Oly RAW to JPEG to PS

I shot some RAW images today, then opened in Master 2, saved as a high quality JPEG, then opened in PS Elements 3.0 to experiment. Seemed to work well. I did a SAVE AS so as to leave the first generation JPEG intact. So now I have three versions: the RAW file, the RAW to JPEG file, and the PS file for printing.

As a newbie to the digital photo world, I guess I am looking for some guidance that I am doing it in a logical manner.

I appreciate the useful advice I have already received and I used it today: paying attention to histograms on the camera and the INFO button that allows the user to see highlight and shadow areas that have been over or underexposed. When I adjusted for those, I had to do very little to no tweaking of the RAW image.

In PS, most astonishing was the perspective correction feature. Man, in the darkroom, one had to get creative with tilting enlarger bellows and sometimes the easel.

I think you are on the right track. I save all of my original RAW files on computer external HD, DVD, and Flash drive. I then also save the edited Jpeg the same way. I also have a web site that holds my full sized finished image. Just in case something really bad happens I have the final edits stored online. Keep everything backed up and organized. I save a file for every months shootings, but I shoot a lot.
Getting a good work flow is very important.

Welcome to the world of "workflow," tbob! Workflow is your overall image management and processing strategy. The more you shoot, the more important it gets to have a good system in place.

When I convert images from RAW, I convert them to TIFF because it's a lossless format. I also almost always end up with layers. I save those layered TIFF "master files" as well as my original RAW files, and any final outputs I might make. For a given shoot I'll have a directory that describes that shoot and contains the RAW files. Inside that folder there I'll add Master, Web, and Print folders, as needed.

Hope that helps!

Since I mostly Use lightroom I just keep everything in raw format (Changes are made via an external file) which is read in my those programs leaving the origional RAW file in tact. Only need to use TIFF or PSD's for layering etc.