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Is Canon free Software enough?

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jayboo

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This is going to make me look a real twonk - I freely admit to be useless on the computer - I bought photoshop elements 7 to enable me to process raw files - after trying to download the plug ins to make this work - I seemed to end up in a right mess - so - I have just uninstalled PSE7 - tidied up my files - and now am just left with DPP - Zoombrowser. I would have had to do this I think to sort out what I did wrong with the plug in download.

Now I am wondering if I am better just using this free software (at least for now)
Does anyone else just use this?

Please don't be too impatient with me - I should say I had been using elements 3 happily - now because I am using raw - more and more - I seem to end up with files stored everywhere in a right mess - is there any hope for me?

--
Jayboo
 
jayboo said:
This is going to make me look a real twonk - I freely admit to be useless on the computer - I bought photoshop elements 7 to enable me to process raw files - after trying to download the plug ins to make this work - I seemed to end up in a right mess - so - I have just uninstalled PSE7 - tidied up my files - and now am just left with DPP - Zoombrowser. I would have had to do this I think to sort out what I did wrong with the plug in download.
Click to expand...
I'm confused? I'm guessing that you tried to download and install the latest ACR? If so, that's really not a plugin. I can't imagine how installing ACR would scramble your photo files?
jayboo said:
Now I am wondering if I am better just using this free software (at least for now)
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It would seem so.
jayboo said:
Does anyone else just use this?
Click to expand...
I suspect that lots of people do.
jayboo said:
Please don't be too impatient with me - I should say I had been using elements 3 happily - now because I am using raw - more and more - I seem to end up with files stored everywhere in a right mess - is there any hope for me?
Click to expand...
PSE3 (or any other version) will do most of what PSE7 will. I don't think there was a need to upgrade. What model of Canon camera do you have that requires PSE7?

--
Charlie Davis
Nikon 5700, Sony R1, Nikon D300
HomePage: http://www.1derful.info
'I'm from Texas. We have meat in our vegetables.'
Trenton Doyle Hancock
 
I think this is where my problem started - not doing enough research - before jumping into an upgrade. I believe it was on this forum - when getting involved in a thread some months ago regarding jpeg versus raw (I wasn't using raw at that time) - and workflow - PSE7 was recommended as an easyish PP program for raw files - at the time I did not realise a plug in was necessary for it to handle raw files straight from camera

Please don't misunderstand - I am not saying PSE7 mixed up my files - it has been my stupidity. I have not had a problem when I open files in DPP - do some minor changes - then convert and save as jpeg - I have then been going into PSE7 and PP a little more (though definately not well).

I don't know whether this makes sense but when using raw files from 450D - that seemed to work OK - but raw files from 50D I could not access in PSE7 at all - so last night I downloaded plugin 5.5 which I thought would solve the problem - it seemed to - I then edited a few shots but when I tried to view them this morning I couldn't - kept getting message that PSE7 couldn't access the file.
Seemed a good idea to completely uninstall the program
--
Jayboo
 
Or in this case, the install instructions? You just copy the ????.8f file to the proper directory and it is installed. Uninstalling was serious overkill.

There are lots of reasons to not use PSE, but this was not one of them. I"m not trying to be mean, but if you can't read/follow some very simple instructions I think you have got to reconsider using raw at all. You will never be happy with your images.
--
Mayonnaise on white bread, mmmmm!

Now that you've judged the quality of my typing, take a look at my photos. . .
http://www.jpgmag.com/people/glenbarrington/photos
 
ok - I did read the F...... instructions - I thought I followed them correctly - I took great care when I was doing it - in fact I had the instructions open on my desktop and did the install on my laptop - all seemed good until I restarted my laptop this morning. After doing a little more headscrathcing it seems I did the 64bit thing instead of 32bit - also on reading their F...... instructions on adobe site - it in fact tells you if you make this mistake you need to uninstall and start again
So - I am not good on computers - SHOOT ME
--
Jayboo
 
jayboo said:
I think this is where my problem started - not doing enough research - before jumping into an upgrade. I believe it was on this forum - when getting involved in a thread some months ago regarding jpeg versus raw (I wasn't using raw at that time) - and workflow - PSE7 was recommended as an easyish PP program for raw files - at the time I did not realise a plug in was necessary for it to handle raw files straight from camera
Click to expand...
PSE7 is an easy way to process RAW files. It uses ACR as the "engine" to handle RAW files. It comes with a copy of ACR, but as new camera models appear, Adobe has to release upgraded versions of ACR. I suspect that is your misunderstanding. Cameras like the 50D came out after PSE7 was released, so you have to upgrade the version of ACR on your computer.
jayboo said:
Please don't misunderstand - I am not saying PSE7 mixed up my files - it has been my stupidity. I have not had a problem when I open files in DPP - do some minor changes - then convert and save as jpeg - I have then been going into PSE7 and PP a little more (though definately not well).

