brianbrogan wrote:i have used lightroom to convert them but i still dont like the end product
what am i doing wrong?
The only think you are doing wrong is not understanding the power at your disposal when shooting RAW as versus JPEG. So, what's all this stuff about power? Well, you start out with 16-bit data (as versus 8-bit for JPEGs) which gives you enormous flexibility when in comes to PP ... don't like what you see? ... then change it to suit yourself.
Please understand the "starting point" ... is THE most important part of developing a RAW file and is totally up to what "you" like to see in a picture.
I shoot Canon and see you are shooting Nikon so my verbiage may sound a bit strange but here goes. There are camera specific picture styles (starting points) you can choose depending on your personal taste; for example, Landscape (highly saturated, very vibrant colors and very high contrast tone curve), Standard (somewhat saturated, fairly vibrant colors, and fairly high contrast), Faithful (my personal favorite offers moderate saturation, reasonably vibrant, and reasonable contrast), Neutral (typically not saturated enough for landscapes, low vibrance, and a not much contrast), Portrait (beyond description other than IMO it looks like garbage for human portraits).
I suggest you go to a photography forum (e.g. DPreview) and post some Nikon specific questions in the appropriate Nikon sub-forum to get a better understand of the words used to describe "Nikon starting points."
Shooting RAW gives you some latitude ... a JPEG with blown highlights can often be saved if you start out with the RAW as versus JPEG; a lot of folks shoot RAW strictly because of that latitude but please don't think this is the be-all-end-all. Even when shooting RAW I strongly advise you to auto-bracket +/- 2/3 stops to ensure you have at least one shot of the scene that's close to proper exposure (IMO if you shoot JPEG it's downright foolish not to auto-bracket).
So, is this going to be a cake-walk for you now that you have RAW files? Short answer ... NO ... if you are lacking PP skills then it's entirely possible that shooting JPEGs will give you better results (after all, camera manufacturers do their best to give you a very good picture based on their expectations of THE TYPICAL SCENE and their personal judgment of what the "starting point" ROOTC should look like). Like Clint Eastwood said in the movie ... do you feel lucky? ... do you think the Nikon engineer that came up his/her best guess of what a good picture will match your personal taste ... if you don't feel lucky then shoot RAW and control you own destiny.
Regards,
Joe Kurkjian
http://www.pbase.com/jkurkjia