glad you found us, and of course: Newbies welcome! Congratulations to your superb gear, some of us might become jealous…
The place you should have a look at first is RawPedia. There you find a “Getting started” page that should – well… – get you started. After you digged into the basics, feel free to ask for help here. It’s a very friendly community.
Nice camera! You will have great fun with it – as well as with the good old primes
I understand that at first RT looks overwhelming – but you do not have to use all modules at once… Actually, RawPedia also can look too much to swallow at a start.
You are absolutely in the right place. There are many folks who are super-helpful here and I’m sure they will do their best to help you out.
I know there are some very technical discussions around, but don’t let that scare you (we have many of the people who develop these projects hanging around).
If you’re brand new to RT, I’d suggest following the RawPedia Getting Started section as previously mentioned.
Maybe stick to some basic adjustments/modules to begin with like:
Exposure
White Balance
Sharpening
Impulse Noise Reduction
Noise Reduction
Those 5 should get you most of the way to an image you like I’d think (or at least form the basis for further work).
Hi Claes, thanks for linking to that Wordpress site of mine.
I haven’t updated that site since a couple of months, because I’m working more and more directly with my jpg’s (I shoot raw+jpg) in GIMP + G’MIC, for the simple reason that the results are generally more pleasing (contrast, colors, saturation, more) than when processed in RT. I did that last thing for many years (6, 7+…).
Now my standard workflow in GIMP for processing JPGs is GIMP/Levels, GIMP/Saturation, GMIC/Tone enhance and GMIC Octave Sharpening.
Taking the 14-bit uncompressed NEF’s from my camera and processing them in a 16-bit workflow with dcraw/GIMP or RawTherapee or Darktable does not give any noticeable advantage, apart from some photos with difficult/slightly over-exposed highlights.
So for the moment I mostly drop raw processing by myself (RawTherapee, Darktable, dcraw…) and take advantage of the raw processing that my camera manufacturer provides in-camera (to convert the raw file to a jpg).
My results are mostly more pleasing this way. Of course, one day, this can change again.
@paulmatthijsse , Good to know your new workflow solution, but what is your thoughts on the following:
A. why do we need raw+jpg shooting when you use jpg/GIMP way, don’t we wasting lot of memory space.
and how about shooting only in raw, any way almost all raw formats do have a an embedded jpg,processed by in-camera raw processor and camera jpg settings.These embedded jpgs can be easily extracted and most of the cameras embed full res jpg’s as well. So my question is why do we need raw+jpg shoot? either only raw or only jpg is enough ?
B. what is your opinion on using Rawtherapee itself for jpg processing ( or is it jpg enhanceing) ?
Also let me tell you, while writing this I was learning basics of wavelet processing from your wonderful wordpress blog , thanks for writing such clear and precise tutorials
Since I am a brand new newbie in digital photography, and an ignorant in the field of RAW files, I think I should start with RawPedio and, at spare times, I’ll study the six lessons to familarize with the App.
Yes, Getting Started is going to be my first lesson in shooting and processing RAW images, and at the same time, I’ll take a close look at the various TABs
under Tool Description so that I can be able to play with the Raw Therapee I have installed on my PC.
It might take a while for me to get to this stage. Right now, all what I can do is to open Raw Therapee. I can’t even get a raw file opened properly into RT for exercise.
On A: the jpgs embedded in the raw files of my camera are full resolution but low (jpg) quality, so extracting those jpgs isn’t an option. That’s why I shoot raw+jpg fine. Wasting space isn’t a real problem (for me at least) with current terabyte hard disks.
Jpg or raw only? Next to the jpg I still want to have the raw file for special (light/color) situations or just for playing with several raw convertors or to use them in GIMP 2.9 that handles 16-bit+ files. But I conclude over and over again that processing either a jpg or a raw (via dcraw) with GIMP/G’MIC gives a very good quality. Apart from that it’s fast! That said, some tools in RawTherapee are unique, especially the wavelet processor. So in short: I use jpgs and raws with several image processors and for now the combo jpg+gimp/gmic is king for me! Example.
B. I don’t use RawTherapee for jpg processing.
Thanks for your kind words about my wavelet blog! Apparently people are hungry for information about this tool, it’s one of the more popular topics. The current implementation (in the newwavelet development branch of RawTherapee) is quite complex though…
Interesting, I seem to have gone in the other direction since upgrading my camera to Fuji XE2 and now shoot RAW+jpg.
I find all my keepers need a slight tweak in Rawtherapee (or is it because I can?). I go to White Balance using the eye-dropper on a grey spot, then exposure (nearly always needs lifting) and occasionally lighten the Shadows.
Then onto GIMP, levels or curves, perhaps mess around with film emulation in GMIC, sharpen using GEGL or Wavelets and finally a very fine vignette with GEGL.
I’ve just discovered GMICs Swiss Contrast Mask (I’ve no idea what Swiss brings to the mask) and its great for sunsets.
I always thought I’d settle on a certain style but theres too many variables in Rawtherapee and GIMP/GMIC to play with
Congratulations to your superb gear, some of us might become jealous…
