And lo, Thomas T. Veldhouse emerged from the ether
and spake thus:
Can anybody indicate the relative pros and cons of the various RAW processing
software out there?
I am aware of the following:
1. Adobe ACR
2. Adobe Lightroom (an extension of the above perhaps)
3. Bibble
4. Phase One - Capture One (LE and PRO)
5. Raw Shooter Essentials or Raw Shooter Premier
6. Nikon Capture NX
I have access to Adobe ACR in Photoshot CS2 and Raw Shooter Premier. I was
never able to get the latter to work well as part of my workflow, so I didn't
use it, although I look forward to the vaporware upgrade to Lightroom 1.0
(they have NOT sent the email for the free upgrade as promised).
FWIW - I run on a Windows XP Pro 64-bit system with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
and 4GB or RAM. I boot in Vista Ultimate x64 as well. I am looking for a
workflow that is faster than my image by image workflow I currently enjoy
using ACR and Photoshop. My current workflow is tedious and using the batch
options in Adobe Bridge just hasn't stuck for me as I end up with files
processed inadequately [best quality is in a batch of one!].
Thanks in advance.
P.S. I would love to work with Apeture, but they refuse to release it for the
Windows platform ... there loss I guess.
Since you mentioned Nikon Capture NX, I'm going to assume you're a
Nikon shooter. Nevertheless, Canon does have their own RAW software
suite and I've heard very nice things about it.
That having been said, I'm a big fan of Photoshop Lightroom (that's
what they're calling it officially) and have already pre-ordered my
copy. There are many studios out there who still swear by Capture One
Pro, as well.
Aperture is nice and all, but Photoshop Lightroom is cross-platform,
was developed in a long-term public beta and incorporates the feature
suggestions of thousands of professional photographers, and if you
pre-order it now you can get it for a mere $199, which I think it's a
very reasonable price (retail will be $299 come April).
--
Aaron
http://www.fisheyegallery.com
http://www.singleservingphoto.com