Sorry; that's the curse of technology sometimes! The good news is that Element

Not correct, I think.

First, I already suggested that the OP look into the free upgrade to Adobe Lightroom that might be available to registered users of Rawshooter. Perhaps the OP is not a registered user, but if so, then this would be the first thing to look into.

Second, while Photoshop Elements is relatively affordable, it's more than $40 USD. Looks like it's more like $80 right now on Amazon.com. While Elements is a nice image management program and while it does have a very good subset of Photoshop's pixel editing tools, it's not really the world's best Raw program. If I had less than $100 to spend, I'd probably buy Bibble Pro or something similar. Or stick with Pentax Photo Lab for Raw conversion and use Picasa 2 for file management.

And if the original poster has more than $100 to spend, well, then there are options aplenty.

Will

WMBP · 05-16-2007, 07:56 PM

Originally posted by MShawn63

Will, May I ask how you convert from RAW PEF to DNG? I have both Photo Elements 5.0 and Lightroom, but I have not been able to change a PEF format to a DNG.

Couldn't be easier. Go to Library view, then go to the Library menu and pull down to Convert to DNG...

By the way, you can do this any time you like AFTER you've imported PEF (or other Raw files). Or you can do it at the time you import the files initially; it's one of the actions that you can perform when you import.

Will

WMBP · 05-16-2007, 08:01 PM

Originally posted by Brainless

Thanks for the thoughts. I currently shoot in JPEG. I feel I am getting good results. But I would like to experiment with RAW to see what I can add to the results.

Perfectly reasonable.

Quote:

Right now I am using Photoshop 7.0. So far, I havent seen a reason to throw more money on more software just to experiment.

Also perfectly reasonable. So how to reconcile these two perfectly reasonable but not obviously compatible goals? Use what you've got: Pentax Photo Lab.

I think Google's Picasa 2 is an excellent photo file management program - and it's also a pretty decent quick editor, too. And it's free. And Picasa 2 can read PEF files produced by K100D or K10D. Unfortunately, it loses the EXIF data, or did the last time I tried, which was a month or two ago. It might have fixed that bug by now. But it will open the files and display them just fine. You can edit (non-destructively) and export to JPEG when you want to upload to the Web or email a photo to someone.

Will

**Mallee Boy** · 05-16-2007, 08:25 PM

Hi,
I have Raw Shooter (RSE) and have no problems working with the Pentax PEF files, so I'm not sure why you would be having problems.
Have you actually tried loading raw files into your version of rawshooter??
I took up the Lightroom option, which is also works well, but I find the batch conversion process in RSE a lot more convenient.
Let us know how get on.
Grant

**Ash** · 05-16-2007, 09:14 PM

I wouldn't have Photoshop and Camera Raw if it wasn't for my graphic designer wife. Without them, I also wouldn't be able to shoot in RAW since Apple are a little slow getting on the iPhoto RAW file bandwagon for Pentax. They were really quick with the Canon and Nikon dSLRs - it's disheartening.

I wonder if that's a reflection on how they view the photographer market. Oh well, I wasn't too crash hot about iPhoto anyway. Photoshop's the way to go if it's handy (or you have a spare few pennies to invest in post-production)...

SpecialK · 05-16-2007, 09:14 PM

Originally posted by barondla

I use Pentax photo browser (Silky Pix engine) to open raw file. Then select save as and save it as a tif. This then goes into Photoshop for enhancements. Never could figure out how to open a raw image in Pentax lab! Did once but never could again. Another person had the same problem. Raw is great just give it a chance. In many ways easier than shooting jpeg.
thanks
barondla

In Browser, select an image. Then, click on the Photo Lab icon. Should open the Photo Lab. In the View menu, make sure "preview" and the various editing tools you want are checked.

Make sure you are not trying to open a jpg with Photo Lab as that does not work :-)

05-16-2007, 03:06 PM	#1
Brainless Inactive Account Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Missouri Photos: Gallery Posts: 13	Help with RAW From what everyone is saying, RAW is the way to go because it is more flexable. I have the K100D wich does RAW, but it uses the PEF extention. I have rawshooter, but it dosent see PEF files. Pentax Photo Laboratory, wich comes with the camera, only converts PEF to JPEG. Does anyone have any solutions for this?

