Ready To Go Raw - What Program To Use

[Richard_B]

Newegg.com occasionally has sales on Lightroom for around $120. You might sign up for their newsletter and keep an eye out for it if you do not qualify for the academic discount.

Nikon ViewNX (free) is a RAW converter with limited other capabilities. Adobe DNG Converter is free as well, but doesn't do much other than convert RAW files to DNG. I have used both because I need to replace my PPC Mac to be able to run LR 3 & PS CS 5 where the file formats for the D7K are supported. They take a lot of time to convert things before you can actually do anything so check the hardware requirements of the applications against what you have before jumping into RAW and new software.

[Rick4003]

IMHO, Elements offers most people what they need most of the time. LR seems (to me, anyway) to be very misunderstood. Adobe designed it as a "go along" program for use with dedicated editing sw. As already pointed out, while it has the same version of ACR as CS5, it has very limited editing capability compared to CSx or even Elements. LR's focus is on data management and workflow, batch processing, and offering pros who have hundreds of files to work thru at any given time the ability to catalog and retrieve quickly. Final edits are intended to be done in a dedicated editing engine, such as CSx.

GIMP and Correl are also worthy choices, but remember, any editing sw is far from intuitive, and I would recommend looking at some books on basic editing for whatever sw you decide to go with.

[Richard_B]

Originally Posted by Rick4003

IMHO, Elements offers most people what they need most of the time. LR seems (to me, anyway) to be very misunderstood. Adobe designed it as a "go along" program for use with dedicated editing sw. As already pointed out, while it has the same version of ACR as CS5, it has very limited editing capability compared to CSx or even Elements. LR's focus is on data management and workflow, batch processing, and offering pros who have hundreds of files to work thru at any given time the ability to catalog and retrieve quickly. Final edits are intended to be done in a dedicated editing engine, such as CSx.

GIMP and Correl are also worthy choices, but remember, any editing sw is far from intuitive, and I would recommend looking at some books on basic editing for whatever sw you decide to go with.

Most people I know are spending less and less time on PS and much ore in LR. They use a wide variety of approaches to importing and cataloging images. Some use Photo Mechanic or some other application and the work in LR or import and catalog as well as work in LR. unless you need some masking or other capability that LR lacks. That said, many of the third part plug-ins for PS now function with LR.

In any event, to each his own. It is a matter of what works for you.

Cheers

[darktiger]

I vote for lightroom.... but I would download trials and see which one fits you better...

[Buddha]

John_A,
I'm not sure what capabilities you are looking for, Managing or Editing or both.
I am a PaintShop user who recently had X3, X4, LR3 and PSE 9 on my computer comparing them with regard to editing. I've been managing my own files for years and my first try at letting software 'import' and 'manage' my own files left me feeling out of control in order to solve a problem that I don't have. That's strictly me though. After that I looked at each application for editing capabilities.
Even after I got used to using an application different from PSP, LR3 was hard to use. Finding a button to push seemed to always require a conscious thought, and often required 4-5 mouse clicks versus the one I thought should be enough. Both of those became critical operating parameters years ago. As far as absolute capability, what the application can do to edit an image, I saw no real advantage over PSP or PSE.
PSE was much easier to use than LR3 and I was much more comfortable with it. Functions were much easier to find than in LR3. Ultimately I could have adapted from PSP and learned to use it. As far as a real advantage in editing over PSP, I don't think there is any with PSE. If you learn to use each one, they would be about the same as far as I saw.
I think that is the discriminator here. What you spend time with and learn to use will be the best for you, but plan on it taking hours of mouse clicking. None of these applications will edit for you.
If you haven't searched this forum for posts on this subject, you should do that.

[Steve Balderrama]

Originally Posted by Rick4003

IMHO, Elements offers most people what they need most of the time. LR seems (to me, anyway) to be very misunderstood. Adobe designed it as a "go along" program for use with dedicated editing sw. As already pointed out, while it has the same version of ACR as CS5, it has very limited editing capability compared to CSx or even Elements. LR's focus is on data management and workflow, batch processing, and offering pros who have hundreds of files to work thru at any given time the ability to catalog and retrieve quickly. Final edits are intended to be done in a dedicated editing engine, such as CSx.

Maybe in version 1 that might have been true. The vast majority of people these days can do all the retouching and editing that they need to do in lightroom, in fact it's easier to do some editing tasks in Lightroom ( or Camera Raw, since that is it's editing engine) than it is in Photoshop.

It really depends on what photo editing means to you. For nearly any standard retouching use, and even many non-standard editing tasks that would require layers in PS, Lightroom is more than sufficient. If you are compositing, or doing things beyond what the Lightroom local brushes will handle, then you might need something else.


I personally think Lightroom should be the first piece of "real" photo software people should buy, and then only decide if they need a more involved editing engine if they run into limitations in Lightroom. For most people, Lightroom will be a more generally useful piece of software.

[Richard_B]

LR 3 is available at B&H for $150 for 24 hours.

B&H Photo Photoshop Lightroom 3 Software for Mac & Windows

[iCe]

I've had LR3 since it came out. I have done all of my Raw editing in Bridge for so long I didn't want to hassle with learning something new so I just used it to download my images from my cards. I took a short tutorial on Lynda.com the other day and now I do all of my raw editing in LR3. I still keyword in Bridge. I like the way keywording works in Bridge better. But I don't edit in ACR anymore. No need. LR3 has everything you would ever want.