Photo Ninja workflow. . .

[Glen Barrington]

Recent events have made me question my commitment to Lightroom and I am starting to seriously consider my options. I've heard good things about Photo Ninja. But I've never used a raw converter that wasn't part of an organizer or DAM product so I'm having a hard time figuring out how the workflow works.

Do you need an organizer like ACDSee organizer or FastStone with it? What kind of things that I normally would do in Lr or ACDSee pro would I NOT be able to do with Photo Ninja?

Could users describe their workflow with it? And how they organize their raw photos as opposed to their "done" photos?

 

[Abrak]

Well I am not to sure how useful my response is going to be.

I really like Photo Ninja and think that it is by far the best 'raw converter' on the market. I also like LR because it has the best and easiest workflow - DAM, integration with external editors, publishing etc..

I essentially use LR as my 'workflow tool' and Photo Ninja as my 'raw developer'. It is easy to use Photo Ninja from within LR.

 

[Glen Barrington]

Thanks, but I guess what I'm really looking for is how would I integrate Photo Ninja into a workflow without Lightroom? Considering Photo Ninja's cost, I would be more likely to use it with FastStone or regular ACDSee, and not with something like ACDSee Pro or Aftershot Pro if for no other reason than to save money.

What I'm trying to do is cobble together a decent workflow that won't cost me 2 - 3 times what a new copy of Lr would cost. If I can't, I might as well stick with Lr for one more upgrade cycle or until Adobe drops the hammer on Lr (which they will, I have no doubt). I'm willing to spend a bit more than the upgrade price for Lr to get a non Lr workflow, but not a lot more.

 

[Robgo2]

Glen Barrington wrote:

Thanks, but I guess what I'm really looking for is how would I integrate Photo Ninja into a workflow without Lightroom? Considering Photo Ninja's cost, I would be more likely to use it with FastStone or regular ACDSee, and not with something like ACDSee Pro or Aftershot Pro if for no other reason than to save money.

What I'm trying to do is cobble together a decent workflow that won't cost me 2 - 3 times what a new copy of Lr would cost. If I can't, I might as well stick with Lr for one more upgrade cycle or until Adobe drops the hammer on Lr (which they will, I have no doubt). I'm willing to spend a bit more than the upgrade price for Lr to get a non Lr workflow, but not a lot more.

--

Photo Ninja is the best raw convertor currently available, IMO. I use it in conjunction with Photo Mechanic for file management, as the two programs are very well integrated. However, if you ever need to perform local adjustments on your images, you will need another program for doing so. In my case, it is CS6, but that may be beyond your budget. I don't know much about ACDSee or Aftershot Pro, but perhaps they would serve that purpose.

Rob

 

[Phil_L]

Have you tried the PS plug in?

I'm testing it as a way to use PS CS5 in the future and avoid the cloud abyss.

 

[Robgo2]

Phil_L wrote:

Have you tried the PS plug in?

I'm testing it as a way to use PS CS5 in the future and avoid the cloud abyss.

--

No, I have not tried the Photo Ninja plug-in for CS6, as I cannot see the advantage, but perhaps I am missing something. Tell me your impressions, please.

Rob

 

[Phil_L]

Firstly I like the RAW conversions much better than ACR and find the renderings closer to Nikon's software.

My main interest in using the plug-in over the stand alone is to avoid an intermediate .tiff going to PS CS and secondly to get me off upgrade extortion based on ACR and the move to cloud.

The plug in seems to work well but a little less responsive than ACR.

I could probably live with the stand alone as well!

Unfortunatley my desktop crashed so I can't continue the evaluation.

 

[Alpha Doug]

For those with Macs, Aperture is an excellent alternative to Lightroom, better in some ways, less in others, but it runs almost all Photoshop compatible plugins as well., and can export to an external pixel editor, like Pixelmator or others. I have tried Photo Ninja compared to Aperture, and while there are some tiny differences, they are not major and they compare very favorably. Aperture has perhaps the most feature rich organization and cataloguing features of any program. It is, in many was, similar to iVeiw Media Pro, or PhotoMechanic. Plus it is a one package workflow enhancer like Lightroom.

