You are not logged in
Login
Register
Home
Advertise here
Shop @ Photojojo!
Magnetic Photo Rope - $12
8 so-tiny-yet-so-mighty neodymium magnets hold your photos to a thin steel cable you can hang just about anywhere. Now in 5 colors! More →
|
1 2 3
ben-s
269 days ago
|
|
iwampole: DPP is a strong contender if you're using an SLR or the G10.
I have been using DPP for several years now, and like it generally, but it doesn't support the G9's RAW files. As the G9 is my walk around camera, this is a real pain for me.
After my initial tests, I gave up on the G9's RAW mode for quite a while, until I accidentally put it back into RAW and shot a few photos.
Thus I had a bunch of files I couldn't use!
I searched around a bit and downloaded Raw Therapee, which is free; it works, albeit rather slowly.
This meant that I had different workflows for the images from the SLRs and the compact, which is really inconvenient.
I've been looking at software to fix this problem, and I think I've finally found something I like - Phase One's Capture One 4 Pro (how's that for a mouthful?).
I have the trial version at the moment, so I think I'll have to be finding a small fortune to buy it soon...
|
Joanie H
269 days ago
|
|
I've just been trying out DPP and it's not bad. Very minimal tools, making it easier to work with them. However, I don't much care for the curves as it's hard to grab the line you want to make adjustments. Still, once you've made preliminary adjustments, you can save both Raw and JPG files to use with whatever photo editing tool you later use. I've gone back in with PSP X2 and worked with altered RAW files and have had better results. Which means, yes, I'm using two programs to edit a file, but I'm okay with that, though I should note that PSP X2 does handle RAW files, I thought it would behoove me to try Canon's tools to see what the difference would be. I'm tempted to continue to use both programs in tandem.
|
ben-s
269 days ago
|
|
I use DPP with PS for any heavy lifting - if you link them, DPP can send 16 bit TIFFs straight into PS for heavy duty edits.
This is actually one of the reasons I switched to PS from PSP, as DPP won't talk to anything other than PS at the moment.
DPP does hide a few of it's tools:
The Quick Check tool is brilliant for whipping through a shoot to pick out the good ones to save and work on.
The Stamp tool - designed for erasing dust spots, but can be used for tidying plain backgrounds up and other small cloning jobs. Not as advanced as PS's clone and healing tools, but adequate for many things
The Trimming tool - useful, but it's downfall is that it doesn't currently support rotation, meaning you can't use it to straighten an image. This means what should be a simple task has to go to PS for more attention.
|
superdewa
268 days ago
|
|
enuflrdy, I hate to say it, but it's even worse with the full photoshop.
That book I recommended should help. Also, maybe do a search for photoshop elements actions -- some free ones can be found at http://www.coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/. Play around with them on your photos -- it'll help you with your own work. The flickr photoshop elements groups can be helpful for finding more actions and tutorials.
Picnik is free. No harm in playing around with it on just one photo. You might find you like it. http://www.picnik.com/
|
Joanie H
268 days ago
|
|
I haven't had a problem getting DPP edited images to work with Paint Shop Pro X2. They've been cooperating just fine for me. However, I didn't know about the stamp tool nor the Quick Check. Thank you, Ben! My photo editing now has another wonderful tool in the old arsenal. Yet another reason to love the forum here.
Enuf, you can also check out Photoscape. Basic tools. Nothing too fancy and it's very simple to use. But really, it has a few tools that come in very handy. It's free, too. Works only with Windows at this point, I think.
|
Duchess14
268 days ago
|
|
So, I mentioned somewhere else an editing program called Aviary. Has anyone ever used it? I have an account on there, free, but because I suck at editing in general, I haven't done anything with it yet.
|
Joanie H
268 days ago
|
|
I just checked out Aviary. Seems like it's a fun community, but for full access, it's $9.99 a month. And if you only use the basic (free) account, it doesn't appear that you can save those files to your computer. Your work stays online in their system. It also says that basic accounts don't have the ability to do screen captures, which further limits your ability to save your edits. Which is really a shame because you've put the work in and you should be able to keep that work.
You're better off using Picasa or Photoscape if you're going to use a free service with basic editing tools. Or, again, try some of the free downloads of more powerful editing programs and invest in yourself and your work.
Update: After digging around Aviary even more, I noticed that some of their tutorials really take the long way around a subject. Simple borders on a photo? 13 steps. Seriously. With a basic program, it should be a whole lot easier.
|
dps77
28 days ago
|
|
I use Paint.Net and Picasa3
|
Humus
23 days ago
|
|
I use photoshop elements 4.0, but I downloaded the Adobe Lightroom 3.0 beta and although I found it pretty inferior in comparison to my photoshop, it's a great alternative for anyone who doesn't want to splash out. (if anyone wants to get the beta, you can download it here)
|
ben-s
22 days ago
|
|
Humus;
That's because they're designed to do different jobs 
Lightroom is designed primarily as a RAW processor, and PS as an image editor - try processing a big batch of RAWs in both, and you'd find LR significantly in the lead on this.
