jpeg TO raw conversion

[daptonema]

I've just got back from my first trip with my new underwater setup (OLY SP350 and Ikelite housing). Most of my photos were taken in JPEG as it was the first trip and I wanted to work on composition and bouyancy etc while getting some photos to send home rather than being concerned with great photos that I would spend time editing.

Some of them have turned out quite well and the "I'm feeling lucky" section of picassa has had some good results. However, on the last day I tried the RAW settings. I now want to kick myself as the corrections I can do in RAWShooter are making even blurry badly composed photos look really nice!

I have played with some settings in photoshop for the JPEGs but wondered whether there was a way to convert jpegs to RAW so that I could use RAWShooter to do the corections. Altenatively is there a freeware package that can do the same sort of editing (multiple images to compare changes, simple sliders etc) for JPEGs.

I know that I should have shot RAW from the begining and will from now on but it would be nice to improve the jpegs even if it's only half as much as the RAW images.

Any help appreciated.

 

[Warren_L]

As far as I know, once an image is in jpg, you've lost image data and it is not possible to restore to the original RAW file, unfortunately.

 

[dhokens]

There's really no way I know of to get a RAW file from a JPG. Like you, I shot JPG on my first couple of dives with my new UW setup. Luckily I had my laptop along to view my results. I switched to RAW and never shot JPG again. So much better control and no fussing around with manual white balance during the dive.

I used Adobe Lightroom (free Beta version thru sometime in Feb I believe) to improve my JPG files shot on my first couple of dives. It allows the same controls as are found in Adobe Camera Raw to edit files, so adjusting white balance is very easy. The results are still better with an original RAW file, but it's amazing what you can do relatively easily. I also like the workflow in this program, so I may end up getting it too when it's officially released even thou I also have PS CS2.

 

[Tanker299]

Hi daptonema,

Once an image is in JPG or any other file format, you can not go back to RAW. That format is the first stage on the digital workflow if you shot that way.

Other than white balance and some preliminary corrective work on the lens aberration side, you can make a lot of modifications while in JPG, including sharpening the image quite a bit if you think they are blurry.

Some of the low end Adobe tools, i.e. Lightroom, can help a lot, but for the best results, Photoshop is the way to go IMHO.

Good luck and let us know how the images turned out, maybe post some?

Thanks !

Alex

 

[String]

Yeah theres no point in jpg to raw.

In the process of JPG compression the actual raw data is lost (its not a lossless compression) so therefore cannot be recovered by converting the file.

As above though you can do quite a lot with even a JPG file so all is not lost.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

I agree with what has alredy been written, there is no way to convert from Jpeg to RAW.

There are a couple of things you might want to do before doing anything else, convert your Jpegs to TIFF. Also, make copies of the originals and only work on the copies. In essence, keep an original set because every time you do something in Jpeg and then save and close, you are re-compressing the file and losing data.

Really, you never want to work on an original file, always work on a copy.

Jeff

 

[daptonema]

Thanks for the help.
I know that information is lost but I was looking at a way to be able to edit a large number of images quickly (I've lost hours in photoshop getting one image looking just right to then have to leave the rest unedited!). I wanted to use RAWSHooter as it does excatly what I want for most of my images but I can't use jpegs. Adobe Lightroom seems to be a useful tool but I've only got the beta trial. Does anyone know of a freeware alternative that works in a similar way to RAWShooter or Lightroom?

 

[String]

I tend to use PSD (photoshop). Immediately save the camera JPGs to a CD then create a copy of them all as PSDs which i then edit.

Also another trip is dont resize then edit, edit first THEN resize.

 

[AndyT]

Probably not quite what you wanted to do but ........ http://www.digitaldiver.net/yabbse/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=21280

 

[Jeff Toorish]

Thanks for the help.
I know that information is lost but I was looking at a way to be able to edit a large number of images quickly (I've lost hours in photoshop getting one image looking just right to then have to leave the rest unedited!). I wanted to use RAWSHooter as it does excatly what I want for most of my images but I can't use jpegs. Adobe Lightroom seems to be a useful tool but I've only got the beta trial. Does anyone know of a freeware alternative that works in a similar way to RAWShooter or Lightroom?

If you use Photoshop, you could write an action to batch convert to TIFF and then use Rawshooter, I suppose.

See if this program will do it: http://www.tucows.com/preview/313592

Jeff