police340 Loc: Newport, RI

I have a Nikon D800 and have mostly used JPG. If i were to shoot in RAW, what would be the process to convert to useable images? I have Adobe CS5 on MAC and Lightroom but have never used them for a post processing flow. What would the recommended process be?

Thanks much, Bill

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Tighten your seatbelt.
While the D800 is capable of producing some great jpegs, raw will really take advantage of the camera's files.
There are lots of tutorials out there and books on processing raw. I use Photoshop CS5 & 6. I think it is wayyy better than the software Nikon provides, though NX2 is a good program. Some prefer Lightroom, but I can't get it to work off of a server, so I can't help you there.

Shoot some raw files and open them in CS5's Adobe Camera Raw processor and play with all the sliders.
I even open JPEG's in Adobe Camera Raw to take advantage of the adjustments.

When you are done, the program generates a "sidecar file" with all of the adjustments you made that can be applied to the original image. (those files are tiny, like 6kb) Nothing is done to the original raw file, you just wrote a recipe on how to "cook" it. Next time you open the file, those instructions will be automatically applied to the image, or you can choose to use the default version. When you are finished massaging the image in Adobe Camera Raw, you can save as a jpeg or tiff or open the file in Photoshop for further refinements.

From Adobe TV.

Here's one of many tutorials out there.

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

When you are done with processing, just save into a format of your choice as in jpeg or tiff.

dhelix33 Loc: Live in Raleigh, NC - Grew up in Teaneck, NJ

This is something about this issue I recently posted in my blog - hope it helps!

http://dhelix33.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/using-lightroom-to-catalog-my-images/

Recent image I took through the process noted - Indiana.

(Download)

North Carolina

(Download)

Kentucky

(Download)

West Virginia

(Download)

Don L G

Start With RAW+JPG and open them in Nikons post processing It free and came with your 800 or done load from Nikon.

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Mr PC Loc: Austin, TX

I also shoot in both RAW and JPG. Keep in mind that many times the RAW image will look flat compared to the JPG, because the camera has applied changes that it thinks the image needs based on your shooting mode. But, all of the info necessary to arrive at that nice camera created JPG exists in the RAW file and much, much more info than that JPG contains. You can make your own decisions in your program of choice, I use Lightroom, and you can many times take a run of the mill photo and make it truly stunning. My 2 cents...

police340 Loc: Newport, RI

Thanks guys, much appreciated. I want to start playing with it all.
Bill

rizer Loc: Long Island, NY

I couldn't agree with you more Mr PC!!

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Although Nikon Capture 2 has its issues it is a great software to edit NEF files. To begin with it was designed to work with Nikon Raw files only and it honors the settings made to the camera. I do not know of any other software capable of doing that.
Lightroom 5 is a very good software too although a little bit more complicated to use than Nikon Capture.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Use JPEG if you are not inclined to do the computer work. Use Raw if you want to access the subtleties that RAW offers beyond what JPEG can do. Nikon's CaptureNX will do the primary job processing very well. If you want bells and whistles, then PaintShop, PhotoShop or whatever.

amehta Loc: Boston

:thumbup:

But I would shoot in raw+jpeg for everything, so if you change your mind down the road, you have the raw files to work with.

Alfresco

Your using a Mac, so you also have access to iPhoto, which handles raw seamlessly. Probably not as powerful as Lightroom but oh so easy!

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I have the D800 and do 95% of my RAW processing in Lightroom. I only shoot in RAW. Before you start get a booK to help you learn
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E5ZITCW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00E5ZITCW&linkCode=as2&tag=phbe1bl-20 Lightroom 5: Streamlining Your Digital Photography Process
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DZP3KJ0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00DZP3KJ0&linkCode=as2&tag=phbe1bl-20 The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)

MtnMan Loc: ID

As noted by others your RAW images lack the processing the jpeg images have when the D800 applies your selected picture control.

You can create a preset in Lightroom to automatically apply similar adjustments on import. I have it convert all my files to dng format, but it only applies the adjustments to RAW files. This gives me a better starting point.

The Watcher

Let me add to the above suggestion. Both of these book come in the Kindle format. If you sign up for Kindle for pc you can download them into your computer and have the book just a click away as you learn how to use Lightroom. Just open the book first and then move onto LIghtroom. If you need to reference the book, just click on it.

I have my Photoshop reference books on two computers. One that I use for photography and the other where I can relax and read.