I'm sorry, I've gotten to this post 8 days after it's start. This is my first time on the Kodak SLR forum. It seems that the last time I went to the Kodak forum it was only "Kodak" and was point and shoots. Some of the other forums have been taken over by "Wanna Bees". I'm not going to try to step on any toes here, but let's set a few things straight. No one has really pointed out the real benefits of the Kodak software. Many of the things that are being presented are not it's strong points and don't seem to be presented by anyone with real working experience.
Now to answer some questions on the Kodak software. No one has really answered the real question of Kodak's superiority. Time is money! And many things you can't do over. Take this simple test with your system. Set up a set of objects to photograph. Within that set make sure you include an object that is white with texture. A roll of white paper towels works well. Now take a series of 5 shots. 2 stops over, 1 stop over, right on, 1 stop under, and 2 stops under. Bring them into your software program of choice, adjust the images, and crop to an 8x10 format.
1: How long did it take you to adjust the five images to match for color and density?
2: Did the software's raw conversion Plus/Minus feature give you detail in the paper towels or white textured area in all 5 shots?
3: Were you able to do all steps of adjustments and cropping within one program?
With the kodak software you could have done this all to the five images and exported them to tif files in probably 45 seconds or less. The longest time being the export to full sized tifs. To jpgs it would have taken under 30 seconds. To the people saying that breezebrowser and yarch can do the same thing.... no way. With a D60 raw image in either program it will not hold detail in white areas at even a stop let alone 2. If you take a file into Photoshop and adjust too much you start having to chase color at the same time you chase exposure.
When the Gretag salesman who sold me my Netprinter came in, he insisted that no could adjust an over exposed picture and get quality past about half a stop. I sat him down, shot the 5 shot test of him, adjust the files in a couple of seconds and output the files. He could not tell the difference between the shots. He became a Kodak believer. I'm not saying that the programs such as breezebrowser and Yarc may not be better for sales and such. They have many more features for such things. On the other hand no other system I have owned or tested can match up to the adjustment features as Kodak software. Here is how I shoot indoor sessions:
I shoot tethered to a computer with a 30 ft. firewire. The pictures show up on the screeen about 12 seconds after shot. The files are automatically downloaded to the computer in that time. When the subject (normally seniors) goes back for a clothes change, I sit down and tweak exposures on each shot and put in the proportional crop. This takes just a few seconds each shot. I then send a jpg of each shot I am using to a directory within their folder for proofs. After then last outfit I again adjust that outfit and and jpg it. If this is a child or a customer that is ordering their pictures immediately, then a sales person will show them into the sales room and present them their pictures with Foto Station (
www.fotostation.com) Other programs that provide a slide show with the file name displayable on the screen would also work. From the camera room to the sales room presentation is only a couple minutes.
If we are proofing the images, I then switch to a program called SASheet. It can be downloaded from
http://www.smalleranimals.com for $20. I direct the program at the folder of jpg files and tell it to start. It will take all of the images in the folder and lay them up on sheets to my layout specifications. Normally 4 up on an 8x10 sheet. With file names under each image. It then drops the sheets into a specified folder. In my case it is into a "Hot Folder" for my Net Printer. A Hot Folder is a folder that the printer draws files from to print. Any file dropped here is automatically printed. In most cases the previews are already in the printer before the person get's his outfits together, pays for the sitting and is out the front door.
Outdoors is more complicated. The Kodak software does not currently have the ability to do individual color adjustments. Only click balancing. The Kodak "Capture Studio" software can do color and curve adjustments but it is only on the Mac platform and comes free only with the Pro-backs. It seems to work only on one image at a time. The Nikon software from the way it is described here may have more features in this case. I installed the Demo version of Nikon Capture III software when the camera was demoed at my studio. I had raw files to work with, but gave up out of frustration. Either I was entering the program incorrectly or something, but I found no menus to allow for adjustments. I have worked on computers to great extent since the early 80s. I wrote studio management software that was sold nation wide and some foreign countries. A well written program should allow a person to operate it's basic features without ever touching an instruction manual.
I realize that this is an extremely long posting, but hopefully it will have helped some of you to see a working studio work flow. Once again Time is Money. If you can adjust, correct, and crop your images in a minimal amount of time then it is a money saver. Digital does not have to take a lot of time if your software and work flow work together.
Wes Siebe
) I would be interested.