Which RAW Processing Software do you use for better outputs

I tried some RAW processing software and, in my sense, the best is DxO Photolab. This software is easy to use, and very efficient in denoising and sharpening images. You can try it without limitation : http://www.dxo.com.

AnuragB said:

As we are in lock down

I dig my arcives and find many photos from 2015-2019

Many of them are from different cameras D7100, D5600 and D750.

Now I only use D750.

Recently I got my Adobe Camera Raw 12.3 update on the other hand Capture one provides free express edition for Nikon users.

So my question is which software is best for getting better accurate skin tone ,colors as well as black and white for Nikon only?

Or do you use or reccomend something else.

Let's have a proper discussion here.

Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

Capture One has long been regarded for its skin tones.

That said, I don't have any complaints with Adobe after calibrating and tweaking the profiles for each camera. I don't particularly care for their stock profiles.

Edit: I should add that I generally use Nik's Silver Effects for B&W conversions, or Photoshop if not.

What's your suggestion then??

I often take portraits

That's why I really need a good software for better skin tones

RawPhotoProcessor.

Regards

AnuragB said:

As we are in lock down

I dig my arcives and find many photos from 2015-2019

Many of them are from different cameras D7100, D5600 and D750.

Now I only use D750.

Recently I got my Adobe Camera Raw 12.3 update on the other hand Capture one provides free express edition for Nikon users.

So my question is which software is best for getting better accurate skin tone ,colors as well as black and white for Nikon only?

Or do you use or reccomend something else.

Let's have a proper discussion here.

Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

I have used Lightroom CC Classic and Photoshop - both very good. I now use DXO Photolab Elite 3.3 - best results I've ever had so it's now my choice. I have tried Capture One which always does well in reviews - it's not for me though as I didn't like it.

I use darktable 3.0. A lot of work went into the 3.0 release that gives better noise reduction and more natural looking tones. It's a little bit different than the typical program but quite powerful for local edits.

AnuragB said:

As we are in lock down

I dig my arcives and find many photos from 2015-2019

Many of them are from different cameras D7100, D5600 and D750.

Now I only use D750.

Click to expand...

A great camera.

AnuragB said:

Recently I got my Adobe Camera Raw 12.3 update on the other hand Capture one provides free express edition for Nikon users.

Click to expand...

Which is the right price for that particular piece of software.

AnuragB said:

So my question is which software is best for getting better accurate skin tone ,colors as well as black and white for Nikon only?

Click to expand...

Your guess is as good as anyone else's for "accurate." Find one that pleases you by trial and error and stay with it.

AnuragB said:

Or do you use or reccomend something else.

Click to expand...

I use and recommend Lightroom Classic.

Enhanced Details. Yes it does, without the slightest increase in noise or artifacts. Eliminates 80 percent of moire.

Texture. Good for a 3D boost on the plus side or a skin softener when used in the minus with the brush.

Panorama with full DNG adjustments after the stitch.

HDR that actually looks like a proper exposure blend. HDR panorama.

AI Auto. An incredible time saver. Eight adjustments with one click close to what you would do yourself. It's better than anyone else's auto by a mile. Cut your computer time for large projects by two thirds at least. Select All 4-500 wedding or vacation photos and come back in five or ten minutes.

Dozens of profiles from which to choose. Select two or three and tweak them to taste.

Everyone sees color differently. For me, Lightroom Camera Standard profile is flat out gorgeous color in most cases. I rarely touch the Saturation or Vibrance sliders. Camera Portrait is good enough for me for skin tones and I have no urge to get further lost in the weeds of "color science."

Range masking.

Develop panel Process 5. The only close competitor is C1 for wrangling highlights and shadows, especially for missed exposures or scenes where the dynamic range of the camera has been exceeded.

Photoshop. Content aware fill, auto masking, targeted geometric corrections (Transform Warp/Scale/Skew,etc.) which leave everyone in the dust, etc. The list is endless.

