RAW & Your Photos

Hey Everyone,

I just got back from spain today with a memory card almost full of images (122) and it is my first full shoot that i took every image in RAW.

What application do you use to process your RAW images? i have Elements 4.0 which has built in RAW processing tools but am interested to know what others use.

Many Thanks
R.

Photoshop CS2 and now the new CS3.

Loving CS3 right now.

CS3 is something i need to add to my shopping list i think.

Elements is a cut down version does anyone else use this method and how do u find it? Do you use any particular settings or do you try to 'tweak' each photo as a individual.

If you shoot Canon, their Digital Photo Professional works well, and its free.

I never use ACR in Elements... just too bare-boned, and feature stripped.

Squeaky_clean's idea is the way I'd go for staring off in RAW... Canon's DPP is much better than Elements implementaion of ACR...

I use Lightroom myself... (Was $170 when I bought it) because I don't need all the tools available in CS3 (nor can I afford it). So for me Lightroom + Elements is a good combo... I get great Raw processing, with more features than even CS3's ACR, plus Elements for my further editing work with layers, sharpening, filters, etc.

I do 90% of my processing in Lightroom and finish up in CS3.

i use Capture One LE for raw developing.

I use Photoshop Elements 5, and I'm reasonably satisfied with the built-in RAW converter. It gets the job done.

@ davidcrebelxt: I'd be interested to know what I'm missing.

Lightroom

there are three threads on the FIRST page of this forum that basically ask the same question. i'm a newbie and even i'm annoyed, how do you oldies deal with the same question OVER and OVER, time and again????

cheers to you who keep answering!

StewartR wrote in post #3202760
I use Photoshop Elements 5, and I'm reasonably satisfied with the built-in RAW converter. It gets the job done.

@ davidcrebelxt: I'd be interested to know what I'm missing.

Check out this page, although showing screenshots from ACR 3.1 I think its still about the same, correct me if I'm wrong.
http://www.bioneural.n​et …n-acr-31-in-pse-3-vs-cs2/

You'll notice that there are tabs in the CS2 version of ACR, while Elements has only a single panel... the "full" ACR includes tools for dealing with fringing (chromatic abberation), curves for better tweaking of contrast, and Calibrate tab for adjusting ACR to your Camera (ACR can't read the calibration that's apparently embeded into the RAW file, while Canon's software can... each person's mileage may vary, but for me this causes some severe color shifts... reds go orange, and an overall greenish tint to the image.)

I'm not positive about how it works in CS2's ACR... but in Lightroom I can set a presets, to apply to a single image or a group of images... (ie: could set a calibration preset, and first apply that to all my .CR2's to give me a good starting place to edit them.) Plus I have recovery slider for highlight recovery, more color sliders, can crop and rotate/straighten in RAW, remove dust spots, and more.

Elements ACR reminds me of the limited RAW controls in Zoombrowser, except that in Zoombrowser the colors look good to start with, whereas in Elements ACR the initial RAW conversion always looked like crap until I did some heavy tweaking. I just found DPP to do much better, and in less time... and now using Lightroom (since I've got a halfway decent calibration preset, finally) I'm enjoying the extra tools there too. Lightroom's been described as ACR on steroids, as far as the develop side of things go... but from what I've heard it's fairly close to ACR in CS3 as far as image adjustments go.

lookingforaname wrote in post #3204043
there are three threads on the FIRST page of this forum that basically ask the same question. i'm a newbie and even i'm annoyed, how do you oldies deal with the same question OVER and OVER, time and again????

cheers to you who keep answering!

I try not to be like those in some other forums (I will leave those forums unnamed for now (starts with an A ) that will bash newbies for their honest questions...

If I get tired of answering, I just don't answer, and let someone else do it for awhile. Plus, someone will usually point them to another thread where its been discussed at length. I try not to be too lengthy with my posts (believe it or not) so sometimes I keep a little something for the next time a topic comes up, or share something I've learned in the mean-time.

I've actually found nearly everyone here to be quite helpful, and even when tempers flare or disagreements arise, most users tend to chill out and agree to disagree, and move on.

Just upgraded from Photoshop CS2 to Photoshop CS3 Extended. Best upgrade decision I have made in a loooooong time.

Apple Aperture. I can breeze through hundreds of photos, picking the best, and getting them developed much faster then I could when I used CS2 alone. Most people on this board use lightroom, but if you have a Mac, I prefer Aperture.

I'm a Bibble fan - I can do almost everything there with only occasional need for Photoshop.