RAW converters allow control over most variables that determine image quality. You can set the point where shadow detail goes pure black, where highlights go white, and the brightness and contrast of the midrange tones in between. You can change the color of the light, alter saturation, sharpen, correct chromatic aberration, and eliminate noise. The list is extensive. A good resource for your friends would be adobe's website. They have some good articles on the RAW conversion process. Of course the best resource would be Bruce Fraser's (sp?) Camera RAW book, which can be purchased through Amazon and various other sources.
BTW, I'm surprised to hear that you don't shoot RAW. It's truly enabling. Paul -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Aaron Reynolds <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Not for me, but for a friend who sent me this appeal: > > > I'm taking a technical writing course in which we have to write > > documentation for a piece of software. The software we're using is > > Silkypix, which, if you don't know it, is a program that converts RAW > > files to jpegs or tifs. And you can do all kinds of adjusting before > > you produce the final jpeg or tif. > > > > None of the people in my group know anything about photography. What > > are some typical things you'd want to do if you had a RAW file and you > > wanted to make sure everything was okay before you saved it in the > > other format? We know the things the program can do, but we don't know > > what a photographer would actually want to do. > > I don't shoot RAW much. But I figured that the fine folks of the PDML > would be able to help. > > -Aaron >
