Elements 6 and RAW

[TLW]

Help. I use Elements 6 and I'm trying to shoot more in RAW. My question - Is there a good procedure to do basic editing? Should things follow a specific path in order to make the post photo work go quickly and smoothly or is it all hit and miss? Any helpful hints would be greatly appreciated so I don't end up pulling my hair out and going bald. :cryin:

[GB1]

TLW - I'm sorry that no one has been able to help yet. There's a lot of great folks and good stuff on this website, but sometimes a question is so broad and no one knows where to start to answer it.

Anyway, I'll give it a shot. Basic editing can mean many different things, but I think what you're describing is stuff like curve adjustments, dust and 'scene imperfection' removal, and sharpening. Stuff like that is considered basic. I usually do all my contrast/density/color adjustments first, then remove eyesores like aluminum cans etc digitally. You can save it at this point under a DIFFERENT name .. never overwrite your original file !!!! Also make sure you save it in very high quality. Later, when you want copies of it in a particular size (like 800 x 600), resize the image to whatever size you need and, lastly, sharpen it just as much as is needed. Save it as a new name - say _800.jpg - and use some moderate compression to reduce the file size.

There's a multitude of reasons for doing all these things, but I don't want to confuse the issue so will cut off here. If you need more help, just ask.

G

[Frog]

Yes, TLW, I was actually hoping someone would answer.
I use photoshop elements 6 and shoot raw almost exclusively.
I don't have a set procedure for editing, though.
When I'm editing the raw image, I check the white balance first and sometimes just go through the list that's there to see what they look like. 90% of the time I leave it as shot.
I then do any exposure adjustments I think are needed. Then if recovery or fill light are needed, I do those. I often also boost the blacks a hair as I think it makes the photos look sharper....but not always.
Then I mess about with contrast, saturation, vibrance, clarity. Vibrance and clarity require you to magnify the shot to see much diff.
I then open it in editor and may or may not do any adjustments there.
If I've desaturated for a black and white, I go to light and shadows and then to levels.

Now, is this the right way? I don't know but its pretty much the routine I follow.