PS Elements 6 or 7 . . . RAW?

[Sutton Warrior]

New topic Prompted by Jan V's topic on RAW for her D60. I have put this as a seperate item so as not to detract or dilute Jans requirement.

 

I have been a bit tardy in looking at 'RAW', I have . . . should I say, we, thats the Royal 'WE'; Hazel and I, we have two Nikons, D80 and recently a D40X.

 

I am wanting to look at RAW . . . however, the coast of the Adobe CS... program, is way outside of the money I can justify, prefer to spend it on a bit of good glass? I have been using 'PS Elements v 4', for a good while now, to reasonable effect IMHO I have tried PS Elements v5, crashes my computer!!!

 

I think???, PS Elements v6 and v7 have RAW capability of an order similar to the CS program??? In fact I scaned a mag a few months ago that reviewd the new 'PSE v 7', they said if you were running v6 and were happy, the extras in 7 might not be worth the cost? however, v7 as a new puchase was the 'bees knees' and unless pro use was envisaged no point in going to the cost of CS... program?

 

So can anyone confirm PS Elements has RAW for D40X-D80? or does it have to be down loaded as a 'plug in' or something Yes my head is starting to hurt already, I realy do struggle with technicalities? The old 'dyslexia' problem, means realy slow download time at a personal level, but I will get there eventualy

 

SW

 

PS

If it has RAW D40X-D80, at less than £25 from Amazon + PP, thats a bargin, if I compare it to what I have been able to do with v4. I got my v4 from Amazon.

Edited December 13, 2008 by Sutton Warrior

[Newt]

If you want to move a little out of the mainstream, GIMP is an open source program very similar to photoshop CS but with a price of £0.00. Have a look at http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/ for a RAW editor that will work stand-alone or as a GIMP plugin. It also has a link to download GIMP.

 

I'm going from what I've read and without any first hand experience but GIMP has been solid and well though of for a few years now and is usually kept very up to date.

[Clifftop]

New topic Prompted by Jan V's topic on RAW for her D60. I have put this as a seperate item so as not to detract or dilute Jans requirement.

 

I have been a bit tardy in looking at 'RAW', I have . . . should I say, we, thats the Royal 'WE'; Hazel and I, we have two Nikons, D80 and recently a D40X.

 

I am wanting to look at RAW . . . however, the coast of the Adobe CS... program, is way outside of the money I can justify, prefer to spend it on a bit of good glass? I have been using 'PS Elements v 4', for a good while now, to reasonable effect IMHO I have tried PS Elements v5, crashes my computer!!!

 

I think???, PS Elements v6 and v7 have RAW capability of an order similar to the CS program??? In fact I scaned a mag a few months ago that reviewd the new 'PSE v 7', they said if you were running v6 and were happy, the extras in 7 might not be worth the cost? however, v7 as a new puchase was the 'bees knees' and unless pro use was envisaged no point in going to the cost of CS... program?

 

So can anyone confirm PS Elements has RAW for D40X-D80? or does it have to be down loaded as a 'plug in' or something Yes my head is starting to hurt already, I realy do struggle with technicalities? The old 'dyslexia' problem, means realy slow download time at a personal level, but I will get there eventualy

 

SW

 

PS

If it has RAW D40X-D80, at less than £25 from Amazon + PP, thats a bargin, if I compare it to what I have been able to do with v4. I got my v4 from Amazon.

 

Ive got the D40x and some off my pics come up as NEF which i think is Nikons RAW, they open in Picasa 3 which is a free download.

 

Cheers Fred

[Guest Jan V]

Yes, Free, the Nikon RAW files are NEF files. I have a program Steve suggested that in actually a Photoshop CS2 plugin (Not sure the PS versions). I had also ready about using Picasa. There are some PS CS2 feaures I have used to create some nice pictures so will remain with the CS2 plugin for now. If anyone needs the link from which I downloaded the Adobe version, just say so. It's 02:50am and I am fading fast so the screen keeps blurring on me. I will be happy to share my experiences and experiments with Nikon Raw files. Just may be a week or two....

[Sutton Warrior]

I have cracked it, the answer was upgrade the computer RAM to 2BG, then down load an Adobe RAW converter for Elements 5, all is sweetness and light The operation of the old style converter is a bit basic but of the erea, one presumes it was considered OK, Adobe did not give much away three or four years ago!

 

However I have ordered 'Elements 7', which I am lead to believe is much more akine to modern 'PhotoShop CS' style??

