Any suggestion for ACR and color space

[Edrod13]

I have been shooting JPG for about a year or ever since I got my D50. Little by little my pics have improved and even though I don't post very much I am pretty much here at the cafe daily for a couple of hours at least. I have had CS2 for some time and just last night, I updated my ACR plugin so that it would recognize my NEF files.
I have just decided that since so many are shooting raw then maybe I should give it a try. I took some pics around the house and I really like the flexibility that I can get with a raw file. I also like that the NEF file will remain unchanged regardless of what I do with it. I would like to see if I can get some advice from people who are using ACR. Since I had no idea on how to use it, I kind of just messed around with it. Here is what I have done to edit a couple of pics.

1. Open file with ACR
2. Adjusted WB, Exposure, brightness and contrast if necessary
3. Saved as TIFF
4. Open TIFF in CS2 and just sharpened a bit
5. Saved as JPG and thats it.

So each for each NEF file I also have a .xmp file, TIFF, and JPEG (glad HDD's are cheap). Here is a few things I am not sure about: 8-bit file, 16-bit file, AdobeRGB (1998), sharpening by default is set to 25, eveytime I open a file I get an flashing exclamation mark that goes away. I pretty sure I can think of more, but I have probably already bored most of you.

If anyone has a simple workflow that I could mess around with since I am pretty new at raw, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[goofball]

I find that even after using acr, i still play with levels most times, curves sometimes. You could add that to try as well.

I try not to use brightness/contrast but use levels/curves. Personal preference, I suppose, but I find my results better using those 2.

 

[Edrod13]

Thanks goofball. Yeah a couple of times I found myself in CS2 making additional adjustments since I felt the pic needed it. Hopefully I will get some more feedback.:biggrin:

 

[hotrod4x5]

You don't need to save as TIFF simply to open it, sharpen it and save as JPEG. Skip the TIFF step, simply open after making your adjustments, sharpen, then save as jpeg. ACR saves your adjustments in a seperate file, so you can always go back and adjust the raw without starting over.

 

[Edrod13]

Thanks for the advice. I see what you mean about skipping the TIFF part. I visited your site and read your profile. I just graduated from CSUF this past December with a BA in mathematics but will walk in a few weeks. Thanks

Eddie