best way to process RAW images

I will be getting a copy of photoshop cs4 soon for FREE! (my brothers wife rocks), and I was wondering what is the best way to process RAW images. I have been using Canon's Digital photo professional for some time now, and love the results. But lots of people say that cs4 can produce better quality images. So I am now confused.

Are there any differences in end results if I process my RAW images initially with CS4, rather then with DPP?

Should I Process my RAW Images with DPP first, Convert them to jpeg, then send the jpegs over to CS4 for dust deletion, getting rid of objects, etc?

you can open the RAW file right up in Photoshop, no need to convert until after you are finished.

kingkongpennock wrote in post #10183450
Are there any differences in end results if I process my RAW images initially with CS4, rather then with DPP?

Actually, you'd be processing the raw files in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), not Photoshop CS4. When you install Photoshop CS4, it also installs Bridge CS4, a very powerful and versatile file management and image browsing application. You can browse and organise your raw files from within Bridge and open them in ACR directly from Bridge, never going to Photoshop at all.

Could you? yes. Should you? While some people prefer DPP over ACR for various reasons, ACR is a much more powerful raw editing engine. Once you complete your work in ACR you have the option to simply stop, convert to an image file format like jpg, tif, or PSD and save, or open the file in Photoshop for advanced editing and save it from there.

With all the money you will be saving, maybe invest in a good book...

It is very much a matter of (a) taste and (b) a workflow you like. Compare the two and make your own decisions. BTW, you will see a difference betwee ACR 5.6 (or earlier) and ACR 5.7 which uses a different demosaicing algorithm, so compare all three.

Switching your Raw processing from DPP to Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) can be disconcerting to people because of the way DPP uses the in-camera settings for White Balance, Color Tone, Picture Style, Noise Reduction and other settings to render the Raw preview to "look like the jpeg would" so that you have a "pleasing" starting point and you can change it around from there. ACR, instead, uses a "default" rendering that can for many images appear "flat", similar to what DPP would show for a picture in the Neutral or Faithful Picture Style.

So, it can be worth it for you to take the time to use DPP as a "reference" for those basic settings and then work in ACR to be able to meet and exceed the "look" you get in DPP.

ACR does have some very good tools that DPP lacks -- local adjustment brushes and gradients being the most noticeable, but also ACR has very good controls for targeted adjustments like targeted exosure controls, Clarity and Vibrance as well as the Hue, Saturation and Luminance panel for manipulating individual color channels that DPP doesn't have a good answer for. ACR also has refined sharpening controls that can get you a greater variety of effects.

All that being said, some people do prefer DPP over ACR, and you can easily "Transfer" a file to the Photohop editor for special work without first converting and saving a copy of the image. After you have installed CS4, check your DPP Tools menu to ensure that Transfer to Photoshop shows as an active choice. If it does not, you may want to re-install DPP, because that Transfer method is very useful.

You can also print from your Raw file directly out of DPP if you have a printer, and if you have a printer with ICC profiles you can color-manage your prints using your File/Print with detailed settings utility. With CS, you have to go through the Photoshop editor to print.

So, check them both out, just know that a Raw file with DPP processing won't show that processing in ACR (you would have to convert the file in DPP to either a tiff or a jpeg to show the processing) and vice versa -- DPP won't see processing from ACR in a Raw file. So, to have any cross-processing you would have to convert, like I say, to a tiff (best quality) or a jpeg if you want to process in both DPP and ACR. But, like I said, you can open a processed Raw file directly in Photoshop (as a tiff) to do the same things (local adjustments, cholor channel manipulation, etc) that ACR would do, just not as a Raw file.

thanks a ton for the reply's. I'll be sure to try different ways of doing my images, and see which way works best for me (quality of picture v.s. time management).