[trooper]

Hello, everyone;
I'm brand new to digital, I just got a K10D in order to use all my existing lenses. What an incredible machine! I've had a bit of experience fooling around with Elements 2.0 using film images put on disc as JPEGs by the processor. Now I'm interested in getting the most out of my new equipment. Is Elements 6 the best place for me to start? Will it allow capture and editing of my RAW images? If there's a better program for me to start with that's in the same price range, please let me know. I'm really looking forward to learning to edit my own stuff, I just need pointed in the right direction to start with. I really appreciate any input!!

ROB

[Cloudy Wizzard]

I guess it all depends on what you really want to do.

Photoshop Elements 6 is able to open the RAW files from my K100D (with Camera Raw) and it's not all that expensive.

On the other hand, if you are not into retouching that much but just want to do some basic "workflow" then Adobe Lightroom might be a better option (is a bit more expensive then Elements 6 though).

Basically Lightroom is targetting Photographers more then Photoshop Elements and CS3 are so Lightroom has some advantages over Elements (faster in it's RAW processing and easier to apply corrections on a bunch of poto's at once, like White Balance correction. But I think Camera Raw also support this ?).

Anyways, there are a lot of discussions here talking about Photoshop and Lightroom that give you a lot more information.

And you can always dowload Lightroom, Photoshop Elements 6, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 Photo, Ulead Image Magic (or so), ... and try them (I think ALL offer a 30 day trial) and then decide what's the right tool for you.

some people even swear bij the Gimp (is GPL licensed so it's FREE) with UFRaw for RAW support in the Gimp (also free software). but others claim the Gimp is not as good as Photoshop and even hard to use.

it's all about personal preference, and I'm personally pretty happy with Lightroom (but I also have Photoshop Elements 6 because I needed it for a Photography course I'm taking).

Also Lightroom allows to edit the picture further in CS3 or Elements 6 so you can do the basic 95% of the workflow in Lightroom and then retouch (like more advanced spot removal since lightroom only has some basic features for this) in the other one.

[jshurak]

i've said it once and I'll say it again! I swear by Lightroom. There was a good thread just the other day. Here's the link. I find I can get the most out of my RAW files in Lightroom. Although it is a bit more expensive than elements.

[TimeBandit]

I recommend that you check out Picture Window Pro. It's interface is pretty old school but you would be shortchanging yourself if you didn't try it out. I've been working with it (the 30 day demo) for a little over a week and I did myself a favor and printed out the instruction manual. The more I use it, the more I realize it's power and ease of use. It is the product of a photographer. One of the things that was a necessity for me is the 16 bit workflow.

[Kaimarx]

Capture One le is pretty good, probably the best out there for white balancing and colour profiling.....you really need to have a colour calibrated monitor to take advantage of the profiling though. Not very intuitive interface but its free if you buy a sandisk card, Luminous landscape rate it as the best developer on the market if your looking for image quality. I started with Capture and eventually went with Lightroom, which has a much more fluid workflow.

[Cloudy Wizzard]

Capture One le is pretty good, probably the best out there for white balancing and colour profiling.....you really need to have a colour calibrated monitor to take advantage of the profiling though. Not very intuitive interface but its free if you buy a sandisk card, Luminous landscape rate it as the best developer on the market if your looking for image quality. I started with Capture and eventually went with Lightroom, which has a much more fluid workflow.

I got the free LE edition with a SanDisk 1GB memory card I bought with my K100D Super but I don't think it supports the RAW files (at least I'm not able to open them in Capture One).

I even tried the latest Beta 2 of version 4 and I'm still not able to open the PEF files (maybe I do something wrong ?).

[Kaimarx]

Your out of luck buddy, apparently the K100d super is not supported by Capture as of yet. As i mentioned earlier Capture relies heavily on camera and colour profiling, its not just a matter of file format so the super being relatively new must have missed the boat when the developers were writing the code. Some smart cookies will figure out how to modify the application (hack) so that it can. I remeber some guy on DPR hacked an older version of Raw Shooter so that it could read the K10 a while back. Other than that you'll have to wait for an update or maybe the final release of v4.

[rogerstg]

For your first, why not try the Photo Browser/lab software that came free with your camera? Be sure to download the latest update from pentaximaging.com.

I like the easy ability to quickly browse raw files.

[davemdsn]

Although Lightroom has advantages over Elements, the same can be said of the reverse. First off, Elements is 1/3 the price of Lightroom. Other than price, the advantages of each can only be measured by the individual and user. Download trials of both and see which you prefer. Both are great.

One thing that no "photographer" should need is Photoshop CS3 Extended. Note the word extended. I have Photoshop CS3. The extended version has motion/animation features that most photographers are not likely to need, unless you also do motion web graphics.

The Pentax Photo Browser is a decent browser, but a horrible workflow tool and an even worse developer tool.

[KungPOW]

Hi Trooper,

I'm also new to this "digital photo" thing.

I tried the software that came with my camera (K100d), but it kept crashing.

Then I hit the web and started downloading free software and demos.

I tried Gimp. It does more then I understand. Eventually I am sure, I will need, and understand what it does.

I Downloaded Pant Shop Pro X2 demo. Good help files. Comfortable to figure out. Eventually I might buy it.

Then I thought...How do I sort all these photos I have? In another thread in this forum (sorry, I have no idea how to link), I found a recomendation for "idimager lite" (idimager.com | IDimager - Digital Image Management).

So far VERY impressed. It is FREE.

It has more filter, edit, colour change, adjust etc features then I thought existed. For now, it does everything I need.

It also is a GREAT at image cataloging. Check out the website. They explain it better then I could.

Oh, and I like your photo of the buck.

I need to figure out how to post photos here....

Eric.

[Bramela]

I would recommend, as a starter out, have a look at Photo Impact.
Try the free trial. I think it is a rather good program and well worth the look into.
Photo Impact 12 from Ulead.

[newmikey]

[Whisper] Try the PCLinuxOS Digital Photography Edition Digitale Fotografie Editie
[/Whisper]

It is like peddling drugs nowadays to suggest this to Photoshop addicts, but I'll stand by my advice. If you have nothing to unlearn, might as well go OpenSource right from the get-go.

Mike
PCLinuxOS.NL | PCLinuxOS, een verrassend eenvoudig Linux besturingssysteem voor de pc.

[Cloudy Wizzard]

[Whisper] Try the PCLinuxOS Digital Photography Edition Digitale Fotografie Editie
[/Whisper]

It is like peddling drugs nowadays to suggest this to Photoshop addicts, but I'll stand by my advice. If you have nothing to unlearn, might as well go OpenSource right from the get-go.

Mike
PCLinuxOS.NL | PCLinuxOS, een verrassend eenvoudig Linux besturingssysteem voor de pc.

I guess this in not a LiveCD that you can install ?

I'm wondering wat advantages it has (if any) over my Debian installation but I don't have spare hardware to install it on to test it.

[newmikey]

I guess this in not a LiveCD that you can install ?

It is a liveCD that is also installable to harddrive.