Which RAW-Converter do you use and why?

I am with you - I am loath be required to do import and lock myself (practically speaking) into the imaging CMS du jour. Adobe would like nothing more for everyone to use LR; it is a pretty slick way of softly locking in customers. I don't doubt that LR has some good benefits over bridge but with CS4 ad Bridge 4 I am in cotrol of my data managemnet and I am just not yet convinced it is worth ceding my data management to LR just yet over what CS4 and Bridge give me. To be fair, I have tried both LR1 and LR2 betas and have sat in on live demos - and still I am not yet convinced. I can be converted if I can see enough value; I'll be spending some time on Lunda.com this week and I'll walk through some of the LR2 training videos to try to see the specific value.

If one were to follow all of the advocates of the post processing solutions we'd all use NX2 for conversion, LR2 for image management, ACR for further tweaks to the resulting TIFFs, Bridge for the functions LR2 lacks and PS4 for non-destructive local modification everything else in this multi-app workflow. That's quite a workflow train to ride for optimal IQ and image management. At least with CS4 and Bridge, flipping back and forth between the two feels instant and seamless now – almost as if they are one application, is the switching between LR2 and CS4 just as fast and seamless? At what point are the LR4 workflow gains negated by having to still use another application for local modifications (yeah, I hear all of these jockeys say LR is all they need – good for them in that they never or rarely need or want to use layers, masks or a long list of other useful PS features).

Regards,
Mike

--

Polaroid Swinger; Kodak Instamatic 126 Ricoh 500G; Canon FTb; Nikon F2AS; Nikon F3HP; Hasselblad 501CM; Pentax 67II, Nikon 990; Nikon D1x; Nikon D300; PhaseOne P65+ (in my dreams ;-)

Just because I have it. It was included with my camera.

MarcoSJ said:

Hi all!

I came from Canon and now I have a D700 since a few days.
Until now, I mainly shot in JPG, but the D700 is much better in RAW
from that what I read.

So my questioon is, which RAW-converter do you prefer and why?

Is it Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop or even Capture NX from Nikon?

Or is it something else?

Many thanks for your comment...

Marco

Click to expand...

--
Rumpis )

http://foto.pudele.com/ - Low intensity blog about photography, Nikon and some other stuff interesting to me. Just for fun. In Latvian.

OK, I just went through about 15 video learning modules on LR2 on Lynda.com; there are some very cool features in LR2; I guess the one thing I still don't like much is that to edit in PS and come back into LR you are having to export from LR and then bring a new image back into LR; there doesn't seem to the ability to edit is PS in place; about the only decent linkage is editing as a Smart Object but returning back to LR still requires the modified image to be stored back in LR as a completely new image and I don't think that is seamless integration of the two applications.

Sad, LR functionality should be part of Photoshop CSx; you'd think someone in Adobe marketing would have half a brain and combine them into what would really justify the cost and value of a Photoshop CSx Extended offering with even more seamless integration.

Regards,
Mike

--

Polaroid Swinger; Kodak Instamatic 126 Ricoh 500G; Canon FTb; Nikon F2AS; Nikon F3HP; Hasselblad 501CM; Pentax 67II, Nikon 990; Nikon D1x; Nikon D300; PhaseOne P65+ (in my dreams ;-)

Hi Mike,

Sorry, I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I was wondering if you would comment further on the Seculine Twin 1 R3 TRN wireless or wired shutter release For Nikon 10Pin that your wife purchased for you. Still working, good or bad.

Thanks,

Two Flints

MarcoSJ said:

Is it Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop or even Capture NX from Nikon?

Click to expand...

I have all 3... CS3 ACR, NX2 and LR2...

LR2 is the winner (with camera profiles)... I use it almost always - good IQ with those profiles, very fast... but if I need to get 1 (!) image ready for huge print (20x30 or bigger) - I prefer NX2... You just can't beat Nik's u-points... but it lethargic piece of software even on my Quad-Core with 4G of RAM...

--
Real photography - it's just the ability to see what was already created by God!
http://www.pbase.com/grig

infohou said:

Hello,

I have been shooting my D700 at ISO 2500 NEF and NR off. I have
ACR/CS3 with the 4.6 beta profiles. Not happy with the color shift.
ViewNX/Nikon Capture does the high quality capture so NX2 just adds
the adjustments?

Thanks,
Robert

Click to expand...

Hello Folks,

I hope your weekend is going well. I did not see any reply to my question above so I thought I would try again.

Since ViewNX/Nikon Capture come with the D700 and others, the reason for Capture NX2 would be for the adjustments?

Also, LR seems to be a bit of a money grab. Since most serious folks would have CS(x) with Bridge, what does LR bring to the table? Sorry if I missed it in someone's comment.

