[pakuchn]

I have a PC and I want to shoot RAW and do some processing. I already own CS4Extended, Lightroom 2.5, Phase One, and ACDSee Photo.

Just wanted to see what you all use.

Thanks.

Peter

[attack11]

I have a PC and I want to shoot RAW and do some processing. I already own CS4Extended, Lightroom 2.5, Phase One, and ACDSee Photo.

Just wanted to see what you all use.

Thanks.

Peter

"own" or "use" ? that's one hell of an expensive collection. i'm a photoshop/acr user.

[pakuchn]

30 Day trials. I'm testing them out.

[UnknownVT]

I have a PC and I want to shoot RAW and do some processing. I already own CS4Extended, Lightroom 2.5, Phase One, and ACDSee Photo.

It really depends on whether you really want to use RAW as your primary format.

If so then your "workflow" as many call it, may then be the main consideration.

Many people like LightRoom -
I tried it in the LR3 Beta form and it was way too slow on my PC for any form of meaningful previewing (corroborated by LR users)

LR3 Beta really dealt with one folder/directory at a time - if one has many photos from a single session in a single folder (the way I organize my photos) then I found LR3 Beta a real PITA to preview and select just the RAW photos I wanted from that directory.

This means I really have to preview the photos using something separate like FastStone - then either delete the photos I don't want (not my way of doing things) or literally separate out select the photos I want and placing them in another single folder, then use LR3 to "preview" and process - like I said a real PITA.

I tried the latest version of ACDsee and was very impressed with its speed and intuitiveness -
BUT and it is a BIG BUT - the latest version does NOT yet support the K-x - and it may never support some of the more esoteric in-camera settings non-JPG standard - like Highlight Protection...... so I ended up with DNG conversions that looked really awful and it took a really good amount of work to even approach the paired JPG which were about as good as I expected. So for me ACDsee was out, as it did not yet support my K-x.

ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) I actually found pretty good it was reasonably intuitive - did not have its own slow organizer - merely used windows explorer so was reasonably quick - I used it with PhotoShop Elements 7 and its interface with that was more or less seamless. If the file was RAW it opened in ACR if it was JPG then it opened in Elements. ACR unlike LR3 was reasonably fast I actually quite liked it - but whether people like it or not - to me it added another step to my workflow photo processing. As any DNG/RAW requires using ACR to convert first before I could do any regular manipulation.

The Pentax Digital Camera Utility supplied with the K-x works quite well - but obviously does not interface with any of my editors which means conversion (good as it was) was a completely separate step from the editing/post processing/manipulation - so get relegated for converting photos one or a small number at a time.

Of course many will point out RAW processing with the right program will allow for "Non-Destructive" processing - this is true for the conversion ONLY - no prgram I know of, will preserve non-destructively the post-processing manipulations in the editor part which is where I spend most of my time.

Think on this, if one puts in a macro/script or allows the RAW processor to use the default camera settings - if one is lucky the rendition turns out the same as the paired JPG - so the non-destructive part only preserves the real RAW which allows one to backtrack to something before the JPG rendition - which to me is only useful if I am not happy with the JPG rendition - which is not often as I always try to have my camera settings so that the JPGs look right in the camera.

Yes, RAW gives more flexibility and sometimes gross errors can be corrected like the wrong white balance. BUT as my experience with ACDsee shows RAW is not a panacea or magic bullet they canNOT correct for some errors - like no profile for the camera -
and if it were that flexible then why doesn't everyone shoot at ISO200 for max quality with the attendant gross underexposure, with any old white balance, don't even bother to focus.... then correct for them in RAW processing?
- now just about everyone will laugh say that's just stupid -
why? because that is a limitation of the whole photographic system (including RAW) -
one cannot get something from virtually nothing -
so RAW is not magic - it is useful within pretty normal photographic limitations.....
as is JPG!

I am not anti-RAW - as I feel every and anyone should be able to use their cameras any way they want -
it is just not for me -
and boy, have I tried to use RAW as can be seen in this long thread:
Do people really shoot in JPEG??? starting with post # 154 -
but for the short version see Posts #151, #182, #154, #161

[dragonfly]

RAW is obviously not needed for all images, but there are times when you want to adjust a portrait and improve the contrast between your subject and the background. In RAW I find that I can do that more subtly and more effectively. I also get good results when I try to salvage poorly meetered pics. Lightroom has an AUTO button, and I think it converts the image to the camera JPEG settings (although I could be wrong).

[pakuchn]

Thanks everyone for such detailed information.

When I had a Nikon D40 and still do but my sister has it. I used to shoot in RAW and then import them to Capture NX2. And it worked out very well. It was easy to add some color, change white balance, etc. Even my wife was able to modify some pictures and make things look better, different, etc. But, I will be honest with you all, I'm very surprised that it's so hard for me to find a tool, a program where I can import 1 picture or 50 pictures and change white balance, add saturation, contrast, etc.

Anyways, thank you all for your feedback.

[UnknownVT]

I'm very surprised that it's so hard for me to find a tool, a program where I can import 1 picture or 50 pictures and change white balance, add saturation, contrast, etc.

If that is all you want to do
then the supplied Pentax Digital Camera Utility/SilkyPix will do that well.

As will ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) - however it needs either PhotoShop or PS Elements.

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Last edited by UnknownVT; 01-25-2010 at 10:17 AM. Reason: typo

[Marc Sabatella]

I have a PC and I want to shoot RAW and do some processing. I already own CS4Extended, Lightroom 2.5, Phase One, and ACDSee Photo.

Just wanted to see what you all use.

I'd suggest reading the very many existing threads in the post processing forum on this topic, and then if you still have specific questions, start a new thread there.