When I first used a digital camera, it was a point-and-shoot that only shot JPEGs. It was only 2 megapixels. When I moved up to a DSLR, I decided to try shooting RAW. I bought Photoshop CS2, and a book called Real World Camera RAW by Bruce Fraser https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321334094
This book takes a simple, step-by-step approach to processing RAW files. I won’t claim I follow his approach every time, but I always start with the basics he laid down:
- set the colour temperature
- set the black point
- set the white point
Oh, and always working in 16 bits per channel.
As I moved from camera to camera, I was forced to buy more recent versions of Photoshop, partly to get a version of Adobe Camera RAW that supported my camera (yeah, I resented that, too). There were versions of this book released for each version: CS3, CS4, CS5. I bought the next version of the book, because I was switching environments (Windows XP to Mac), and learned what was different (and improved).
How did you get started working with RAW files, and are there any resources you found especially helpful?