 

In the mean time, I'v cleaned up the hard drive, discovered another hard drive the same size as the curent one, which is sitting dormant in the computer, unused I'm going to need that extra capacity for all the Raw files I will be storing The old computer is tramping along, like its had an electronic dose of 'Filosan and Viagra' Cant wait for the new 'E7' to plop on the doormat! Then all we need is some half decent weather to encourage me out with the camera. Lets hope the period between Christmas and New Year will oblige, off for the whole 10 days, a bit of fishing, and photography thrown in, wonderfull, roll on the 26th

 

SW

Edited December 16, 2008 by Sutton Warrior

[Sutton Warrior]

I'v got Elements 7 up and running, also Nikon NX, with their RAW capabulity . . . its doing my head in Takes me back to the late 80's and early 90's, DOS and eary Windowns, the dyslexic brain cant handle it. All these years and I'm just begining to get to grips with the current way of things!! Then there is RAW, I think its to much for my simple mind to handle . . .

 

I'll stick with JAPG I think Its not often I get beat, but this looks like one of the few.

 

SW

[Sutton Warrior]

Well now after advise on RAW . . . I have decided to stay with JPEG for my usual editing. I have been going around in circles, I have Elements 5 and 7 with RAW plug-ins and a 30 day tril of Nikon NX.

 

Having conducted some simple duplicate PP on all three programs, in RAW and JPEG, it was obvious that I'm going to need a lot of time to get to grips with RAW. Nikon NX, looks like a superb program but one suspects its a little complex for its own good and 'numpties' like me are going to strugle, it aint cheap eaither, but very 'swish'

 

Elements 5 and 7, as I say, in RAW mode, I'm not so happy. Move onto JPEG however, I find them great, my many hours with 'Ev4' probably, has somthing to do with it, as well as my permanent strugle with dyslexia.

 

The deciding factor for me, I take pictures in the old fashon way, WYSIWYG. I dont mess about adding or removing sky, deleting lamp posts, puting Jims head on Aunty Mays boddy! Crop, light/dark, adjust colour, sharpen, unsharp . . . etc., dark room functions. I only ever view my pictures on the computer screen, the time factor and assimilating new understanding . . . It will come very slowly, but for the forseeable future its 'keep it simple stupid'

 

As fars as my preferances on the three vertions of Elements I have, and the fact that the computer is bouncing along with its new 2gb of RAM, which you have to enable incidently, in the preferences menu of Elements.

 

Elements v4, thats still a nice easy to use program, v7, I found it OK but over tweeked, with a presentation that was not to my liking. So for 99% of my 'PP', I like 'Elements 5', with its slightly modernised presentation, excelent and clear drop down menus, in my humble opinion clearer to view than v7?

 

When I tried the the same and verious menu options on 5 and 7, there realy was no obvious change, only presentation differentces. My view, for simple 'dark room style PhotoShoping', easily readable menus, 'Elements 5' has it.

 

On the organisation of images for storage? I have not looked at that side.

 

I would have been well 'humpty' if I'd have invested £400-£500 on a new computer and come to the above conclusion . . . kicked the dog a few times The RAM up grade was needed, along with the dust clean out, and I only paid £29 for 'Elements v 7'.

 

SW

Edited December 19, 2008 by Sutton Warrior

[Newt]

Great summary SW.

 

It sounds like RAW can be useful for some and maybe even fun once you come to grips with it but easing into it sounds reasonable and if that takes a year or three, so what.

[Steve Randles]

I would still advise shooting in RAW + JPEG though Cliff...if your camera will do it, even if you dont intend to use RAW now. You may in the future.

 

Steve...

[Sutton Warrior]

I would still advise shooting in RAW + JPEG though Cliff...if your camera will do it, even if you dont intend to use RAW now. You may in the future.

 

Steve...

 

 

Unfortunatly Steve, its a short comeing of the D80, it shoots RAW or RAW + a low res JPEG . . . An excuse to upgrade

 

A pain, but what one intends to do; Changing from JPEG to RAW and back again on the hoof is not so much hassel, I will continue to major on JPEG, and every so often, when the subject suits or is static, pop a RAW in, save these to a seperate file, so that as I get to grips with manipulating RAW, I have a library to play with. Thats the plan anyway. I have half a dozen RAW pics I went out and shot so that I had something to evaluate with I'm glad I took the trouble, befor total comitment.

 

I suspect I am doing something wrong, I cant believe its so much hassel to use RAW files. Slowly, I will unravel the tangled ball of sting in my my head I call a brain.

 

Have you, or has anyone got any sugestions where I might get an 'ABC' or 'RAW for dumies' type book? I remember a mag pull-out two or three years back, kept it, but it has been miss placed or lost with the passing of time

 

Might even be the Adobe plugins I have. The Nikon NX program seems to rule over the picture side of the computer, so it might be worth uninstalling that.

 

ET

Edited December 20, 2008 by Sutton Warrior