Y'all be cool,
Robert A. Ober

No problem....wow that was a long time ago - last year I believe (hey, you have a good memory). It is still working very well; my only beef is when screwing it into the 10 pin connector on the D300 it is a bit cramped to tighten it with my two fingers but I've gotten good at it - I sure wish they'd build a receiver into the body and sell a dang RF transmitter as an aftermarket accessory, but until them, this one is a good solution - it allows me to get out from behind the camera without a remote release cable and work directly with a subject up close. I've also teatherd the D300 with a long USB cable to a computer and use Camera Control 2 to sent the images right to the network drive and have an LCD projector connected to preview the shots on an adjacent wall several feet wide and high...it is wonderful to see how the lighting is working (the reflectasol blocks the subject from seeing it and getting distracted.

Funny you should ask; the main feature I am interested in LR2 for (as part of this thread discussion is its hot folder automation; the only thing missing now is a WT4A receiver to completely unteather the camera from the USB if I ever care to spring for one.

Regards,
Mike

--

Polaroid Swinger; Kodak Instamatic 126 Ricoh 500G; Canon FTb; Nikon F2AS; Nikon F3HP; Hasselblad 501CM; Pentax 67II, Nikon 990; Nikon D1x; Nikon D300; PhaseOne P65+ (in my dreams ;-)

I am surprised. I am running a quad core , windows XP with 8 gig of ram even though windows will only recognise 3.5 gig or so they say.
Nx powers along quite well on my machine.

On the other hand, NX is very slow on my laptops, even the duo core machine. NX appears to be very ram hungry.
--
Warm regards, Dave.
Australian NPS member

Oh heck, after going through a bunch more interactive training videos of LR2 on Lynda.com I am finding too many good things in LR2 that makes it impossible to ignore; dayumm Adobe!

I'm almost a convert. Sigghhh.

Mike

--

Polaroid Swinger; Kodak Instamatic 126 Ricoh 500G; Canon FTb; Nikon F2AS; Nikon F3HP; Hasselblad 501CM; Pentax 67II, Nikon 990; Nikon D1x; Nikon D300; PhaseOne P65+ (in my dreams ;-)

PRESETS BABY.......PRESETS!!!!!! Those ALONE are worth switching to LR!

Now if ONLY PS actions woldjgive you a preview like the LR presets do we'd be cooking with gas....

Lightroom offers an AMAZING wokflow system! I spend much less time in PS now because of everything LR2 offers!

I will say coming from ACR for a long time I didn't think jumping to LR would be worth while. The cateloging doesn't mean anything to me. Plus, when I finally did make the switch it took a while to get used to it...at first it seemed like a slower workflow to me. HOWEVER, one I started to understand and use the tools that were available in LR (especially 2) I all of a sudden "got it!" I absolutley LOVE it! My workflow is better and more important the imapct on my final images is much more because of the presets I now use.

My work has totally changed over the last 1 1/2 years. Yes the D3 & D700 has opened a entire world of available light that I didn't use as much to my advantage...but add to that the creativity that LR offers and my work is much more interresting then only 2 years ago. The combionation of hardware and software has made a big difference I feel.

Give Lightroom 2.2 a chance...try it and see for yourself. Your workflow will change for ther better! Plus once you start using some of the presets available to you your imagry will also improve.

Bruce Allen Hendricks MPA, F.Ph.
http://www.impactphotographicdesign.com

I totally agree.
I use ViewNX and then go into Photoshop if needed.
Results are great.
--
Geoff
Gold Coast, Australia
http://birdphotographygallery.wordpress.com/
http://naturephotographygallery.wordpress.com/
http://flowerphotography.wordpress.com/
http://digitalphotographygallery.wordpress.com/
http://animalphotography.wordpress.com/

If I shoot JPEG images and import them into LR2, make some adjustment in LR2 then open the JPEG files in PS CS4 to make localized adjustments, what happens when the edited JPEG files are saved?

Also,

Are the editied JPEGs automatically stored back into LR2 when a Save File is done in CS4?

Do they overwrite the master (originally imported) JPEG file?

If they don't overwrite the master file and store a new edited version of the file, does it automatically rename the edited file somehow?

And finally, is there a way with LR2 and CS4 to tell it to overwrite the original master JPEG file rather than create (import) a new version of the image after its been edited in PS CS4?

Thanks in advance for clarifying.

Regards,
Mike

--

Polaroid Swinger; Kodak Instamatic 126 Ricoh 500G; Canon FTb; Nikon F2AS; Nikon F3HP; Hasselblad 501CM; Pentax 67II, Nikon 990; Nikon D1x; Nikon D300; PhaseOne P65+ (in my dreams ;-)

Never mind; I down loaded a trial copy of LR2 and figured it out. I see that there is not Save or Save As option when image editing in PS is launched from LR2 - it is simply a Check-In operation – silly me, it is a CMS after all.

I was somewhat frustrated with LR2 that after importing legacy RAW+JPEG files from disk; it appeared to combine the RAW and the sibling JPEGs into one file (which it sort of does - but only for RAW preview); it appears that LR ignores the fact that your JPEGs might actually be different than your RAW files (either from earlier pre LR independent editing of them or if you want to preserve the in-camera settings). One has to do a lot of research to figure out which preference to set to get LR to import both the JPEGs and NEFs and treat them individually rather than just importing only the RAW files. I guess Adobe assumes those of us that shoot in-camera RAW+JPEG do it for no reason whatsoever as the way they think everyone should work.

