[LaRee]

The first thing I do is to view the images I've uploaded off the card in Picasa. I haven't found a browser that I like as well. I would be lost without it. From there I have multiple programs that I use. Infraview, PSPX, CS2, RawShooter Premium, and at least six others I'm not mentioning. I wish ONE program could do everything I want well. But that program doesn't exist yet.

[dave sz]

photoshop cs3.........

[wmmk]

I know this is supposed to be one program, but ACR/bridge/PS CS2 were on the list, so I believe my answer also sort of fits. I use PSE 4 (mac) and bridge/ACR, but recently started using Lightroom in the place of Bridge and ACR. It's basically been a drop in replacement...

[davemdsn]

photoshop cs3.........

Awesome stuff, isn't it? I'm looking forward to adding Lightroom v1.0 to the arsenal.

[alesk]

RawShooter Essentials 2006 (now usable with the K10D thanks to blink_too_fast).

[Rupert]

Silkypix is the best I have found, and I've tried most all of them. It will do most everything, and the colors are superb.

[Dana G]

Since I've been in the business for a while, I have gotten used to Photoshop and Bridge. CS2 is really capable of pretty much anything, by now it's as familiar as an old shoe!!

It's also the industry standard. Clients expect you to use it and be farmiliar with it (even if they aren't) and when you do location work with a team of photographers it's good to have a common language.

Plus, I can take on post processing for photographers in the field, and communicate exactly what is needed.

CS3 and the new Bridge are awesome!! There are tools that you never knew you needed until you start using them and save time and money.

[Simon]

...I have gotten used to Photoshop and Bridge... It's also the industry standard.

I have a big problem with anyone saying that an application is "an industry standard", because it tends to become a self-fulfilling prophesy and a move towards a monopolistic situation.

There are plenty of people ready to speak out against Microsoft for it's methods of marketing Windows, or of incorporating a browser into the operating system. We could talk of Microsoft Word being the industry standard word processor, and it probably is. Why is that? Well, most people with Windows have it (or its little brother "Works") on their computer, and most of those use it. It produces files in a proprietary format which makes interchange with other Word users potentially easier than with those of other word processors. However, other word processors, for example that in Open Office, will accept Word format documents albeit that there might be occasional version incompatibilites. So is Word the industry standard word processor? Possibly. In an ideal world we would all be creating word processed documents in some independent standard format (maybe based on XML) and interchange with other applications would be seamless.

So, moving to image processing. Is there any need for an industry standard application? I would definitely say "No!". There are plenty of standard file interchange formats (jpeg, tiff, etc.) and providing your application will accept those and any proprietary ones you work with (pef, dng, etc.), it really doesn't matter what you use. If your output is also acceptable as input by those who do further work on your outputs and your output meets the quality requirements (fit for purpose) of your "customers" then it shouldn't matter what application you use.

As for having a common language and transferrability of skills, I find that there is at least a 90% fit between the applications I have used, which makes it a non-issue. In fact much more of an issue is the variety of ways in which a single result can be achieved within one application.

Given the number of people who criticise Microsoft for its near-monopoly in certain areas, I find it alarming that people are so ready to fall into promoting an Adobe monopoly of imaging.

I must admit that even I am ready to accept, for the time being, Adobe's near-monopoly of the universally interchangeable document (Acrobat), which was an excellent and far-sighted development in its time. With the spread of XML-based languages we should really now be seeing it overtaken by a truly universal, non-proprietary format.

Simon

[dudlew]

It was Photoshop, but my photoshop is borrowed, So I have been fooloing around with Elements, and thisk the it will be my new program of choice for editing, as all I normally do in Photoshop 7.0 I see I can do in elements. I may need more someday. and at that point iF I make alot of money from this hobby, the Phot Shop it will be. But until then, Elements seem fine.

D

[Tom Brown]

I'm another GIMP user, on Linux (CentOS 4.4, to be precise). When I shoot raw I use UFRaw to import the DNG files into GIMP.

Amen brotha!

I'm on AMD64 Debian over here but it all came from the same mother.

[CFWhitman]

I will vote Bibble for now, but that may change at any time.

I use Linux for photo editing (for most things other than computer games, actually), and Bibble was available and worked quite well in Linux. I started with it because of the lack of availability of a profile for my camera of the time to use with dcraw without buying either a program or a set of profiles.

Lately I have started experimenting with Lightzone for Linux (which is free of charge, though it is the same program available for Windows and Mac at a price). It is interesting at least. I'm not sure whether I will begin using it a lot or not.

For adjustments outside the range of what I'd do with a RAW converter, I have been using Cinepaint, since it handles 16 bit per channel color and is Free Software (open source). It is a bit unstable, but not nearly as much so as it was a few versions back.

I also now have RawStudio on my computer, which is also Free Software. It (the version I currently have, anyway) does not yet understand K10D PEF files, and I am uncertain how it will cope with K10D DNG files, but I intend to find out. It really is still beta software, but it looks somewhat promising. There are not a lot of extra features for it yet, however.

[gpaual]

hi,....interesting poll.......as an artist i was encouraged to explore, bend rules, adopt and adapt,....the only rule being- to maintain the integrity of a piece and to use whatever means necessary to enhance the clarification of intent, and vision.
That was many years ago, and i long ago laid aside the brushes to revert back to photography for health reasons. I had zero computer skills, knew nothing about digital photography much less about ps or other image editing programs . Over the past few years i have taught myself these skills as well as taken a digital photography class......during this time i played in at least a half dozen programs trying to find the best tools and the most consistent workflow from caprture to print. I went through pentax' browser and lab', RSE & RSP, corel, Elements 3,4,5.....pshop 7, 8, 9......following some training in the digital media i became aware of some of the hidden powers in pshop, and now exclusively use ACR, bridge and cs2....soon to become 3......i do own software such as alienskins Exposure ( great tool ) but restrict my use of it for special effects ,only if i am confronted with the inability to produce the effects myself.
......Bottom line is......the right tool is, the one that works............

[Buschmaster]

I use iPhoto for just about everything, it does everything I typically need it to do. I do have Photoshop, but rarely need it for photographs.

[Brew1brew]

Amen brotha!

I'm on AMD64 Debian over here but it all came from the same mother.

I second that!! I bibble pro to convert to DNG/JPG and gimp if I need to resize or manipulate things. Bibble now has many really nice plugins for things like B&W and noise reduction.

I'm on Mandriva 64 on an AMD 64 sempron.

Les

[baw]

I use iMatch for all my image management tasks. Awsome.
Still looking for a RAW converter. Perhaps Lightroom..