Editing/Converting NEF (RAW)

[Tiffseagles]

I just shot in raw for the first time. I'm looking for recommendations for the following:
1) What program to use to edit in NEF (RAW)
2) If not included in the above, a converter program to switch to a file type I can use to load to web-based program
3) I'm looking to preserve quality. What file type should I convert to (png, tif, jpeg)?

 

[lizzie13]

I use photoshop... or lightroom. If you shoot with nikon, their editing software allows you to edit RAW and then convert.

 

[Tiffseagles]

Is there a similar version for free? Up to this point, I had been using Gimp but it doesn't support raw files

 

[lizzie13]

You can try photoshop and lightroom for free for 30 days. And if you like you can buy it or just edit your heart away for 30 days. Lol

 

[brindlexpitt]

Lightroom ftw. Love it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lizzie13]

I just signed up for a special for lightroom and photoshop for 9.99 a month

 

[NobodyHere]

You can try photoshop and lightroom for free for 30 days. And if you like you can buy it or just edit your heart away for 30 days. Lol

Don't buy the boxes version, either. You can get Photoshop CC now for 10 bucks a month and that includes future upgrades, as opposed to $1000 for a license for the latest version in the box and several hundred dollars per upgrade. Adobe finally got their heads out of their asses and decided to separate PS out from the rest of the collection on CC.

 

[lizzie13]

Don't buy the boxes version, either. You can get Photoshop CC now for 10 bucks a month and that includes future upgrades, as opposed to $1000 for a license for the latest version in the box and several hundred dollars per upgrade. Adobe finally got their heads out of their asses and decided to separate PS out from the rest of the collection on CC.

yep, that's what I did

 

[Tiffseagles]

Thanks! I'll try one of them on a day when I have nothing else to day and can just edit away

 

[lizzie13]

Thanks! I'll try one of them on a day when I have nothing else to day and can just edit away

If you don't plan on buying it, I would do the trial of lightroom first then when it's up do the trial of photoshop so you get 60 days of free editing. They also have photoshop elements but I'd have to double check if it can edit RAW (I'm sure it can). Then you could have 90 days!

 

[apbtowner]

like i said in your picture post, gimp has a plugin you need to download an put in the script folder for you to be able to use raw files its called UFRaw

 

[PocketPal]

I just shot in raw for the first time. I'm looking for recommendations for the following:
1) What program to use to edit in NEF (RAW)
2) If not included in the above, a converter program to switch to a file type I can use to load to web-based program
3) I'm looking to preserve quality. What file type should I convert to (png, tif, jpeg)?

From the title of your post, I assume you*re shooting Nikon (Nikon Electronic File format). I would recommend ViewNX2, it*s free from Nikon support here Current versions of Nikon software | Nikon Knowledgebase

Don*t pay for software if you don*t have to. Adobe is great, but it was never meant to be used by the avg or above avg consumer. It*s professional tools for the “imaging” expert and students/teachers of the craft.

The recent CC suite (Creative Cloud) are geared for the consumer market and should now be accessible and usable by the internet denizens.

It*s great that you*re shooting RAW—there*s nothing better…and my views on JPG is pretty clear if you know of my moniker in other forums.

Hey Tiff, I'll try to debunk some off the mysticism of RAW format. Some terms I'll be using are industry (I hate that term) standards so pls don't get offended, they're just metaphors used in the great battle to bring digital imaging to the masses.

RAW is RAW (pure data)
DNG is Digital Negative (format)
TIFF (TIF) is Tagged Image File Format (format that has be rasterized from RAW)
Rasterized-computer machine language that breaks the code into an image you can see

JPEG is Joint Photographic Expert Group (compressed file format for VGA screen-outdated early 90*s tech) compression rasterized for 400x600 256 colors

PNG is Portable Network Graphics (format for windows based web-browsers)

To be proficient in RAW you need to develop a workflow (methodology of your work and network infrastructure)

NEVER WORK ON THE ORIGINAL SOURCE FILE

Always archive and backup your raw files (2 copies that are in a safe place at all time) and use a working copy (non-degenerative) to work from
…as you can tell, a lot of storage space is needed to properly work with RAW files. You can simplify your work flow for non-commercial use (create a back-up system)

…basically (garbage in is garbage out) so never trash your files by working on the orig.

Hope this help some…I*ll start a post on some key properties of RAW files and why images look different from different JPEG converters, for now this is a quick answer I googled... (my input is in Blue)

First RAW files are NOT converted.

They are processed using any of the following photo programs.

* the programs supplied by the maker of your camera
* a program like Lightroom (RAW files can be batch processed in Lightroom)
* a program like Photoshop. (PS is a retouching tool)
* use the free RAW to DNG converter supplied by Adobe. Once converted to DNG, just about any photo program can process a DNG file

Professional shooters mainly use Lightroom 3.6 or 4 because we can not only batch process our RAW files, we can add keywords, copyright notice, contact information and apply any custom white balance before exporting them as high quality JEPG or TIFF files

JPEG files are compressed files, so they will never equal the quality captured by a RAW file. TIFF files are uncompressed and will closely approximate the quality you see in your RAW file.

NOTE: When was the last time you calibrated and profiled your computers monitor!!!