05-16-2007, 08:01 PM	#12
WMBP Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Dallas, Texas Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,482	Originally posted by Brainless Thanks for the thoughts. I currently shoot in JPEG. I feel I am getting good results. But I would like to experiment with RAW to see what I can add to the results. Perfectly reasonable. Quote: Right now I am using Photoshop 7.0. So far, I havent seen a reason to throw more money on more software just to experiment. Also perfectly reasonable. So how to reconcile these two perfectly reasonable but not obviously compatible goals? Use what you've got: Pentax Photo Lab. I think Google's Picasa 2 is an excellent photo file management program - and it's also a pretty decent quick editor, too. And it's free. And Picasa 2 can read PEF files produced by K100D or K10D. Unfortunately, it loses the EXIF data, or did the last time I tried, which was a month or two ago. It might have fixed that bug by now. But it will open the files and display them just fine. You can edit (non-destructively) and export to JPEG when you want to upload to the Web or email a photo to someone. Will Last edited by WMBP; 05-16-2007 at 08:56 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
[K10D RAW+]Exposure difference between RAW and JPEG	sterretje	Pentax DSLR Discussion	9	04-13-2010 02:06 AM
What's the easiest way to process RAW shots for a total RAW noob?	Grimlock	Digital Processing, Software, and Printing	6	09-03-2008 02:22 PM
Does the Photoshop RAW converter work with Pentax RAW Files?	mconder	Pentax DSLR Discussion	3	05-15-2008 12:14 PM
RAW, New Computer, PSE5 & 3.7 RAW Plug in.	Ed in GA	Digital Processing, Software, and Printing	6	11-20-2007 04:43 PM
Raw Therapee: free RAW converter/photo editor	wheelgate	Digital Processing, Software, and Printing	10	10-12-2007 06:44 PM

05-16-2007, 03:29 PM	#2
WMBP Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Dallas, Texas Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,482	Originally posted by Brainless From what everyone is saying, RAW is the way to go because it is more flexable. I have the K100D wich does RAW, but it uses the PEF extention. I have rawshooter, but it dosent see PEF files. Pentax Photo Laboratory, wich comes with the camera, only converts PEF to JPEG. Does anyone have any solutions for this? At the risk of confusing you by making things too common sensical, I will offer a few thoughts. 1. I shoot Raw almost exclusively. But I don't think you should feel compelled to shoot Raw just because it's the thing to do. If you're unfamiliar with it, if you're happy with the results you get with JPEGs, then shoot JPEG while you learn more about Raw. 2. If you do decide to shoot Raw, you will want to have good Raw workflow and editing software to take advantage of all that data that you've got. I know only a little about Rawshooter - namely that it's been bought by Adobe and some of its ideas were incorporated into Lightroom. There are lots of choices here and they've been discussed in detail in other threads. I've never used the Pentax software that comes with the camera but I have been told that it's really quite decent, and it would not be a bad place to start. 3. There's nothing wrong with PEF files, aside from the fact that some programs don't know what to do with them. I tend to shoot Raw as PEF in my K10D, although I have the option to save the files as DNG. I do so because Pentax compresses its PEF format files and doesn't seem to compress the DNG (or at any rate, they're considerably larger). I convert on my computer from PEF to DNG. But that is by no means necessary. Because Raw file formats are an evolving technological issue, there's NO single Raw format that can be described as a standard. Adobe would like DNG to become the standard, but it is far from being a standard at the moment. So don't feel bad about keeping your files as PEF files for now. You can view and edit them in Photo Lab. 4. If you really want to use something else, consider upgrading to Lightroom. I am pretty sure that Adobe bought Rawshooter and was offering a free or heavily discounted upgrade from Rawshooter to Lightroom. Google "Rawshooter upgrade Lightroom" and you'll find some info. If you're a registered user of Rawshooter you should have gotten a notice in your email about this. Will

05-16-2007, 03:32 PM	#3
macdaddy Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Dahlonega, GA Photos: Gallery Posts: 141	You'll have to spend the $$ and get ANY version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to get the Adobe camera RAW converter that works with those files! Sorry; that's the curse of technology sometimes! The good news is that Elements is around $40 USD-not outrageous to get the functionality! Rob W

05-16-2007, 03:58 PM	#4
Brainless Inactive Account Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Missouri Photos: Gallery Posts: 13 Original Poster	Thanks for the thoughts. I currently shoot in JPEG. I feel I am getting good results. But I would like to experiment with RAW to see what I can add to the results. Right now I am using Photoshop 7.0. So far, I havent seen a reason to throw more money on more software just to experiment.

05-16-2007, 06:10 PM	#5
MShawn63 Senior Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 225	Will, May I ask how you convert from RAW PEF to DNG? I have both Photo Elements 5.0 and Lightroom, but I have not been able to change a PEF format to a DNG. Shawn

05-16-2007, 06:10 PM	#6
neighhoma Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 84	If you are getting good results with JPG, then you should use it. You should give RAW a try as it may enhance your photos further to your liking. It is not easy to manipulate RAW at first. Many on the forum can give you good advice.

