RAW-Friendly Picasa Replacements?

Greetings,

I shoot RAW from my Nikon D50 and it's often desirable to weed through
a large number of images, keeping ones with the best sharpness
(assuming all other things are equal). I'm currently using Picasa 2
to sort through the digital negatives but there are some issues...

1) Picasa seems to try and "adjust" or "normalize" the files so they
have roughly the same brightness when displayed. The problem is that
if I shoot something dark, Picasa displays it brightened with a ton of
noise.

Here is an example.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/139/3...f6896907_o.jpg

The red numbers represent the shutter speed (apterture and ISO remain
fixed) and as you can see, the displayed images don't get too much
darker after 1/8 or so. Toward 1/750 you can see hoizontal banding as
Picasa automatically compensates.

It's not causing any problems with the NEF file itself, obviously, but
it would be nice to see all files in a folder as JPGs created by (RAW
+ settings) = display.

2) Picasa will not let me flip between images while staying in loupe/
zoom mode. If I advance to the next pic, the zoom is pulled back to
the normal "fit screen" mode. Makes comparing adjacent pics very
difficult.

So can anyone suggest a software package that will:

a) Not arbitrarily adjust the RAW file during display;

b) Stay zoomed in while flipping through images.

Also, know how Picasa will change a picture by saving those
alterations in a seperate file, then displaying the original pic with
your changes "wrapped" around it? It would be nice if I could easily
and quickly apply settings (eg, color mode III, normal contrast,
fluorescent color balance) to a whole folder. These settings could
then be laid over the NEF file when viewed.

I realize I could just run a batch of those settings usingj Nikon
Capture Editor but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Does such a beast exist?

Thanks much in advance,
Jason

wrote:


I realize I could just run a batch of those settings usingj Nikon
Capture Editor but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Does such a beast exist?

Not sure, but look at Irfanview.

"Mike O'Sullivan" wrote in message
...

wrote:


I realize I could just run a batch of those settings usingj Nikon
Capture Editor but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Does such a beast exist?

Not sure, but look at Irfanview.

I find raws look very muddy in irfanview. "Nikon View" is the best browsing
program I have used for Nikon raw (NEF) files.

On Mar 28, 9:30 pm, wrote:
Greetings,

I shoot RAW from my Nikon D50 and it's often desirable to weed through
a large number of images, keeping ones with the best sharpness
(assuming all other things are equal). I'm currently using Picasa 2
to sort through the digital negatives but there are some issues...

1) Picasa seems to try and "adjust" or "normalize" the files so they
have roughly the same brightness when displayed. The problem is that
if I shoot something dark, Picasa displays it brightened with a ton of
noise.

Here is an example.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/139/3...f6896907_o.jpg

The red numbers represent the shutter speed (apterture and ISO remain
fixed) and as you can see, the displayed images don't get too much
darker after 1/8 or so. Toward 1/750 you can see hoizontal banding as
Picasa automatically compensates.

It's not causing any problems with the NEF file itself, obviously, but
it would be nice to see all files in a folder as JPGs created by (RAW
+ settings) = display.

2) Picasa will not let me flip between images while staying in loupe/
zoom mode. If I advance to the next pic, the zoom is pulled back to
the normal "fit screen" mode. Makes comparing adjacent pics very
difficult.

So can anyone suggest a software package that will:

a) Not arbitrarily adjust the RAW file during display;

b) Stay zoomed in while flipping through images.

Also, know how Picasa will change a picture by saving those
alterations in a seperate file, then displaying the original pic with
your changes "wrapped" around it? It would be nice if I could easily
and quickly apply settings (eg, color mode III, normal contrast,
fluorescent color balance) to a whole folder. These settings could
then be laid over the NEF file when viewed.

I realize I could just run a batch of those settings usingj Nikon
Capture Editor but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Does such a beast exist?

Thanks much in advance,
Jason

I have had the same issues. I.e., there is not consistency between
what I view for RAW in Picassa and what I find using another viewer
such as Canon's own RAW viewer or Irfanview. I had this experience
using my D60 (now I have Canon 30D). I use Picassa only for locating
photos on my H.D. or sometimes doing file re-names in a convenient
manner.

XnView.
IMHO the best image viewer I have tried(compared to Picasa, IrfanView,
FastStone and ACDSee).
--
galerija: http://www.db-view.info/
mail: AKNI_OVO

Adrian Boliston wrote:
"Mike O'Sullivan" wrote in message
...

wrote:

I realize I could just run a batch of those settings usingj Nikon
Capture Editor but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Does such a beast exist?
Not sure, but look at Irfanview.

I find raws look very muddy in irfanview. "Nikon View" is the best browsing
program I have used for Nikon raw (NEF) files.


Lightroom does all you ask and a lot more. It's not cheap, but it is
free for a 30 day trial. (adobe.com)

--
John McWilliams

I like Faststone Image viewer www.faststone.org

Craig
--
Remove My_Skin to E-mail me.


wrote:

Greetings,

I shoot RAW from my Nikon D50 and it's often desirable to weed through
a large number of images, keeping ones with the best sharpness
(assuming all other things are equal). I'm currently using Picasa 2
to sort through the digital negatives but there are some issues...

1) Picasa seems to try and "adjust" or "normalize" the files so they
have roughly the same brightness when displayed. The problem is that
if I shoot something dark, Picasa displays it brightened with a ton of
noise.

Here is an example.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/139/3...f6896907_o.jpg

The red numbers represent the shutter speed (apterture and ISO remain
fixed) and as you can see, the displayed images don't get too much
darker after 1/8 or so. Toward 1/750 you can see hoizontal banding as
Picasa automatically compensates.

