Working with RAW files

Software - with the R-D1s Rangefinder camera

When shooting with the R-D1s you have the option of three file settings, one of them is the RAW file setting. The RAW file can be described in its potential as the undeveloped film. It includes all the information the sensor could gather at the shot. This is why a RAW file is about 10MB large compared to about 6 MB when choosing the largest of the two JPEG file settings.

To develop the RAW file one can either use the software Epson PhotoRAW (Windows only) or the plug-in for PhotoShop. Both are delivered with the R-D1s camera.There is also a variety of different software on the market to process RAW files.

In principal both Epson PhotoRaw and the Epson Plug-in for PhotoShop offer the same type of processing, however for batch processing the stand-alone software is much better. If you use other digital cameras in addition to your R-D1s, working with the Plug-In in PhotoShop might be preferable.

Exposure compensation and areas of overexposure.

Basics

When you open Epson PhotoRAW you can select the folder with your RAW files by clicking on 'Select Folder' in the top left corner. The RAW files contained in that folder will then be loaded into Epson PhotoRAW.

On the bottom you'll see five different buttons marking the different steps for you to go through: Basic, Film, Special, Shooting Info, Others. Your first step after clicking on the first image you want to develop is correcting the exposure. This is done by using the slider under Exposure Compensation to compensate over and under exposure. You can check areas of overexposure by pressing the Crtl-Key.

The next step is 'Basic': Under White Balance you can correct a wrong setting at the time of exposure, but you can also correct the Colour Temperature and Colour Tint of the shot. If your shot includes an area that you know for sure was grey you can also use the 'Grey Point'. After clicking on 'Grey Point' simply click on the pipette and then on the spot in the picture you know to be grey and the overall colour of the image will be corrected so that part is of neutral colour.

Original white balance setting

Corrected via Grey point.

Colour correction

The next step is 'Film': Here you can set your film type - like Colour, Black and White Sepia etc. and customize those by adjusting Saturation, Tint, Noise Reduction (very useful when using the higher ISO settings), Edge Enhance, Contrast and also apply Monochrome Filters.

These colour filters are common in traditional photography to compensate colour cast. The white balance settings are doing this job as well. But their usage still makes sense in black and white photography to push contrast in one tone and lower it in another. An orange filter for example intensifies the shades of a cloudy sky and a green filter does the same for the skin tones of a portrait. Both the R-D1's menu entry and the software Epson Photo Raw are able to simulate this effect. The lens attachments have been modelled on originals like:

R-D1 Green	R-D1 Yellow	R-D1 Orange	R-D1 Red
Kenko MC PO1	Kenko MC Y2	Kenko MC YA3	Kenko MC R1
	FujiFilm SC-48	FujiFilm SC-56	FujiFilm SC-56
	KODAK 8	KODAK 21	KODAK 25
TIFFEN #11GREEN	TIFFEN #8YELLOW	NIKON O56	TIFFEN #25RED
			NIKON R60

The next step is 'Special': Under this you can compensate a possible vignetting of your lens by choosing its focal length out of the list and adjusting the strength of the correction by using the slider for 'Intensity'. In addition, you can set the high light point and the shadow point of the image. The screenshots on the right show all the possibilities.

'Shooting Info' contains info on the conditions under which a shot was taken, such as ISO, Shutter Speed etc.

'Others' includes the help function but also the preference for setting the monitor profile. Set this in your first session prior to any developing you do and then restart the program to activate your monitor profile. This way you can be sure that the colour corrections you do on your RAW file have a sound basis. Please note this is of course only valid if you have a profiled monitor.

Final steps

After you have adjusted your image, click on the arrow-triangle on the right side of it to move it to the selection to be processed and proceed to the next image. PhotoRAW applies the settings you have just made to the next file as well as speeding up development of images taken under comparable conditions. You can also save those settings under 'Save'. If your next file is completely different, you can choose to move through all the steps, or if all settings at the time of exposure were set perfectly, choose 'As shot'.

When you have finished all the files you want to process, click on 'Process' and Epson PhotoRAW will start processing those files - while you take a well earned tea-break!

After processing your files, the software will ask you if you want those files removed from the selections, which in most cases means clicking 'OK'.