RAW recruit!...little help please :-)

[Scho]

just spent the last couple of days in the big smoke photographing hotels and guess what?

i shot RAW!

arn't you all proud of me?

i've used lightroom before as a demo and it was ok, i'm not mad keen on those programs that try to organise my files for me, apperture did that and it drove me mad. anyone reccomend a good bit of software?

I'l post up some pic's in the morn :-)

sort me out and i might end up a fully reformed charachter.

ta

rick.

[V6GTO]

CS3

[beano500]

Lightroom

Scho said:

i've used lightroom before as a demo and it was ok, i'm not mad keen on those programs that try to organise my files for me,

With Lightroom you can just dump all your files in one place, the fact that the Library function can help you by sorting them a billion different ways has to be a plus. For example I export them by date, put keywords in the Metadata files en masse and can still sort by, say, the lens I shot with.

The develop options I use all the time, and you can set up favorite treatments easily, the slideshow settings and impromptu slide show are both useful; and in fact the latter is great for sorting out what you've got. I must confess I don't use the web and print settings, but it's worth it for me for the rest.

[RobDickinson]

Download Google Picasa (II).

Excelent little freebie app.

[trackdemon]

Scho said:

i shot RAW!

Are you a crap photographer who cant get it right in camera?

[Yellabelly]

[quote=trackdemon
Are you a crap photographer who cant get it right in camera?
[/quote]

Someone call me?

Is Capture one worthwile? I've downloaded it but not had much of a play, yet. (I have a spare access code if some one mails me offline)
YB

[Rude Girl]

I still use RawShooter, principally because once I'd gone through the manual for that, I didn't really feel I had enough life left to do it again for a different application!

Sounds like it might be time to have a look around at what else there is...

[Bacardi]

Good for you Rick

I too don't care for libraries and treat every job I do as a separate job organised in it's own folder, suits my brain better rather than have everything I've ever shot available in one library. Nothing wrong with that and some people obviously like it, but each to their own. Here's some (including two already mentioned), of the more popular converters you can try:

http://www.iridientdigital.com/products/rawdevelop...
http://www.breezesys.com
http://www.lightcrafts.com/products/index.html
http://bibblelabs.com
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.wo... (mac only, has library ability. I don't care for it, a bit slow in bringing out support for newer cameras and sluggish on anything but the latest macs.)
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom (same result as Adobe camera raw inside PS but stand alone with library ability)

Plus of course camera manufacturers own software like Nikon's NX or Canon's Digital Photo professional.

I have tried all the them and retry them from time to time. Some are faster, have other features etc. The user interface comes down to personal preference. I'm interested in the quality of end result so speed and bells and whistles are not necessarily that important. Out all those above my preference would be Lightroom or ACR.... but that's only if Capture One didn't exist:

http://www.phaseone.com/Content/Software/ProSoftwa...
http://www.phaseone.com/4/

I find that 95% of the time, captures opened in C1 have better, more accurate colour, detail, with far less effort.* There are two versions, Capture One Pro 3.7.8 and Capture One 4 has the new interface but is the limited, cut down version. I use Pro as I prefer the way it sets out 'sessions' and manages my captures, trashed and processed files. C14 is still very much work in progress.

(*N.B. This is my experience with cameras that I own and use. It's possible that a camera's RAW file may yield a better result using different software, you'll have to do your own testing)

Any of these Raw converters take time to learn, but if you put the time in, it's quite easy to get your workflow down to second nature and they will reward you with better results.

Some further reading to help you understand RAW:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/unders...
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/rawtruth1...

HTH

[Simpo Two]

trackdemon said:

Are you a crap photographer who cant get it right in camera?

He just needed an iron

[Bacardi]

Simpo Two said:

trackdemon said:

Are you a crap photographer who cant get it right in camera?

He just needed an iron

Went completely over my head........ until I looked at the other thread...