05-16-2007, 06:41 PM	#7
barondla Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: midwest, United States Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 5,715	I use Pentax photo browser (Silky Pix engine) to open raw file. Then select save as and save it as a tif. This then goes into Photoshop for enhancements. Never could figure out how to open a raw image in Pentax lab! Did once but never could again. Another person had the same problem. Raw is great just give it a chance. In many ways easier than shooting jpeg. thanks barondla

05-16-2007, 06:43 PM	#8
Rico Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 1,205	Shawn, Adobe has a standalone application called DNG converter. You can download it with the latest release of ACR. You have to launch it as a separate application to import and convert files. I am not sure if you can launch it from Lightroom or not as I do not have Lightroom. I do have PSCS3 which I am equally not sure if you can launch DNG converter from it either.

05-16-2007, 07:26 PM	#9
jeffkrol Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Wisconsin USA Photos: Gallery Posts: 8,434	Originally posted by Brainless From what everyone is saying, RAW is the way to go because it is more flexable. I have the K100D wich does RAW, but it uses the PEF extention. I have rawshooter, but it dosent see PEF files. Pentax Photo Laboratory, wich comes with the camera, only converts PEF to JPEG. Does anyone have any solutions for this? I'm assuming you were just referring to PEF or DNG. Photolab converts PEF to TIFF as well as JPG. You'll really appreciate RAW when you screw up the white balance on a bunch of photos Pentax photobrowser will save a PEF as a DNG file ..............

05-16-2007, 07:55 PM	#10
WMBP Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Dallas, Texas Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,482	Originally posted by macdaddy You'll have to spend the $$ and get ANY version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to get the Adobe camera RAW converter that works with those files! Sorry; that's the curse of technology sometimes! The good news is that Element Not correct, I think. First, I already suggested that the OP look into the free upgrade to Adobe Lightroom that might be available to registered users of Rawshooter. Perhaps the OP is not a registered user, but if so, then this would be the first thing to look into. Second, while Photoshop Elements is relatively affordable, it's more than $40 USD. Looks like it's more like $80 right now on Amazon.com. While Elements is a nice image management program and while it does have a very good subset of Photoshop's pixel editing tools, it's not really the world's best Raw program. If I had less than $100 to spend, I'd probably buy Bibble Pro or something similar. Or stick with Pentax Photo Lab for Raw conversion and use Picasa 2 for file management. And if the original poster has more than $100 to spend, well, then there are options aplenty. Will

05-16-2007, 07:56 PM	#11
WMBP Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Dallas, Texas Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,482	Originally posted by MShawn63 Will, May I ask how you convert from RAW PEF to DNG? I have both Photo Elements 5.0 and Lightroom, but I have not been able to change a PEF format to a DNG. Couldn't be easier. Go to Library view, then go to the Library menu and pull down to Convert to DNG... By the way, you can do this any time you like AFTER you've imported PEF (or other Raw files). Or you can do it at the time you import the files initially; it's one of the actions that you can perform when you import. Will

05-16-2007, 08:25 PM	#13
Mallee Boy Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: South Australia Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,904	Hi, I have Raw Shooter (RSE) and have no problems working with the Pentax PEF files, so I'm not sure why you would be having problems. Have you actually tried loading raw files into your version of rawshooter?? I took up the Lightroom option, which is also works well, but I find the batch conversion process in RSE a lot more convenient. Let us know how get on. Grant

05-16-2007, 09:14 PM	#14
Ash Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Toowoomba, Queensland Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 23,920	I wouldn't have Photoshop and Camera Raw if it wasn't for my graphic designer wife. Without them, I also wouldn't be able to shoot in RAW since Apple are a little slow getting on the iPhoto RAW file bandwagon for Pentax. They were really quick with the Canon and Nikon dSLRs - it's disheartening. I wonder if that's a reflection on how they view the photographer market. Oh well, I wasn't too crash hot about iPhoto anyway. Photoshop's the way to go if it's handy (or you have a spare few pennies to invest in post-production)...

05-16-2007, 09:14 PM	#15
SpecialK Pentaxian Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: So California Photos: Gallery Posts: 16,481	Originally posted by barondla I use Pentax photo browser (Silky Pix engine) to open raw file. Then select save as and save it as a tif. This then goes into Photoshop for enhancements. Never could figure out how to open a raw image in Pentax lab! Did once but never could again. Another person had the same problem. Raw is great just give it a chance. In many ways easier than shooting jpeg. thanks barondla In Browser, select an image. Then, click on the Photo Lab icon. Should open the Photo Lab. In the View menu, make sure "preview" and the various editing tools you want are checked. Make sure you are not trying to open a jpg with Photo Lab as that does not work :-)