Trying to convert RAW, really frustrated!

[mamajan]

Now that I'm starting to understand all of the cool functions of my digital SLR I want to shoot RAW so that I don't lose image quality. I have been trying to use the Hyper Utility program that came with my Fuji S3Pro. OK, I finally found the three test shots on my cameras card. I told the program to save them and designated the file on my computer. Then I went to the file and looked in it but there was nothing there. I then tried to open my cameras card again but the files didn't show up there either. I just can't figure it out. Are there RAW converter programs that are easy to use? What programs do all of you use?


I would sure appreciate some help.

[Frog]

I don't know anything about your 'Hyper Utility Program' but with my d80, I open raw files with photoshop elements 5.0. I also have loaded the raw thumbnail viewer. Its a powertoy for windows xp and allows you to see a thumbnail of your raw shots instead of that little icon thingy.
Hope someone that knows your program takes a look at this.

[Greg McCary]

Try Raw Shooter. It is a free dowload. It's fairly easy to use but not the fastest to work with. The new Olympus 510 Raw files won't work in Raw Shooter though.
http://www.photo-freeware.net/raw-sh...essentials.php

Greg

[another view]

I have an S2 and used Hyper Utility a couple of times but I found it to be too many extra steps. I never did much with RAW until I got Photoshop CS which was the first version that had it's own converter. Try Elements, as long as it works with an S3 (verify on their website). High ISO files benefit a lot from RAW, at least on the S2.

Not sure why you can't find them after saving though...

[DEvianT]

Adobe Lightroom has best workflow I have seen for RAW through to final image/print/web.

Adobe Bridge and ACR is also good though a tad resource hungry and slow. (2GB or higher memory for best results).

Capture One LE or Pro has best results from RAW

I am hearing about the CS3 version of ACR being better than anything but as I haven't tested yet I can't comment. Just several pro's I know have commented on this to me recently.

[drg]

Initially I would suggest trying to learn one piece of software be it the one that came with you camera or a strong moderately powered version like Photoshop Elements 5 with the Adobe Camera RAW.

This way you can learn what the various basic controls do to the overall image and then decide where you want to go for 'full' control or something specific.

The one plus to the Photoshop Elements software series are the many choices in books/guides/manuals available, to say nothing of the number of people who use it to give you suggestions and workflow to use.

Currently I'm using Lightroom from Adobe for 90% of my RAW conversion work as it has some features in that let me use variable types of workflow for a shoot. The Lightroom still is supplemented for me with other occasional editing, but no other RAW tool seems needed. Bridge and ACR I feel are becoming more oriented to other graphical work. Adobe has made a large commitment to the photographer with the Lightroom, certain for those of us who shoot many hundred or thousand of images per job.

[DEvianT]

This is very true. Last job was nearly 2000 images I dread to think how long it would take without Lightroom.

[freygr]

I use Thumbs Plus with the digi-cam plug in which supports RAW formats. It does take a long time without a batch processing option. I guess I'm going to have look into a RAW converter program, for those large jobs.