I sent my same workflow question to the "Guru" on the Yahoo Coolpix board. Larry Bolch is a genius with this stuff. His concise and explanatory reply is below. Now, I think I have a handle on this giant task. Thanks to all!
"Absolutely appropriate! Nothing could be more on-topic.
I avoid any Nikon software like the plague. Instead, I use Adobe Camera RAW
(ACR) which is closely integrated with Photoshop. If you have version CS2,
you also have Adobe Bridge, which lets you quickly preview and choose those
you want to work on. A very configureable and quick browser that works
perfectly with RAW. ACDSee is on my other machines and also works well for
viewing and managing.
I have a similar machine to yours, with a full terabyte of drive, with three
of the drives in a RAID Level 0 array. RAW images open almost instantly in
ACR. On the machine upon which I am writing, which is much older, they take
two to three seconds to open in Photoshop CS coming off a conventional
single drive. Once processed in ACR it takes about four seconds on this old
machine to be open in Photoshop. This would be more like one to two seconds
on the fast machine.
If you are running Windows XP, Microsoft has issued a tumbnailer and viewer
that works with most every file manager, for previews.
https://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/d...ophoto/raw.mspx
RAW is particularly appropriate in any situation where light is in any way
unusual - like underwater. RAW is not an image file, but rather a container
for transporting data off the sensor to a program that takes the place of
in-camera processing. When it emerges from ACR, for example, it is in the
same state as if a TIFF or JPEG were opened from the card. ACR takes the
place of the camera's processor. Of course, this gives incredibly fine
control over every aspect of the exposure - which the camera does not.
RAW is also 12-bits per channel, giving at least 3EV extra dynamic range.
ACR lets you click on a neutral tone with the eyedropper and the image is
instantly white-balanced. However, there are also colour temperature and
tint controls to fine tune it to what your eye demands, along with sliders
to set shadows, highlights and mid-tones, saturation, etc. There is noise
reduction and chromatic abberation controls as well. CS2's version provides
fine rotation, cropping and scaling. The RAW file itself never changes. ACR
saves the changes you make in either a database or in xml files, so next
time you open it, you will get it in the state in which you left it.
However, you can always go back and start from scratch again, as your skills
improve. It is often referred to as your "Digital Negative" and in some
aspects, it is not a bad description.
I expose my RAW images so as to preserve the level of highlight detail I
want, then use layers and layer masks to bring up the shadow detail, just as
if I were combining a bracket. I set the exposure in ACR so the background
image is based upon the highlight detail. Upon this image I build. I reopen
the RAW exposure, each time at +0.5EV more than the previous one, layer it
on the background image, click on the brightest highlight, feather the
selection and invert it. A click on the layer mask icon in the layers
palette automatically creates the mask, that shows the highlight detail from
the background image, without impacting on the mid-tones and shadow detail
of the lighter foreground layer. I use a tolerance of 32, which I find to be
ideal for the task.
Then it is a matter of merging the new layer with the background and
repeating the process until I have the shadow detail I want. This served me
very well on a trip to Las Vegas last fall. Most of the shooting was in
extreme lighting conditions and horrendous dynamic ranges. In some of the
shots, I did separate colour balances in various parts of the image, to
match lighting types, again using layers and layer masks to blend the
balances seamlessly.
http://www.larry-bolch.com/las-vegas/
Further examples of the power of RAW and ACR
http://www.larry-bolch.com/CP8400/
More on the technique of using layers to cope with extreme dynamic ranges at
http://www.larry-bolch.com/layers.htm
If the light is pretty much ideal, then by all means use JPEG. You will get
very good quality and much smaller files. For the ultimate control of every
aspect of the exposure prior to opening in Photoshop, use RAW.
larry!
ICQ 76620504
http://www.larry-bolch.com/" 
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