 

[photodgm]

I have recently started using Photo Ninja as a 'front end' to photoshop CS5. I agree that not having to use a tiff file is much better but also being able to use the software within photoshop as a filter along with layers and masks makes it even more useful. Some of the effects, can now be applied selectively to parts of the image rather than globally. I used to use Capture NX2 for 90% of my post processing only using photoshop occasionally. I've given up hoping that Capture NX2 will ever be upgraded and am happy using the Photo Ninja/photoshop combination - Hopefully if/when I upgrade to a new camera body Photo Ninja will also be upgraded to read the new RAW format and I won't be depending on a new version of ACR for a non cloud based version of photoshop which Adobe may or may not provide.

 

[Tbolt47]

photodgm wrote:

I have recently started using Photo Ninja as a 'front end' to photoshop CS5. I agree that not having to use a tiff file is much better but also being able to use the software within photoshop as a filter along with layers and masks makes it even more useful. Some of the effects, can now be applied selectively to parts of the image rather than globally. I used to use Capture NX2 for 90% of my post processing only using photoshop occasionally. I've given up hoping that Capture NX2 will ever be upgraded and am happy using the Photo Ninja/photoshop combination - Hopefully if/when I upgrade to a new camera body Photo Ninja will also be upgraded to read the new RAW format and I won't be depending on a new version of ACR for a non cloud based version of photoshop which Adobe may or may not provide.

 

[Abrak]

photodgm wrote:

I have recently started using Photo Ninja as a 'front end' to photoshop CS5. I agree that not having to use a tiff file is much better but also being able to use the software within photoshop as a filter along with layers and masks makes it even more useful. Some of the effects, can now be applied selectively to parts of the image rather than globally. I used to use Capture NX2 for 90% of my post processing only using photoshop occasionally. I've given up hoping that Capture NX2 will ever be upgraded and am happy using the Photo Ninja/photoshop combination - Hopefully if/when I upgrade to a new camera body Photo Ninja will also be upgraded to read the new RAW format and I won't be depending on a new version of ACR for a non cloud based version of photoshop which Adobe may or may not provide.

 

[photodgm]

Abrak wrote:

photodgm wrote:

I have recently started using Photo Ninja as a 'front end' to photoshop CS5. I agree that not having to use a tiff file is much better but also being able to use the software within photoshop as a filter along with layers and masks makes it even more useful. Some of the effects, can now be applied selectively to parts of the image rather than globally. I used to use Capture NX2 for 90% of my post processing only using photoshop occasionally. I've given up hoping that Capture NX2 will ever be upgraded and am happy using the Photo Ninja/photoshop combination - Hopefully if/when I upgrade to a new camera body Photo Ninja will also be upgraded to read the new RAW format and I won't be depending on a new version of ACR for a non cloud based version of photoshop which Adobe may or may not provide.

 

[Abrak]

photodgm wrote:

Seems to all work for me. I'm using CS5 version 12.1 x64 and Photo Ninja 1.1.0beta3 OS is windows 7 x64. I think there were two things I had to do to use photo Ninja instead of ACR and as a filter. I just followed the instructions on the website.

 

[miketuthill]

Abrak wrote:

photodgm wrote:

Seems to all work for me. I'm using CS5 version 12.1 x64 and Photo Ninja 1.1.0beta3 OS is windows 7 x64. I think there were two things I had to do to use photo Ninja instead of ACR and as a filter. I just followed the instructions on the website.

 

[Abrak]

miketuthill wrote:

Abrak wrote:

photodgm wrote:

Seems to all work for me. I'm using CS5 version 12.1 x64 and Photo Ninja 1.1.0beta3 OS is windows 7 x64. I think there were two things I had to do to use photo Ninja instead of ACR and as a filter. I just followed the instructions on the website.

--
It's all about light

Well it is quite possible that I have done something wrong but I did install the plug-ins and some functions of Photo Ninja work fine as a filter.

But I have a feeling that I am using it right and that the filter plug-in has reduced functionality including no highlight recovery with color recovery.

This is what the Picturecode website says 'So, you can use most of Photo Ninja's filter functions (for instance, noise reduction, sharpening, adaptive lighting, and black-and-white conversion) conveniently from within Photoshop.'

Note the word 'most' and also no inclusion of 'highlight recovery' in the 'features.

Anyway I would be interested if someone could check for me.

Works for me in PS 6 version 13.0.4 under Mac OS X 10.8.3

--
http://miketuthill.zenfolio.com
http://www.pbase.com/miketuthill

Frustrating. I tried reinstalling PN but no luck. Just to show the problem.

