just trying to figure out what to get, theres a lot out there.
what would you guys suggest for the ability to do nearly everything in post processing?
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just trying to figure out what to get, theres a lot out there.
what would you guys suggest for the ability to do nearly everything in post processing?
I usually just use DPP (free with your camera) for crop, rotate, white balance, brightness, contrast, saturation, curves, noise reduction, resizing, sharpening from RAW.
I also use GIMP (free photoshop-like program) for Jpeg editing. GIMP's Wavelet denoise plugin (free) seems better than DPP's noise reduction in general, though there are probably cases where each one is better than the other.
Personally I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
It is very easy to understand, it keeps your photos in a library so it's also an organiser. You can adjust 1 photo per time, or copy paste settings to as many photos as you want. I like it a lot. Also exporting to jpegs or other formats and sizes is very easy to do.
I believe it isn't really cheap, but also not very expensive and you can try Lightroom 3 beta for free. And perhaps you know other ways to get it. I got it from a friend [;)]
Jan
I would agree with Jan. The price is kinda steep at first look($200US), but if you take a course at a cummunity college, the price drops dramatically...and you learn how to use it or another hobby. I've been using Beta for awhile just for fun more than anything. The only REAL problem is when you go to put a border and namearound your pic, it "remembers" that size and setting when you go to your next pic. I would rather it keep that info with that picture. I'm not smart, so it's possible there is a button you press that fixes everything...and more than likely there is[:D]. Jan might be of futher help if you go down that road.
Lightroom is pretty good, as well as photoshop, i just make a couple of actions and that does it for me. The software that comes with your camera does fine, might take longer, but it will get the job done :D
Wait for Adobe Lightroom 3. It's about to be released. It features much improved noise handling and demosaicing routines that are jaw dropping.
The best quality images I ever created came from Phase One Capture One, BUT the program is incredibly user unfriendly and sloooooooooooooow. With the improved demosaicing routines in Lightroom improved (better rendering of raws with more details than before) the quality gap between capture one (their rendering is jaw dropping in terms of sharpness and detail quality and noise) and lightroom... is getting smaller.
PS: If price is an issue: try and find possibilities to get Lightroom at academic prices. Are you a student or do you have kids in collage etc? You or they may apply for a discount through various sources. It helps, a lot.
thanks guys, yeah lightroom is very expensive. Ive gone everywhere looking for it and the only place that carry's it is london drugs. and its $400 there!
so im thinkin just buy it online or wait for the new version.
but im guessin that also that will be exspensive.
side questions, does anyone use a mac and have problems getting there raw files downloaded?
Ive tried to get 10 of my raw pics in the mac, but it says its not supported?
And i have all the software that goes with my camera DPP,eos utility,imagebrowser,picture style editor.
You can still download and use the lightroom 3 beta for free. Perhaps you'd find a version somewhere by the time the beta has expired.
It's definitely worth trying I think [H]
Jan
Canon Ball: Apple just released a Digital Camera upgrade to support new camera models. Maybe this is why files were not supported before? (Lightroom was updated too in 2.7 a lot of new cams were added).
Lightroom is FOUR HUNDRED? Sorry? Suggested Retail is half of that (two hundred) and I could get an academic license for a quarter of that (50).
Maybe you should try HDR Darkroom, it's a pretty good software. Here is one example:
Before:
http://www.mypicx.com/uploadimg/5258...04252010_1.jpg
After using HDR Darkroom:
http://www.mypicx.com/uploadimg/1973...04252010_2.jpg
wow thats pretty cool.
Im gonna look into it.
cheers