PBase

Excuse my ignorance, entirely new to digital cameras/PC - using borrowed DSLR.

Anyway, assuming I'm shooting RAW, once of the memory card and onto the PC is TIFF the format I should be converting to/saving as for possible future adjustments/cropping/printing?

Also, hopefully getting own PC next month (using sons at the moment, when available), which application would you people recommend for a novice user. I have been using Photoshop CS, but feel it is beyond my skill and pocket.

TIFF Is not bad. But typically people do RAW -> Native editing format (Photoshop PSD for example) -> Output format (TIFF, JPEG,).

All adjustments are done in the native format then reconverted to the output format.

The main reason is because of layers and masks. Once you get used to them you never want to go back. You don't have to use Photoshop CS but it is worth learning. For cheaper alternatives look at Corel and Adobe Elements. For free the Gimp is really good but harder than Photoshop to use (IMHO).

Good luck...

So PSD would be preferable to TIFF. I'm currently using my sons Photoshop (and PC, and camera come to that), am I right in thinking I will still be able to open PSD files in Elements - I'm likely too be getting that when I buy my own PC in the next few weeks?

Also, what about the DNG format?

I watched a tutorial this week (Better Digital Photography) which used that in the 'workflow'. Am I right in thinking there's no need for it if one keeps the original RAW/NEF files and has processed to PSD?

Correct... DNG is a standardized version of RAW. Its actually a good idea but I don't see anybody else adopting it on the other tools so it forces you to become locked into Adobe. I like Adobe but things change and I may want more freedom in the future.

PSD can be opened in Elements some features are not supported but until you need them you won't miss them.

A very short overview about programs for photographers. All programs without licence cost, except Bibble. All programs running with Linux (I don't have windows)

• RAW Studio is for converting RAW Files. Only available for Linux
• RAW Therapee is a very powerful RAW converter, but needs resources. Available for Linux and Windows. Currently my favourite
• ufraw is also for converting RAW Files (Linux/Windows).
• Bibble is also a RAW converter. (Linux/Windows). Trial version (30 days) available.
• ImageMagick is a very powerful command line tool for image preparation. (Linux/Windows)
• exiftool is a command line tool for manipulating exif data, e.g. copy exif data from a RAW File to another file, or extract it into HTML format. (Linux/Windows)
• dcraw is a fast running command line tool e.g. for extracting jpg preview from RAW file (Linux/Windows)