I don't know whether this makes sense but when using raw files from 450D - that seemed to work OK - but raw files from 50D I could not access in PSE7 at all - so last night I downloaded plugin 5.5 which I thought would solve the problem - it seemed to - I then edited a few shots but when I tried to view them this morning I couldn't - kept getting message that PSE7 couldn't access the file.
Click to expand...
I don't know what you did wrong. The latest version of ACR is 5.5...it would have allowed ACR to access your 50D files.
jayboo said:
Seemed a good idea to completely uninstall the program
Click to expand...
Perhaps you were unhappy and over-reacted? At this juncture, there is no way to help you recover... :-(

--
Charlie Davis
Nikon 5700, Sony R1, Nikon D300
HomePage: http://www.1derful.info
'I'm from Texas. We have meat in our vegetables.'
Trenton Doyle Hancock
 
jayboo said:
This is going to make me look a real twonk - I freely admit to be useless on the computer - I bought photoshop elements 7 to enable me to process raw files - after trying to download the plug ins to make this work - I seemed to end up in a right mess - so - I have just uninstalled PSE7 - tidied up my files - and now am just left with DPP - Zoombrowser. I would have had to do this I think to sort out what I did wrong with the plug in download.

Now I am wondering if I am better just using this free software (at least for now)
Does anyone else just use this?

Please don't be too impatient with me - I should say I had been using elements 3 happily - now because I am using raw - more and more - I seem to end up with files stored everywhere in a right mess - is there any hope for me?

--
Jayboo
Click to expand...
DPP is the best program to use for converting Canon RAW files bar none and you should do as much adjustment (colour, contrast, white balance etc) in the RAW domain before doing any other processing. DPP is also the best for applying lens corrections.

For me, DPP is almost all I need but I do use Photoshop Elements very occasionally for more "creative" images or for correcting tilted horizons (which DPP doesn't do).

Take your time, find out all you can about DPP and what you can and cannot do with it and then progress to Photoshop or other software only when you think you are ready to try something new.
 
To be honest ive always used pse3 but then I shoot in jpeg because being a newbie to a dslr I cant yet get my head around all the modifying and correcting that a raw file needs.(not yet anyway)

However I believe from reading the other thread that if you shoot in RAW the cannon software is quite good.

Maybe you should just use that for a while and see how you get on. At least it will stop you getting the error while trying to use PSE7
 
Chris59 said:
DPP is the best program to use for converting Canon RAW files bar none and you should do as much adjustment (colour, contrast, white balance etc) in the RAW domain before doing any other processing. DPP is also the best for applying lens corrections.
Click to expand...
Yes - I don't have any problems using DPP
Chris59 said:
For me, DPP is almost all I need but I do use Photoshop Elements very occasionally for more "creative" images or for correcting tilted horizons (which DPP doesn't do).
Click to expand...
I think when my photography skills have progressed - I made need access to this sort of editing - just now I am concentrating on getting correct exposures but more importantly for me composition
Chris59 said:
Take your time, find out all you can about DPP and what you can and cannot do with it and then progress to Photoshop or other software only when you think you are ready to try something new.
Click to expand...
Yes - this is the way for me - I have now managed to re-install PSE7 and its ACR 5.5 though but I will be sticking with DPP for now
Many thanks for your response and advice
--
Jayboo
 
karen77 said:
well if your a twonk so am I, I just posted a very similar message on the canon 1000d threads
--
Click to expand...
Karen - its good to know I'm not alone - being new (for me that means from March this year) to the whole photography thing - getting to grips with Camera functions, learning about correct exposure - and more importantly for me - trying to drag an artistic braincell from my aging brain as good composition is what I am looking for - the whole editing bit drives me mad - I JUST WANT TO TAKE PICTURES - good ones - no - great ones - if I won the lottery I would pay someone to do the editing process haha!
Thanks for making me feel a little better
--
Jayboo
 