Here is a photo processed with PN directly as a RAW converter.....


.....with color recovery....

And here is the same photo using PN as a filter in PS CS6 3.1.2.....


....note color recovery is greyed out....

 

[Toermalijn]

Abrak wrote:

miketuthill wrote:

Abrak wrote:

photodgm wrote:

Seems to all work for me. I'm using CS5 version 12.1 x64 and Photo Ninja 1.1.0beta3 OS is windows 7 x64. I think there were two things I had to do to use photo Ninja instead of ACR and as a filter. I just followed the instructions on the website.

--
It's all about light

Well it is quite possible that I have done something wrong but I did install the plug-ins and some functions of Photo Ninja work fine as a filter.

But I have a feeling that I am using it right and that the filter plug-in has reduced functionality including no highlight recovery with color recovery.

This is what the Picturecode website says 'So, you can use most of Photo Ninja's filter functions (for instance, noise reduction, sharpening, adaptive lighting, and black-and-white conversion) conveniently from within Photoshop.'

Note the word 'most' and also no inclusion of 'highlight recovery' in the 'features.

Anyway I would be interested if someone could check for me.

Works for me in PS 6 version 13.0.4 under Mac OS X 10.8.3

--
http://miketuthill.zenfolio.com
http://www.pbase.com/miketuthill

Frustrating. I tried reinstalling PN but no luck. Just to show the problem.

Here is a photo processed with PN directly as a RAW converter.....


.....with color recovery....

And here is the same photo using PN as a filter in PS CS6 3.1.2.....


....note color recovery is greyed out....

There is a feature in Photo Ninja to make blown colors visable, this could be it.



Go to:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1075979?start=40&tstart=0



There is a picture of photo ninja and photoshop next to eachother. The red is overexposure warning enabled!




So, look for overexposure warning in photo ninja and turn it off.

 

[photodgm]

I agree - Hadn't looked at altering the colour temperature after the initial importing of the RAW image. The you can alter the temperature as a filter but the colour recovery is greyed out. You could try emailing and asking about the behaviour. When I originally downloaded a trial version I contacted them and they swiftly and helpfully responded

 

[Glen Barrington]

Well how do you incorporate it into your workflow? Do your organize your photos with something else, select the image you want to work with and send it to Photo Ninja like you would with a jpg to an editor? Then if you need an editor, do you send it directly to the editor from Photo Ninja?

Or do you have to select an image, take note of the file name and where it's stored and then pull it up in Photo Ninja and if it needs editing then save it, and pull it up in an editor?

How much 'hassle' is there with the logistics of using Photo Ninja? And is it worth it? What raw aware organizers do you use with Photo Ninja?

 

[miketuthill]

Abrak wrote:

miketuthill wrote:

Abrak wrote:

photodgm wrote:

Seems to all work for me. I'm using CS5 version 12.1 x64 and Photo Ninja 1.1.0beta3 OS is windows 7 x64. I think there were two things I had to do to use photo Ninja instead of ACR and as a filter. I just followed the instructions on the website.

--
It's all about light

Well it is quite possible that I have done something wrong but I did install the plug-ins and some functions of Photo Ninja work fine as a filter.

But I have a feeling that I am using it right and that the filter plug-in has reduced functionality including no highlight recovery with color recovery.

This is what the Picturecode website says 'So, you can use most of Photo Ninja's filter functions (for instance, noise reduction, sharpening, adaptive lighting, and black-and-white conversion) conveniently from within Photoshop.'

Note the word 'most' and also no inclusion of 'highlight recovery' in the 'features.

Anyway I would be interested if someone could check for me.

Works for me in PS 6 version 13.0.4 under Mac OS X 10.8.3

--
http://miketuthill.zenfolio.com
http://www.pbase.com/miketuthill

Frustrating. I tried reinstalling PN but no luck. Just to show the problem.

Here is a photo processed with PN directly as a RAW converter.....

Just to show you that it is possible:




NEF file opened using Photo Ninja Photoshop plugin. Note the Colour Recovery is not greyed out.



--

http://miketuthill.zenfolio.com

Galleries by Mike Tuthill

www.pbase.com

 

[miketuthill]

no text

--
http://miketuthill.zenfolio.com
http://www.pbase.com/miketuthill