Levels, sharpening, NS in raw editor or image editor?

[EricT]

Hey,

Do you use your raw editor or image editor to perform these tasks? I seem to correct exposure and white balance in my raw editor, then switch to GIMP for adjusting levels/curves, cropping, sharpening, noise reduction and general touch up.
I normally apply more than one round of sharpening, a lot of raw editors only let you apply one unsharp mask.
I was just wondering if this is a good approach, and what you guys do?

[RBellavance]

The raw converter I use (UFRaw) does not (yet) offer any sharpening option. I adjust exposure (including curves), white balance and noise reduction (it features a very effective "wavelet" noise-reduction algorithm) in it, then switch to Gimp for additional PP (rotate, clone/heal, etc), cropping/resizing and sharpening.

I will sometimes crop directly in UFRaw, when the original shot was intentionally done with the intent to crop.

[dosdan]

Originally Posted by EricT

Hey,

Do you use your raw editor or image editor to perform these tasks? I seem to correct exposure and white balance in my raw editor, then switch to GIMP for adjusting levels/curves, cropping, sharpening, noise reduction and general touch up.
I normally apply more than one round of sharpening, a lot of raw editors only let you apply one unsharp mask.
I was just wondering if this is a good approach, and what you guys do?

I use PPL and I much prefer the tone curve in it to the one in GIMP.

Theoretically, since you are using GIMP, as am I, and it is currently only 8-bit, you should do as much sharpening, NR and colour correction as you can in the RAW converter since you are working with a larger bit-length. This greatly reduces the risk of posterization (banding). For an example see:

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glos...ization_01.htm


I think cropping can be done just as effectively in either. Not sure about rotation for levelling.

If and when GIMP becomes 16-bit, you should be able to export from the converter in 16-bit TIFF format and do more work afterwards with less problems.

Dan.

[tcdk]

I do everything in Lightroom 2. The only time I start gimp is to pp other peoples (8bit) photos.
Oh, and to see if they fixed the GUI and added a liquify function...
Don't have PS anymore...

[bymy141]

I use Lightroom for 95% of my PP, except for sharpning and noise reduction. Therefore Bibble Pro works best.

- Bert

[EricT]

Originally Posted by RBellavance

The raw converter I use (UFRaw) does not (yet) offer any sharpening option. I adjust exposure (including curves), white balance and noise reduction (it features a very effective "wavelet" noise-reduction algorithm) in it, then switch to Gimp for additional PP (rotate, clone/heal, etc), cropping/resizing and sharpening.

I will sometimes crop directly in UFRaw, when the original shot was intentionally done with the intent to crop.

Yes, I've tried ufraw, didn't really like the GUI. Currently I use Greysctoration in GIMP for noise reduction. It is also very effective, albeit very complex.

[EricT]

Thanks for the replies, I guess I should start doing more in my raw editor when possible.
Does anyone know of a raw editor that allows multiple unsharp masks?

[davemdsn]

I do everything possible while still in the RAW state and not open the image in a destructive editor until I have done all I can with the RAW editor.