For heavy editing of RAW files, you'd process the camera's RAW file in LR, and then use PS to make your edits on the exported file...
|
kdrake1007
18 days ago
|
|
Just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to Joanie for posting the link for the PSP tutorial (250 days ago!) I, too, have struggled to understand masking and that video was just the thing I needed to show me how they work. I've used PSP for years for basic editing and just this past year have ventured into masks and layers and other more sophisticated techniques. I have a book written by Ken McMahon and Robin Nichols that hasn't been much help. I've considered books written for PS, since there are scores more of those, but I'm not sure how similar the instructions will be. PSP has a handy tool called Smart Photo Fix that lets you easily and quickly make basic editing changes without knowing all about Levels and Curves, etc. I use it alot when I have lots of soccer pictures to edit in a short amount of time.
|
richard wa
ng
17 days ago
|
|
Adobe Photoshop CS4
I've been using Photoshop since PS6. Photoshop was what convinced me to make the transition to digital. The "ramp up" time isn't as extreme as might be imagined. I found the best way to learn PS is just to take an image and play with it. An added benefit in that once you learn Photoshop you can pretty much use Adobe's other graphics programs.
Elements is great, but I find that it lacks the ability to fine tune and correct images, especially hit bit images.
I don't use lightroom because my workflow is pretty established and I find Lightroom just another step. Also, as with Elements, it lacks ability to fine-tune an image.
Another reason I use Photoshop is because of the variety of plug-in available. The three I use all the time is Alien Skin's Exposure 2 and Image Doctor 2 and Portrait Professional. These plug-ins really help speed up editing and allow me to be creative.
|
ben-s
17 days ago
|
|
What RAW processor are you using Richard?
|
ben-s
17 days ago
|
|
How do you find it copes with big batches of files? I found ACR rather slow and clunky compared to a dedicated RAW processor, but maybe they've improved it since I last tried it...
|
superdewa
17 days ago
|
|
Ben, I use ACR-5 as well. I haven't played much with other RAW processors except for quick tries with the free Nikon Capture and with Raw Therapee, both of which seemed good, but ACR in conjunction with Bridge & Photoshop is much quicker for me than using one of those programs. One can have Bridge make automatic edits to selected RAW photos, so now I have a few different profiles I apply to RAW photos in Bridge (one for portraits, one for landscapes), and often I don't even have to go into ACR. It's also easy to upload a bunch of photos to ACR, synchronize changes between them all and then make individual edits. And for what it's worth, I don't believe there are any changes one can make in Lightroom that one can't make in ACR.
My big problem with ACR was that I used to feel that the colors and contrast in ACR were off, even when I preset my white balance. Now that ACR has built-in profiles for Nikon cameras, all that's changed.
I'm sure I'd enjoy Lightroom, and it would probably save me some time, but I don't have much desire to try the other non-Adobe programs now that I've got my Bridge/ACR workflow worked out.
Oh -- what do you mean by big batches of files? How many at a time?
|
ben-s
17 days ago
|
|
Well, I usually batch process between 20 - 100 edited images from a shoot, and I know others frequently do more than that from a big shoot.
My workflow is usually something like this:
1: Dump card(s) to hard disk
2: Go through images with DPP's quick check mode, marking good shots. If they are good as-is or need simple DPP tweaking, I mark them as 1, and those that need photoshop work as 2
3: Move all marked images to a working folder.
4: Go through these images making RAW tweaks as necessary to the "1" files and working on the "2" files in PS
5: Back into DPP, select all the 1s and hit batch process.
6: Back up the master RAW files and final JPEG/TIF/PSD/etc files, and then delete the unmarked RAW files that I haven't used.
|
superdewa
17 days ago
|
|
Here's what I do.
1. I upload RAW photos to computer via Bridge, converting them to DNG format as I go.
2. I open my photos in bridge, where I select various types of photos and assign camera profiles to them (usually just "portrait" and either "landscape" or "vivid") and a slight boost in contrast. This takes just a few seconds.
3. I flip through the photos, "rejecting" the ones that are obviously unusable, giving 5 stars to standouts, and 4 stars to ones that either I think might be improved by a little photoshop work or that have a sentimental or pragmatic reason to be processed but don't stand out.
4. Select rejects, double-check that I haven't made a mistake, and if not, delete them all.
5. do whatever I need to do with the 4s and 5s. I always have to open them in photoshop at some point for getting ready for web or print, even if they don't need much other editing.
6. save as PSDs, sharpen and save for web as jpgs (need to make backing up a more regular part of this)
7. go to Picasa to upload jpgs to my Picasa site, Flickr and/or Facebook, depending on the photo.
I usually open up to maybe 12 photos in ACR at a time. I open photos that have similarities so the changes will be similar and so that I can get a good sense on which of two similar photos is the better one.
I don't delete my unmarked photos. I delete the noticeably bad redundant, or otherwise unnecessary ones, but I don't delete the "mediocre" ones, because often they have sentimental meaning or I think maybe there's potential in them that I'm just not seeing at the moment. I have often gone back to discover photos that didn't catch me when I took them.
|
richard wa
ng
17 days ago
|
|
I don't usually do large batches so ACR does fine.
The times I've had to process large batches, I set it, turn off the monitor and leave it overnight.
|
ben-s
17 days ago
|
|
fair enough. You're more patient than me
|
3280
1 2 3
Home
Page generated in 1258808691.6904 seconds
|
Re-stickable Decal Photo Frames - $20
8 retro wall decal frames that leave no mark on your walls and are a cinch to remove and reapply. More →
Keyboard Shortcut Skins - $30
Become a whiz at Photoshop, Aperture, FCP, Pro Tools, and Logic with these pre-printed keyboard skins. More →
Photo Time Capsule
Flickr
Twitter
Facebook
