My 10D RAW Workflow

by Wheelie

Please , click on any Harley image to enlarge . ( Warning : some very large files )

RAW image format contains the full information recorded by the camera's imaging sensor . It can be compared to the film negative in analog photography . Before the file is opened in a RAW converter program , there's only color information and no tonal range.

Shooting in RAW format allows much greater latitude and permits to recover details in slightly ( or a little more.. ) underexposed  

images .White balance can be adjusted in the converter as can be choosen the output format - JPEG , TIFF 8 and 16 bit .

Sharpening , contrast , colors can be set to one's desire before processing but I prefer to work on unaltered files . My in camera settings are also on neutral .

To start :

Copy RAW images to your pc . I've created a directory named ' CRW '

Preview your images in your conversion program ( I use BreezeBrowser or ACDSee ) and delete the ones that didn't made it 

Do the necessary EV and white balance corrections

Convert your files to 8 or 16bit Tiff 

Put them in a sub directory of CRW ( or whatever you choosed ) . Mine is called ' Converted ' 

Note : I use BreezeBrowser for personal convenience but any other conversion program will do the job . It's a matter of personal taste . I've tried them all and you can view my comparison here . Info about the converters can be found here . 

Also , my complete workflow is achieved in RGB , from RAW settings in the camera to the final print output .

Previous RAW workflows I used with my D30 and D60 .

Digital Camera RAW Converter Comparisons with Canon 10D RAW images   A very exhaustive comparison test and article . A must read !   

Exif :

Unaltered TIFF file  ( converted to JPEG )                    

Adjust Levels: Go to Image-> Adjustments-> Levels. This shows you the histogram of the image. Adjust the left and right sliders to eliminate the empty space on either sides. You can move the middle slider to adjust the brightness of the image.

Adjust curves: Go to Image->Adjustments->Curves. Set three control points and adjust the curves to increase contrast and brightness . Play around with the three points until the image looks right.

Increase Saturation: I use Fred Miranda's 10D CS Pro or Michael Thomas Mitchell very complete ' Michael's Actions '

Selective color enhancement : Go to Image-> Adjustments -> Selective color and adjust the black levels of Cyan, White and black. 

There are more image enhancements possible ( when needed ) but these fulfill my needs 95% of the time .

Resizing :For web publishing , I resize the image to 1000x666 pixels using PS or ACDSee . 

The image is further sized down to decrease Kb's .

Sharpening : Another USM of 50 - 0,5 - 0 is applied on the resized file

Convert to sRGB : Some may want to convert to sRGB to match web output . I prefer to keep RGB all the way of the processing