Noise reduction. LR/ACR is fair NR, but Topaz Denoise AI is worth the $50 if you shoot a lot of high ISO. It's better than the previous champ DXO Prime on most raws and doesn't add $150 to your software bill.

AnuragB said:

Let's have a proper discussion here.

Click to expand...

I'd give that about a 50/50 chance :^)

AnuragB said:

Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

I get the best results with Capture NX-D and very good (better than with Adobe's ACR) using Affinity Photo.

I've historically preferred Nikon software, CNX, NX2, NX-D. I think, perfect or not (probably not), it gives the most pleasing raw conversion most of the time, to my eyes anyway. Occasionally I would resort to DxO OpticsPro, currently PhotoLab, especially when it is something with a very wide DR, as I think DxO really shines in such scenarios. For people though, I would go for NX-D.

I don't like the user interface of Capture One, I think it tries to do more things for you than you asked for. I find particularly onerous the requirement of having to "import" stuff, -- can't the stupid thing just simply look at the file system?

Not a big fan of Adobe software either.

AnuragB said:

Recently I got my Adobe Camera Raw 12.3 update on the other hand Capture one provides free express edition for Nikon users.

Click to expand...

I'm going to limit my comments to just the paragraph above. I would pick Adobe any day over the Capture One free express edition for Nikon. Too many limitations on the free version. I will grant you that maybe that's all some need.

Now if you want to compare Adobe vs. the full version of Capture One, that's a different discussion. I'm not qualified to take part as I have never used Capture One. But it is a different discussion.

AnuragB said:

As we are in lock down

I dig my arcives and find many photos from 2015-2019

Many of them are from different cameras D7100, D5600 and D750.

Now I only use D750.

Recently I got my Adobe Camera Raw 12.3 update on the other hand Capture one provides free express edition for Nikon users.

So my question is which software is best for getting better accurate skin tone ,colors as well as black and white for Nikon only?

Or do you use or reccomend something else.

Let's have a proper discussion here.

Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

I use DxO Photolab 3 with Nik Collection 3 (which has Silver Effex for B&W). If I need more, I export from DxO to Luminar 4.

I'm not a heavy duty post-processor. I've used NX-D, Capture One Express, and Affinity and find the interfaces not to my liking (although the software itself works just fine).

At the end of the day, I'm of a mind most the software works great, and it's best to stick with one and master it to do what you want, and if it doesn't do what you want, then there are lots of other choices.

yray said:

can't the stupid thing just simply look at the file system?

Click to expand...

If that is what you want it to do, then yes.

Set up a session called anything you like, I use "C1_Viewer" then browse your file system from inside C1, no need to import anything if you don't want to.

As far as I'm aware, you have always been able to do this, certainly since I started using it at V7.

Cheers,

Graham

myotisone said:

yray said:

can't the stupid thing just simply look at the file system?

Click to expand...

If that is what you want it to do, then yes.

Set up a session called anything you like, I use "C1_Viewer" then browse your file system from inside C1, no need to import anything if you don't want to.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm actually pretty new to CaptureOne, and just recently decided to try out the Express version, since you can't go wrong with free stuff (presumably). Anyway, this feature you're talking about, I have trouble finding it. I don't see the option to set up a session under the File menu, -- or any other menu, -- though I assumed it should be under the File menu. Maybe I'm going blind, can't rule anything out...

myotisone said:

As far as I'm aware, you have always been able to do this, certainly since I started using it at V7.

Cheers,

Graham

Click to expand...

yray said:

myotisone said:

yray said:

can't the stupid thing just simply look at the file system?

Click to expand...

If that is what you want it to do, then yes.

Set up a session called anything you like, I use "C1_Viewer" then browse your file system from inside C1, no need to import anything if you don't want to.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm actually pretty new to CaptureOne, and just recently decided to try out the Express version, since you can't go wrong with free stuff (presumably). Anyway, this feature you're talking about, I have trouble finding it. I don't see the option to set up a session under the File menu, -- or any other menu, -- though I assumed it should be under the File menu. Maybe I'm going blind, can't rule anything out...

