Raw images and Photomatix?

[jruberto]

Hi,

Do you folks process raw files first, then import jpg into Photomatix? Or do you use Photomatix to work directly with the raw?

I'm using Elements and Adobe Camera Raw to process the raw files. Its more comfortable for me to set white balance, colors, and noise reduction when I can see the image.

What do you guys do?

Thanks,

John

[MikeFairbanks]

Photomatix will take the raw images. They dont' have to be converted first.

[jruberto]

Hi,

Its simplier and quicker workflow to open the raws in Photomatix first, but are there advantages with processing them first? Do people get better results one way or the other?

Thanks,

John

[lkb-28]

Hi Guys;

In my experience, I find I get better results if I process the RAWs into TIFFs first (using DPP), and then use Photomatix to generate the HDRs from the TIFFs...

I have no idea why that should be - but it seems to work better that way for me...

I suspect that Photmatix can recognise any TIFF created (it's an industry standard), but needs to apply a generic conversion to the many types of RAW file out there in that big wide world... Even Canon can't make all it's RAWs compatible across the board!

Cheers;

Lee

[johnj2803]

I use photomatix in conjunction with lightroom. there is a plug in that allows you to go in between these programs and it is great!

[canonloader]

The Canon RAW format is a form of a TIFF, which I guess is why they can open in Photomatix. I just open the RAWs in PM, I can then adjust anything else in ACR by opening it as a RAW.

[jruberto]

Thanks for the info. I also found an answer from Trey Ratcliff. He was interviewed on this podcast (http://www.prophotoshow.net/blog/2009/04/14/pro-photography-podcast-57-photography-hdr-with-trey-ratcliff/). He asked the same question to the authors of Photomatix, and here is a summary (info about 1 hour 30 minutes into podcast)

Photomatix converts RAWs to jpg before any other processing. They recommended doing the conversion first, as it would likely be more accurate. Trey uses LR to convert from RAW to jpg, then batch converts the files with Photomatix to produce hdr files. Then he works with each hdr individually.