Shots coming out black or nearly black. I'm shooting in RAW. When I try and rescue them on photoshop they come out really grainy

The raw+fine setting indicates that your camera will take both raw (NEF) and high resolution JPEG pictures with every shot. You can change this to shoot just JPEG or just raw shots using your menu under the little camera icon. Click on image quality and it will give you multiple settings so you can choose only raw or only JPEG. You have three JPEG settings: fine, normal or basic.


I always shoot raw+fine which I think may be the default setting. I use the jpeg pictures for simple and quick editing and I use raw for detailed editing. JPEG pictures deteriorate quickly during editing while raw pictures can handle extensive editing without significant deterioration.

When you shoot raw+fine, it means the camera is actually storing two pictures of the same shot, one in each of the two formats. When you view the pictures in Windows, you can tell the difference between the raw shots and the jpeg shots because the raw shots have a broad black bar across the top and bottom of the picture while the jpeg shots fill the screen.

Those two image files have got to have different prefix letters maybe the same file number but the files are way different as one is shot in a jpg format and the other in a RAW format. Your camera is much more powerful that you think and the features exceed most all point and shoot. What you need to do is change the Recorded Pixels this is on page 80 of the manual I'm going to suggest "L" Large for the best printable quality in a jpg picture.
2 screen shots for this



Note to change the setting you have which is including both RAW and jpg you need to turn off the RAW recording. It's a bit confusing but I'm trying to show your the screen shots with these sequences and that's proving difficult in it's own because it's over multiple pages.
Here is what I've got to show you




The short answer is you need to shut off the RAW recording of an image.

If your camera did not come with the software to convert RAW images, and your computer does not have a photo editing program with a raw converter built-in, there are editing programs you can purchase such as Photoshop Elements (about $99) that can do the job and much more.

To start, before building an action or a droplet to convert from Raw, you need at least either the RAW plugin, or the photoshop lightroom plugin, depending on the version of Photoshop. I assume you have the plugin installed on your Photoshop. See: Adobe - Adobe Photoshop CS4: Digital camera raw file support.

A better choice would be having the Nikon Capture NX , that give you the option to work on the native RAW format from Nikon.

Once you have installed a plugin to manage RAW format files you can record an action or droplet to automate the process. If youj want more automation, you set an action first, as a batch process to do action on a single file, then build a droplet on the action batch file. A droplet will give more automation, since droplets can be activated by dropping a folder of images onto that specific Droplet Process, and they will apply the batch process to all the files contained in the folder.

The way you build the batch action depends much on the version of Photoshop you are using and on the plugin used. Here an example using Adobe PS CS2 and camera Raw plugin: Raw Format Workflow with Adobe Bridge .

The action can be saved using the recorder, so that the procedure will de quite instinctive. See the tutorials below for step-by-step instructions.

See also:

Adobe - tutorial : Lights, camera, action!

Batch Processing Camera RAW images in Photoshop CS

Creating a Droplet : Adobe Photoshop Tutorial

Batch Processing Camera RAW images in Photoshop CS

I believe I have found my problem. I think my image stablizer on my lens is on the brink! I turn it off and got good pictures.

hi jill.
if you have photoshop cs2, here's the direct link for the S6500fd photoshop plugin download from adobe. Photoshop should open raw after you've installed this:

http://download.adobe.com/pub/adobe/photoshop/cameraraw/mac/3.x/DNG_Camera_Raw_3_7.dmg

Here's  the adobe downloads centre link in case you need to check up on everything & the installation instructions.

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/thankyou.jsp?


Good luck!
Andy.

I haven't come across that particular problem as of yet. My only questions is; why shoot both RAW and JPEG at the same time? It would be memory consuming. I shoot only RAW unless I'm shooting sporting events.
I typically use Canon's DPP software to download from the camera, so I've not lost an image. I may have to take some test shots using your method to see what happens. I run Vista, so we'll see.

Photoshop does support the RAW file type. But you have to install a plugin for it to work. The installation is pretty simple.

go to http://www.adobe.com/downloads/
it is in there.

grainy pictures are possibly casued by a very high ISO (sensativity) setting, you should be on 100 or lower for best normal shots. Higher settings are for low light and custom shooting in strange lighting or aperature/shutter speeds. Try full auto setting.

Open Photoshop CS3, go to Help and then choose Updates. After a quick check, the Adobe Updater should show you any available updates. Camera RAW 4.3 should be an option if you are not up to date

hope this helps.