Why can't I get a RAW with PSP to be as good as in-camera JPG?

[Bruce in Philly]

Hi! I am new to this board.

I am using PSPXI and am having trouble getting my pics to look as good as the JPG created in the camera. I have allways understood, that if you want the best picture, you shoot a RAW, then manipulate it in s'ware such as PSP. What am I doing wrong? Any tips?

Challenge: Below are links to a single exposure. Make the RAW look as sharp and pop like the in-camera JPG. Then tell me how the heck you did it.

This is one exposure. My Canon XTi was set for RAW+JPG (it makes 2 files with one click) and style to Standard w/ sharpness up 2 clicks from default. The cropped "E" JPG is after I tweaked the RAW in PSP. I used a Canon 70-200 IS 2.8 zoom with a 12mm extension tube (if you care about this stuff).

Camera JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~brucedebonis/misc/IMG_1839.JPG
Camera RAW
http://home.comcast.net/~brucedebonis/misc/IMG_1839.CR2
RAW processed in Corel
http://home.comcast.net/~brucedeboni.../IMG_1839E.jpg

Notes 1: I have always found in-camera white balance to be off so not all aspects of in-camera processing is great. But sharpness, contrast etc., the things that make a pic pop, well, I just can't match in the in-camera processing. Oh and the butterfly is a Cabbage White (that is its name!).

Notes 2: While I don't remember the setting in PSP I used for this pic, I can describe my typical process: 1) Crop, 2) adjust color balance, 3) Smart fix but turn everything to 0, tweak shadow/highlights/bright/saturation with black and white usually at 0 and never use the sharpness tool here, then 4) adjust sharpness where I usually use unsharp mask or high-pass depending on how much fine detail is in the pic.

[steve.ledger]

Hi Bruce, Welcome to TG forums.

OK, I'm downloading your files now.

However, before I start I will say this. I do not consider Corel PSPX to be a RAW developer at all.

I Use LightRoom as my first choice, SilkyPix as my second choice.

I'll post back once I've looked at your files.

[steve.ledger]

OK - here's the link to the result from RAW using Lightroom and exported at 1920x1280 and one at full resolution of 3888x2592

And here's a crop of the same image shown at 100%



My advise is that you should be as serious about the choice of software as you are about the choice of camera and your photography.
You have bought a very good camera, your photo's deserve better handling.

[Bruce in Philly]

You did a great job. Thank you very much for your time.

I suspected my PSPXI just wasn't doing it. So, another question:

Why not Photoshop Elements? I am getting pressure from some friends to move to this. My requirement is simply get the best without breaking the bank.

Note, I am not requesting a detailed response; simply that "one is better because is produces better results" is fine.

[steve.ledger]

You can try the freeware version of SilkyPix developer Studio

Or the freeware RAW developer RAWTherapee

You may however need to first convert your .cr2 files to Digital Negative (.dng) in order to use these developers. (The DNG converter is free from Adobe).

PS Elements?
Again - not the right tool for the job in my opinion.

[Trev]

Firstly I agree PSP is not a good Raw converter as It does not allow post conversion adjustments. Everything has to be done after conversion.
Never the less I have done practically nothing Just a little sharpening with the Digital noise reducer See what you think
http://www.trevorbowden.co.uk/Test/cropped%20jpeg.jpg

and my settings where
http://www.trevorbowden.co.uk/Test/settings.jpg

So what did you do to it ?

[Bruce in Philly]

Notice your picture, while pretty darn good, is not as sharp or "good lookin'" as the JPG processed in camera. I find this pretty annoying as I have always read that the way to produce the best picture is to process the RAW, not the in-camera JPG. I am now learning that Corel PSP does not handle RAW very well and that I need a more professional RAW tool like Lightroom. I am playing with the Canon tools and they do produce great results but with limited functionality - they are also confusing and difficult to use so far. I am still investigating.

First, I usually set my camera to RAW+JPG which creates two files with one click. I do this when I am taking "serious" pics else I just set the camera to JPG. I took the RAW and using Corel PSP XI, do the following as my standard tweaking procedure. First I crop the pic, then I adjust color balance (I set my Canon to Auto balance and it rarely is spot on), then I adjust brightness, highlights and shadows I then do together, add some White if needed (rarely black), then add some saturation if needed, and lastly I do the sharpening using either Unsharp Mask (mostly use this) or High Pass Sharpening if there is tons of micro-detail. I find tweaking the JPG gets me fantastic results but not with the RAW of the same pic. Not only am I not a pro, I am a serious hack at best so don't use my opinions - I use this order because it works for me and that I read someplace to do sharpening as the very last thing you do.

[steve.ledger]

First, I usually set my camera to RAW+JPG which creates two files with one click.

Actually, not many people are aware that when you shoot RAW only, there still is a JPG in there.
You do not need to use up more card space by shooting RAW+JPG
There's a windows shell extension which allows you to extract the JPG from RAW

► Instant JPEG from RAW is free

Here's a Video that shows you how to use it.
The presenter is using a Mac, but the process is the same for Windows.



Also note, that all digital cameras shoot RAW - however only the higher end models allow you to save in RAW, the rest just internally process RAW and convert to JPG (using what they think is best for you) and throw away the rest of that detail and information.