yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

~ Is the a starting point that I should be looking at to start shooting RAW with an Olympus OM-D 10.1 (and II) and my Lumix GX7?
...Basically, I've always shot in JPEG and would like to further my skills in what I consider a better format.

I am using PS Ele. 14 which opens my RAW files just fine. However, I'm stumped as to how to develop the image.
...Is there a basic training factor here on UHH or a direction that whole be good?

Thank you so much!!

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

There are several good videos on YouTube. Anthony Morganti and Mark Koslowski both have some starter versions. Be careful about some of the newer versions because I am not familiar with PSE 14 and it may not have all the bells and whistles that people are pushing now.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Good advice from Mike. I did a search on YouTube just to see what comes up:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ps+elements+raw+processing+for+beginners

Have you used the Expert Module of PS Elements? Specifically, the use of layers? Once you've pushed around the limited number of sliders in the raw develop section, you might need more finish work in the main workspace of PSE.

One tip I received early on: while in the raw editor push a slider all the way to left or right to make it easier to see what it does to your image. Then, bring it back to a point you like.

Once you finish that part in ACR, click the "open" button in lower right corner. That takes your file into the main workspace where you can work on it or not. Then you save as jpg (you can resize - reduce total pixels - to post on UHH) or other file type - such as PSD if there are layers.

I'm using PSE 2020 now, but would be more than happy to help you after you've looked at a few videos. Feel free to send me a pm!

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

One more thought: if you want to dive in deeper, consider upgrading to PSE 2023. It's only $69.99 right now

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

Thank you UTMike!! I will head off to YouTube and look those up.... Always an adventure there!

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

All VERY good advice... Thank you! Certainly a lot to take in, but I'm confident with watching tutorials and playing around with some images I will start to understand.
~ My background is in Commercial Color and B&W printing - was the printer (wet) for a large studio in Portland Ore. during the 70's - 90's. What I finding is that knowledge only goes so far digitally! But that was a very fun job and having fun with digital is also a Thing!

I Think I got to the Expert Mode, but I'm not sure.... playing too much!!

Thank you

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

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bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

If Adobe stands by their long term schedule, there will be a Photoshop Elements 2024 in a couple weeks.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Do you have proprietary software that can take a raw file and add the same adjustments that an in-camera jpeg gets? That'll show you the sort of basic adjustments that you'll need to be making yourself. When you edit raw files you're basically taking over responsibility for the post processing that the camera would normally do to create jpegs. The simple fact is that jpegs are created using a few standard adjustments that can be applied universally, like sharpening, denoise, contrast, saturation.

Depending on the specific in-camera settings or the choice of Profile or "Style" that you use for jpegs (sometimes called Picture Control settings), a Clarity adjustment may be added to the jpeg. I wouldn't recommend including that particular adjustment at the start of the editing process because it can produce unwanted effects when you add your own adjustments on top of the Clarity adjustment. My personal preference is to keep Clarity adjustments till near the end of the editing process for the purpose of adding some final tweaks.

Your photo editor may also be able to do a better job of sharpening compared to what your camera would be doing. Your camera may be using a crude form of sharpening that's not difficult to improve on.

One of the advantages of editing raw files is that the adjustments can be tailor-made for each image. Another advantage is that raw files give you significantly more room to manoeuvre so the adjustments can be pushed further. And it's all done without having to worry about generating unwanted artefacts.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Until you get more accomplished at editing raw files I recommend that you shoot both raw and jpeg. That way you have something to fall back on if you find yourself out of your depth.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

I suggest getting Scott Kelby's book, Photoshop Elements 14 for the Digital Photographer. He has a good section in there about Adobe Camera RAW and using PSE to enhance the RAW converted to JPEG photo.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

I also shoot Olympus cameras and I own the Em-10 Mk II. I ALWAYS favor Olympus Workspace, a free to download software, to edit my RAW data from Olympus cameras. In the help section it is clearly explained how to use the software and Robin Wong has an excellent tutorial in YouTube.
The advantage of proprietary software is that it was made exclusively for use with the RAW data from the camera manufacturer. If you want true Olympus colors when printing Olympus Workspace is the way to go.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Greetings, fellow lab dweller! I spent 33 years working for three of the largest school portrait companies. I managed the digital production teams as we transitioned from optically printing film, to film scanning and mini-lab printing, to full digital image printing, in the late 1990s to mid-2000s. I have to say that there are parallels for everything from analog to digital. The digital world is much more full-featured and much easier, once you understand the computer!

Think of raw files as unprocessed, latent data. Oh, there IS a processed JPEG thumbnail in a raw file, made with the camera's then current menu settings. All of those settings are recorded in the EXIF table attached to that preview JPEG. But the raw data is there, CANNOT EVER be changed, and can be developed in infinite ways.

A JPEG is more like a 35mm slide... it's developed in a rigid, standard way at the camera, and is as difficult to modify as a finished slide.

If you have old film negatives (and slides), they can be macro-photographed in raw mode with a simple setup, and the resulting raw file will contain practically all the potential found in the developed film negative. I'm doing this for many hundreds of black-and-white negs from my high school days, as I prepare a video slide show for my 50th high school reunion.

The key to this has been using Adobe Lightroom Classic with a third-party plug-in, Negative Lab Pro. LrC is a full-featured image database and virtual editing program that forms the hub of an entire digital workflow. When you get tired of the limits of PSE...

I'm using a Lumix GH4 with a 30mm macro lens and some other goodies, as shown in the PDF attached below:

Camera Scanning.pdf opens in your favorite PDF reader.
Attached file:
(Download)

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

Good to know! I just set up my m43 cameras to do just that after reading this post! (my Nikon is in AZ and will have to wait )

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

Thank you! I will look that up!