It's not causing any problems with the NEF file itself, obviously, but
it would be nice to see all files in a folder as JPGs created by (RAW
+ settings) = display.

2) Picasa will not let me flip between images while staying in loupe/
zoom mode. If I advance to the next pic, the zoom is pulled back to
the normal "fit screen" mode. Makes comparing adjacent pics very
difficult.

So can anyone suggest a software package that will:

a) Not arbitrarily adjust the RAW file during display;

b) Stay zoomed in while flipping through images.

Also, know how Picasa will change a picture by saving those
alterations in a seperate file, then displaying the original pic with
your changes "wrapped" around it? It would be nice if I could easily
and quickly apply settings (eg, color mode III, normal contrast,
fluorescent color balance) to a whole folder. These settings could
then be laid over the NEF file when viewed.

I realize I could just run a batch of those settings usingj Nikon
Capture Editor but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Does such a beast exist?

Thanks much in advance,
Jason

wrote:
Greetings,

I shoot RAW from my Nikon D50 and it's often desirable to weed through
a large number of images, keeping ones with the best sharpness
(assuming all other things are equal). I'm currently using Picasa 2
to sort through the digital negatives but there are some issues...

1) Picasa seems to try and "adjust" or "normalize" the files so they
have roughly the same brightness when displayed. The problem is that
if I shoot something dark, Picasa displays it brightened with a ton of
noise.

Here is an example.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/139/3...f6896907_o.jpg

The red numbers represent the shutter speed (apterture and ISO remain
fixed) and as you can see, the displayed images don't get too much
darker after 1/8 or so. Toward 1/750 you can see hoizontal banding as
Picasa automatically compensates.

It's not causing any problems with the NEF file itself, obviously, but
it would be nice to see all files in a folder as JPGs created by (RAW
+ settings) = display.

2) Picasa will not let me flip between images while staying in loupe/
zoom mode. If I advance to the next pic, the zoom is pulled back to
the normal "fit screen" mode. Makes comparing adjacent pics very
difficult.

So can anyone suggest a software package that will:

a) Not arbitrarily adjust the RAW file during display;

b) Stay zoomed in while flipping through images.

Also, know how Picasa will change a picture by saving those
alterations in a seperate file, then displaying the original pic with
your changes "wrapped" around it? It would be nice if I could easily
and quickly apply settings (eg, color mode III, normal contrast,
fluorescent color balance) to a whole folder. These settings could
then be laid over the NEF file when viewed.

I realize I could just run a batch of those settings usingj Nikon
Capture Editor but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Does such a beast exist?

Picasa, AFAIK, does not read RAW directly, but instead reads the embedded JPG,
which depending on your camera will probably be saved with whatever JPG
processing options (exposure, sharpening, WB) are specified in the camera.

On 28 Mar 2007 21:30:23 -0700, wrote:

Greetings,

I shoot RAW from my Nikon D50 and it's often desirable to weed through
a large number of images, keeping ones with the best sharpness
(assuming all other things are equal). I'm currently using Picasa 2
to sort through the digital negatives but there are some issues...

1) Picasa seems to try and "adjust" or "normalize" the files so they
have roughly the same brightness when displayed. The problem is that
if I shoot something dark, Picasa displays it brightened with a ton of
noise.

Here is an example.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/139/3...f6896907_o.jpg

The red numbers represent the shutter speed (apterture and ISO remain
fixed) and as you can see, the displayed images don't get too much
darker after 1/8 or so. Toward 1/750 you can see hoizontal banding as
Picasa automatically compensates.

It's not causing any problems with the NEF file itself, obviously, but
it would be nice to see all files in a folder as JPGs created by (RAW
+ settings) = display.

2) Picasa will not let me flip between images while staying in loupe/
zoom mode. If I advance to the next pic, the zoom is pulled back to
the normal "fit screen" mode. Makes comparing adjacent pics very
difficult.

So can anyone suggest a software package that will:

a) Not arbitrarily adjust the RAW file during display;

b) Stay zoomed in while flipping through images.

Also, know how Picasa will change a picture by saving those
alterations in a seperate file, then displaying the original pic with
your changes "wrapped" around it? It would be nice if I could easily
and quickly apply settings (eg, color mode III, normal contrast,
fluorescent color balance) to a whole folder. These settings could
then be laid over the NEF file when viewed.

I realize I could just run a batch of those settings usingj Nikon
Capture Editor but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Does such a beast exist?

Thanks much in advance,
Jason

You might want to drop by labs.adobe.com and download the trial
version of LightRoom. It's a new product from Adobe which was released
in February. Currently it is costing $199.

I shoot only in RAW and just upgraded to the Canon XTi which ises a
newer version of raw that Photoshop CS doesn't support. Thus....
Lightroom. It allows conversion to .jpg .tif .dng and .psd and export
directly into photoshop.

Very nice program too.

wrote in message
...

I shoot only in RAW and just upgraded to the Canon XTi which ises a
newer version of raw that Photoshop CS doesn't support. Thus....
Lightroom. It allows conversion to .jpg .tif .dng and .psd and export
directly into photoshop.

If you want a cheaper (free) way to get your XTi RAW files directly into
Photoshop CS, there is a method.

First add Camera RAW 2.4 to CS to get the latest DNG support:
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/photos...ra_Raw_2_4.zip

Then download DNG Camera RAW 3.7 from:
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/photos...ra_Raw_3_7.zip

Then after you copy your RAW files to the computer, use DNG 3.7 to convert
the RAW files to DNG. Now you can open the DNG files in Adobe Camera RAW
2.4 from Photoshop CS and do all the same manipulations and then continue in
Photoshop as always.

If you use an Apple computer, then I imagine there is a similar method but I
figured a better than 9/10 chance that you use Windows.