This is a good example of what I meant in an earlier post about not wanting to cede such control to an imaging CMS; they make default assumptions on the user’s behalf. Neverthless, I can see some good uses for LR2 - I'm just not sure these kinds of hassles are worth it. It also took LR2 a long time to open files in PS CR4 even when PS was already open and minimized whereas it is nearly instant between PS and Bridge. Finally, I was somewhat disappointed that the only entry into PS was a choice of using a popup context menu or a keyboard shortcut - so much for seamless integration as far as the UI is concerned.

Sigggh, programmers!

Regards,
Mike

--

Polaroid Swinger; Kodak Instamatic 126 Ricoh 500G; Canon FTb; Nikon F2AS; Nikon F3HP; Hasselblad 501CM; Pentax 67II, Nikon 990; Nikon D1x; Nikon D300; PhaseOne P65+ (in my dreams ;-)

A related question - has anyone found a RAW converter that isn't written so it only works on Microsoft's copy-protected systems? (XP,Vista)

There are Photoshop versions that work on just about any system, I've got one running fine on Windows Me on a computer that doesn't have the security hardware to accept XP/Vista; other family members use Linux. NX is designed to require XP/Vista so I'm stuck with JPEG (max quality settings) and a card reader. Adobe's RAW plugins only work with their newest Photoshop versions - again XP/Vista only. I'd love to be able to use RAW.

Michael Firstlight said:

It took 5 minutes to restore the removed items from CS4; most is
still there - just moved to Bridge but in a snap you can add them
mack into the main PS app.

Click to expand...

What are you saying? A very confusing post (for me to understand).

I have CS3. Love it. Purchased CS4, played with it for three weeks. I was disappointed in how it has been reconfigured (Mac folks will LOVE it). Not able to return it from the vendor I purchased it from - so it sits on my shelf. I do miss the new Bridge. Just wonder if I can get it to play with CS3. I would seriously bet NOT.

Michael Firstlight said:

Mike

--
Polaroid Swinger; Kodak Instamatic 126 Ricoh 500G; Canon FTb; Nikon
F2AS; Nikon F3HP; Hasselblad 501CM; Pentax 67II, Nikon 990; Nikon
D1x; Nikon D300; PhaseOne P65+ (in my dreams ;-)

Click to expand...

--
Steve Bingham
http://www.dustylens.com
http://www.ghost-town-photography.com

You wrote:
"but they removed some functionality from CS3"

I replied saying it took me only 5 minutes to restore the major functions back into PS CS4) that Adobe removed from PS CS3 (they moved some of them into Bridge 4 - most notably Contact Sheet II and Picture Package - among others.)

Regards,
Mike

--

Polaroid Swinger; Kodak Instamatic 126 Ricoh 500G; Canon FTb; Nikon F2AS; Nikon F3HP; Hasselblad 501CM; Pentax 67II, Nikon 990; Nikon D1x; Nikon D300; PhaseOne P65+ (in my dreams ;-)

If you used Mac and if you think that White Balans is important .
Actually controle of the White balans is better than NX,
and details is better than NX.

I used both Raw and NX.
Somes NX is better and somes is RAW better.

You know that is different like different between Agfa paper and Ilford photo paper.

Also, I recall that some of the removed tools (Extract, for example) are available on the DVD labeled Goodies or Extras - or something to that effect.

Capture NX2 and occasionally ACR/Lightroom.

Definitely not DXO - downloaded the trial the other day - what a complete piece of over-rated s* t.

However, if something were to come along that produced as good a conversion as NX2 out of the box but didn't crash as often as NX2, I'd take a serious look. So far I haven't found it, as I wait, hoping someone at NIK software actually does their job correctly for once and fixes the bugs in NX2....

-m

Well, I have to admit that I do like the Nix UPoint technology, but I've concluded that I might be able to do more with it in its CS plug-in version with Viveza than in NX; I love how the native Nik products support layers and masks and smart objects in CS – it isn’t cheap though at $250 for the CS plug in, but it sure looks like it makes complex masking a snap. That leaves NX possibly having a slight edge in RAW conversion - maybe, over ACR 5.2 and I wonder how much of an edge, if any. I already have NX and use CS4 and Bridge almost exclusively (I am still learning LR2 and still not yet convinced LR is worth it after using it for several hours and walking through 2 dozen video lessons); I am leaning toward putting my funds into the Nix CS plug-ins; I like to buy something I’d use every day. Frankly, I certainly don’t think that control points alone in NX hold a candle to the control possible with layers, masks and alpha channels and smart objects – especially when combined with the UPoint technology.

The

Regards,
Mike

--

Polaroid Swinger; Kodak Instamatic 126 Ricoh 500G; Canon FTb; Nikon F2AS; Nikon F3HP; Hasselblad 501CM; Pentax 67II, Nikon 990; Nikon D1x; Nikon D300; PhaseOne P65+ (in my dreams ;-)