The RAW process..... something a touch bizarre

HI All.

I am sure this has been raised before, but I have a few queries on the RAW process.

Basically in the past I used to take a raw file into "Bridge Camera Raw", do any modifications, process it out as a JPEG at the MPS that it was shot at and open in Photoshop CS2. Here I would then brush out and imperfections, resave and done. However now I realise that you shouldn't save an image as a jpeg twice due to the image loss. So I now batch out as a .tif from Camera Raw and then once in PS2 save out as a JPEG.

All sounds fine.. though in playing around with all the different options, I have notcied something that i find truly bizarre.

if you take the original Raw file straight from camera raw (in JPEG format) and import it into a layout program such as Illustrator or Quark it appears at almost 3 times the size of exactly the same picture resaved in PS2 as jpeg. I have checked both images' "image" size and "canvas" size and they are identical. So why the difference???? Any ideas???? and does this actually have an impact on a final high resolution print out????

I have been playing around with bridge and camera raw for weeks now... looked into Aperture and other programs... and cannot find any easy solution.. especially when you need to clone out a dirt spot... which means you then HAVE to take it into Photoshop and you end up with what would appear a much smaller file.... (when placed into a layout programme)

Help please... if possible.....

Thanks

Frank

Frank,

For starters I would say you should not save as JPG at all, unless it's a version you plan to use for web display. Any time you save as JPG there is data loss due to compression, and in fact the first time is probably where you'll incur the most loss as the file is dropped from its original 12bit to 8bit color.

Quark and Illustrator will display the image at its print resolution. In the raw converter you should be able to set this output resolution to anything you want. If you set it to say 72, the image will look much larger in Quark than if you set it to 300. Photoshop will just fit it on the screen and let you tweak the resolution as you want.

Guy

HI GUY

Thanks very much for this info.... I used to save the images as tif only, but a few agents of late have been requesting JPEGS and that's where I ran into problems... so when in Camera Raw, should I batch the images out at 16 or 8 bits???? or is this not vital.... it's just that I have also heard that certain peoples systems cannot handle 16 bit.

Thanks again.... problem solved... and tif it is from now on (better order extra dvds!!!!!)

Frank

and cannot find any easy solution.. especially when you need to clone out a dirt spot... which means you then HAVE to take it into Photoshop

Frank, Aperture is the only program that I know of that will allow minor retouching of Raw files...

Bob