As a new purchaser of the EOS 7D, I am new to RAW processing as well. I have used DPP but found changing settings such as contrast, saturation, etc not so useful, only white balance mostly. Does everyone pay the full price for Photoshop CS4 which costs I think up to $600 US dollars ? I think that is very expensive. I tried using Capture One version 5 on a trial today but couldn't use it very well - very difficult and confusing interface which is not intuitive. Which one is the most cost effective - I am not a professional photographe ? Thanks guys.
 
photome31 said:
As a new purchaser of the EOS 7D, I am new to RAW processing as well. I have used DPP but found changing settings such as contrast, saturation, etc not so useful, only white balance mostly. Does everyone pay the full price for Photoshop CS4 which costs I think up to $600 US dollars ? I think that is very expensive. I tried using Capture One version 5 on a trial today but couldn't use it very well - very difficult and confusing interface which is not intuitive. Which one is the most cost effective - I am not a professional photographe ? Thanks guys.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, the more powerful the software, the more complicated it becomes. I still think the version of ACR that comes with PSE is an excellent combination of ease of use and power. I think you will find that, in time, you will begin to see the possibilities in the other controls as you train your eye to the more subtle variations that a raw processor is capable of making.

--
Mayonnaise on white bread, mmmmm!

Now that you've judged the quality of my typing, take a look at my photos. . .
http://www.jpgmag.com/people/glenbarrington/photos
 
Thanks, for this advice. So Adobe Photoshop elements comes separately from Adobe Photoshop CS4, thats good news...
 
No text
--
Cheers, Craig
 
photome31 said:
Thanks, for this advice. So Adobe Photoshop elements comes separately from Adobe Photoshop CS4, thats good news...
Click to expand...
There are 3 "flavors" of Photoshop:
  • The one in the Creative Suite...CS4 is a collection of several programs
  • Photoshop Elements...a simplified version of the CS-Photoshop
  • Photoshop LightRoom...a completely different concept
All of these use the same RAW converter, called Adobe Camera RAW (or ACR)...the underlying RAW engine is the same, but the interfaces are different.

I like LR. Get the 30-day free trial and see if it makes more sense to you than PSE does.

But, even if you like LR, you will still need a more fully-featured editor. I use LR for about 90% of my pix and PSE8 for 10% of them (after LR).

LR is not as expensive as CSn... :-)

--
Charlie Davis
Nikon 5700, Sony R1, Nikon D300
HomePage: http://www.1derful.info
'I'm from Texas. We have meat in our vegetables.'
Trenton Doyle Hancock
 
Hello chris59.

I have been learning (bouncing around) between a little DPP and Elements 6.0 in both RAW and JPEG formats, since August. Came out with some nice stuff and came out with some pretty cr_ _ _ y results.

I am going to try your recommendation to start in DPP RAW. Then, what is the best way to save it for future tweaking in Elements 6.0 (?), if I so desire...then how best to store it for possible printing pictures of it ?

Regards,
Rick
 
jayboo said:
Karen - its good to know I'm not alone - being new (for me that means from March this year) to the whole photography thing - getting to grips with Camera functions, learning about correct exposure - and more importantly for me - trying to drag an artistic braincell from my aging brain as good composition is what I am looking for - the whole editing bit drives me mad - I JUST WANT TO TAKE PICTURES - good ones - no - great ones - if I won the lottery I would pay someone to do the editing process haha!
Thanks for making me feel a little better
--
Jayboo
Click to expand...
Thats ok, I only bought my slr in July so im still on a huge learning curve too. Im trying to get the photos straight out of the camera to look as good as possible to avoid having to edit them, that said i'm aware that eventually I will need to learn photoshop in order to improve upon them.
 
Technically, TIFF is better than JPEG because it stores all the information from the RAW file as an image whereas JPEGs compress and lose image data. In practice, you would be very hard pressed to detect any difference between the two. If you are constantly "fiddling" and saving your images however, JPEGs will become progressively worse whereas TIFFs won't.

The downside is that JPEGs are about 5 megabytes, TIFFs are over 50 megabytes and this is certainly a consideration when storing large numbers of files. My solution is to keep the RAW as RAW and print as needed without bothering about saving them as TIFF or JPEG.
 
Okay..."print"...do you mean as in, at home ? If so, we don't have a photo quality printer, just document/letters and numbers type for basic.

I take my SD cards or CD's to a photolab for printing pictures.

They can't (?) or just won't accept RAW files. I have never taken in a TIF file either, so I don't know if they can even print those. I have only submitted JPEG files for picture printing, to date.
 
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