[Philoslothical]

I could not get much going at all with GIMP, didn't like the fact that I had to download another program just to open RAW files, then transfer them to GIMP

Which program? From the documentation, this shouldn't be necessary. Also, which raw format are you using, DNG or PEF, and does it have issues opening both?

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

Not sure which version you have, but mine has 3 sharpen options, one is a simple slider, one has 3 sliders for amount, radius and threshold, and has 4 tabs for edge balance, shadows, highlights and color mask, and it has a preview button. The third option is landscape sharpen which has 7 sliders for different settings. There is also a high pass filter with 4 sliders for different settings.

It's the latest version that I played with: 3.5.10. Maybe the other options are hidden in the menus somewhere or maybe you got them from additional plugins? I tried looking at all menu options but I only found one "sharpen" command, but I may have missed something.

But mine does not have a histogram in the curves control either.

Thanks for the confirmation - I thought maybe I was missing some configuration setting to turn it on.

I don't work much with layers, but have experimented some with them and have not noticed a slow down.

I did something like open a new layer from an existing image and then I couldn't figure out how to delete that additional layer - I kept clicking on the layers I had (original image and scaled down one) and I noticed a delay in switching between them.

Anyway, the inability to decompose the image is a more serious issue for me, because I use that for sharpening - I apply it in a single layer, not on the entire image.

I'm not into a lot of PP, so it works great for me. I could not get much going at all with GIMP, didn't like the fact that I had to download another program just to open RAW files, then transfer them to GIMP, and the cropping in GIMP is just funky.

I do all my RAW processing with the Pentax software, so this point is moot for me. I stopped looking for a better RAW processor than the Pentax one.

Anyway, for another software recommendation, I recently came over Picturenaut - a free HDR app:

Picturenaut Overview

I have yet to use it seriously, but first few trials were promising. Anyone knows of other free HDR software?

[bluestringer]

Which program? From the documentation, this shouldn't be necessary. Also, which raw format are you using, DNG or PEF, and does it have issues opening both?

UFraw is what the GIMP site recommended to open raw files. I'm using PEF, haven't tried any in DNG.

[Philoslothical]

Ah, might need it for PEF, it should be able to handle opening DNG by itself. UFraw is needed to save as raw files though, regardless of format.

[Ecaterin]

I had never heard of Sagelight until I read your post. Just for fun, I tried it out, and Nik Dfine, both sharpeners, and Color Efex all work with it so far.

Really! They've gotten all plug-in-with-it since I last used the program several years back. Good for them!

Btw, you reccomend Sagelight but are linking to Bibble.

Ooops! *goes to fix* Thanks for the heads-up

[goldenarrow]

OP,
Since you have Photoshop, you probably don't need much else other than experiment with Plug-ins. I tested Noise Ninja and NoiseWare and found NW to be better from what my eyes could see. YMMV, but I have heard good things about both. NW 7 plug-in does seem to work on 16-bit files and DNG files. I envy your ability to do layers in full blown Photoshop on 16-bit files. Looking for a (cheap) workaround....

[goldenarrow]

I use Corel PSP (presently version X4) it reads all formats and has reasonable tools and an intuitive interface.

The main downside was the CA correction which works by removing user selectable hues in defined widths around subjects, and is really more appropriately a fringe removal tool not CA correction.

True CA correction rescales the color layers, radially out from the middle, to reallign them. I was about to switch when I bought a plug in that does geometric rescalling for CA correction.

the only other minor issue is many corrections only apply in 8 bit color depth, as opposed to 16, so you must do all color, contrast, and histogram adjustments first in full copor depth, then downgrade to use the plugins.

Lowell,
I am curious about the CA correction plug-in you bought. Some lenses I have are plagued with CA disease. Would love it if it is reasonable cost and works with PSE 9.
Also, I have the same problem with plug-ins not working on 16-bit files as well as using layers. NoiseWare, the plug-in, does work on 16-bit files even within PSE 9. Maybe some other plug-ins will work too. Will be investigating.
GA