Click to expand...

Ah, the Express version doesn't offer sessions, as with LR it only offers catalogues, which does indeed force you into adding an image to a catalogue before you can access it.

Sorry, I misled you.

The pro version offers referenced catalogues (as does LR) managed catalogues (as did Aperture), sessions where the files are imported into a session and you set up a new session per project and, using an "empty" session as I described, if you just want a browser.

I get the feeling that most "old timer" C1 users mainly use Sessions which predate the catalogue approach introduced with Lightroom and Aperture, as they work well with commercial client/project based work.

The express version appears to be short of a fair number of Pro features.

C1 is very powerful, but it takes a little getting used to. The Capture One Youtube channel has a lot of useful videos.

Cheers,

Graham

myotisone said:

yray said:

myotisone said:

yray said:

can't the stupid thing just simply look at the file system?

Click to expand...

If that is what you want it to do, then yes.

Set up a session called anything you like, I use "C1_Viewer" then browse your file system from inside C1, no need to import anything if you don't want to.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm actually pretty new to CaptureOne, and just recently decided to try out the Express version, since you can't go wrong with free stuff (presumably). Anyway, this feature you're talking about, I have trouble finding it. I don't see the option to set up a session under the File menu, -- or any other menu, -- though I assumed it should be under the File menu. Maybe I'm going blind, can't rule anything out...

Click to expand...

Ah, the Express version doesn't offer sessions, as with LR it only offers catalogues, which does indeed force you into adding an image to a catalogue before you can access it.

Sorry, I misled you.

The pro version offers referenced catalogues (as does LR) managed catalogues (as did Aperture), sessions where the files are imported into a session and you set up a new session per project and, using an "empty" session as I described, if you just want a browser.

I get the feeling that most "old timer" C1 users mainly use Sessions which predate the catalogue approach introduced with Lightroom and Aperture, as they work well with commercial client/project based work.

The express version appears to be short of a fair number of Pro features.

C1 is very powerful, but it takes a little getting used to. The Capture One Youtube channel has a lot of useful videos.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips! I did download a trial version of C1 Pro, and now I see what you were trying to tell me. Makes a huge difference in usability in my opinion. Regards.

myotisone said:

Cheers,

Graham

Click to expand...

yray said:

Thanks for the tips! I did download a trial version of C1 Pro, and now I see what you were trying to tell me. Makes a huge difference in usability in my opinion. Regards.

Click to expand...

Now that you trying it, the other hint is that while in C1 you can mark system folders as favourites, (right click on the folder) which will load every time you open the "C1_viewer".

This is useful for a project that may be across several folders that you are currently working on. You will see them in the C1 favourites list and by selecting the "all images" option, you will see all the images from all the folders in a single grid view.

At the end of the project you remove the folders from the favourites and they no longer load.

Good luck,

Cheers,

Graham

I been using Nikon's Capture NX-D software for several years. There is a learning curve but it does everything I want/need when it comes to processing RAW files. If jpgs are in need of tweaking, I've been using FastStone Image Viewer.

I suppose any real discussion of this has to touch on calibration routines, but are you primarily asking about default settings in the software?

I used to use Nikon software for the 'best' initial RAW conversions, and Sony software for my RX100 shots and Canon software for some Canon shots as well. It just got unwieldy, and then Nikon kept going away from old software to new, usually worse, software that you needed for a newer camera. Finally I just chucked all that and started using Lightroom for the convenience factor in post-processing. Since I was manually editing every shot anyway, I'm not sure it matters much what the starting point is in the RAW conversion. But I was always happier with an unedited Nikon Capture NX-D conversion over an unedited Lightroom conversion, especially if using the default Adobe profile.