Thread: Photo editing software

Hi Ian
I don't know what Raw is but I use Corel Draw X5 for all mine.
David

I gave up using RAW a long time ago. For me, it was too hard to quickly give photos to others when away from my computer. It also meant I had to have the camera manufacturer's software installed and I would rather use alternate software and copy images files from cards than download from camera via s/w.

The real issue is that RAW format varies with make and model of camera, and at best is often lightly encrypted to force you to use the camera's software. As a result that means that most manipulation software needs images to be preprocessed by conversion software. So unless things have changed, you can't edit RAW files.

To an experienced photographer and a skilled image manipulator, there are big advantages to RAW but I reckon for most of us, our cameras capabilities exceed our skills.

I've used Photoshop and related Adobe (and Macromedia) software for decades now. Having said that, I spend little time doing heavy manipulation esp. with pen pics. I leave that to more talented members of the family.

You can see from the few pics I post they need serious work at the camera and lighting.

I have set my camera to use both JPG and RAW.
That means I can quickly share photos but I can also edit the ones that are important.
I use Corel PaintShop Pro X,it has the ability to edit most camera makes.
Cheers
Wolffie

Picasa will edit many raw formats - but I'd advise sticking to jpg files unless you are already experienced in using something like Adobe Photoshop, otherwise all you are going to do is give yourself either a huge learning curve, or the cop out of hitting the 'I'm feeling lucky' button to fix the image...and the dedicated software in the camera is likely to do a much better job of 'feeling lucky' than an external application.

Yeah, yeah, lots of camera sites have image gurus who will go to obsessive-compulsive e-peen enlarging lengths to justify why you should shoot in raw format all the time (these people also often suffer from repetitive strain injury of the wrist), but really, if you are shooting in studio conditions (and a tabletop with a white sheet and some lights counts as a studio) the real solution is to fix the environment so that every photo taken is correct without after shot tweaking, and not add the chore of adjusting every pic as an additional step in the process.

I think shooting raw is justified if you can tick yes to all of these:

• Your camera body is the least expensive part of your camera kit.
• Your camera case/bag was more expensive than than some of [your camera brands] budget lenses.
• You know what PMS colours are, and what 'out of gamut' means. Bonus points for understanding grey component replacement and under colour removal.
• You understand why fluros look green and sodium vapour lamps look yellow in photos.
• You have a grey card and a set of Greytag-Macbeth colour swatches that you replace regularly.
• You have created custom distortion/diffraction profiles for each of your lenses, and you regularly create a 'hot pixel' map at a number of exposure times for each camera body.

Otherwise, tweak your camera's white balance and exposure to suit your light setup, buy a new/better lens if needed for close-up work, get a tripod so a 1/4 second pic won't be a problem, and don't sweat the details.

Having a look at your website...there are no photos on there that would really benefit from being taken in raw format (ok, the signature on the Elvis Presley pen looks to be low res....but that's not a photo issue). Pen colours are never going to display close to the real thing - the way people set their computer monitors up (or don't set them up) will guarantee this, and the only nitpick is the shadow behind some of the pens. This is overcome by getting the pen further away from the backdrop (a wire behind it, totally hidden by the pen from the viewpoint of the camera lens to hold the pen up) and lighting the backdrop separately.

If you have a Mac you can use Aperture to work with RAW Pics. I haven't tried it as my newer camera only shoots jpeg.

Pete

Thanks everyone for your opinons and advice in particular you master splinter although I did find a few things hard to understand i understand most of what you have said and will read it a few more times till it sinks in and will revert everything back to normal and not RAW

Thanks again Ian

I use GIMP 2.6 it is a free software, works on most operating systems

GIMP - Downloads

Late to the game, but I will add simply what Master Splinter already said.

I used to save some pictures in Raw and very, very occasionally still do if it is a very special picture and I remember to change the camera settings, but I can't actually remember when the last time was. Certainly not this year.

I use Picassa as a "first cut" adjustment and find that is perfectly fine for a little bit of correction on printed photos, emails or web stuff (like this site). I have been howled down by other photographer friends for this, but in the end the colours others will see depend at least as much on the settings of their monitors, the woolies photo development process etc.

I sometimes use Photoshop (old, version 7) if I want to do special arty/distortion stuff or try to save bad coloured but otherwise good/interesting pix (eg underwater) But really if the picture needs saving this bad, it often is too far gone anyway.

Regards
SWK