RSE goes commercial with v.2006

Just got this in my e-mail



NEWS No.7 | October 2005



ANNOUNCING THE ULTIMATE RAW WORKFLOW TOOL
RawShooter | premium 2006
SPECIAL ONE TIME OFFER SAVE $40.00 ENDS OCTOBER 31!


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What Is NEW In RawShooter | premium 2006?
Camera RAW support for Canon EOS 5D and Canon EOS 1D II N

RAW vs. RAW Comparison

Curves / Levels Support

Integrated Downloader

Personalized Appearance

Correction Tools (Vibrance, Color Balance, Hot Pixel / Pattern Noise
Suppression)

FastBrowse

Image Formatting Toolbox (Horizon Straighten, Image Rotation, Cropping)

Magnifier

FastProof Mode

Batch Rename

Interpolation

Extended Color Support



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Here at Pixmantec we are excited to announce the arrival of our flagship RAW
workflow tool, RawShooter | premium 2006. Building on the incredible success
of the FREE RawShooter | essentials 2005 product (now with several hundred
thousand copies installed worldwide), RawShooter | premium 2006 provides
unsurpassed RAW workflow functionality and professional image quality at an
unbeatable price. In addition to a state of the art feature set, RawShooter
| premium 2006 adds camera RAW support for several new DSLRs including the
Canon EOS 5D and Canon EOS 1D II N.

The ethic of RawShooter | premium 2006 is to allow any photographer, no
matter what your level of expertise, to get the most from their RAW
workflow. This is achieved by:

Removing the need to have several different products for your workflow by
seamlessly integrating individual workflow functions within the existing and
familiar user interface of RawShooter | premium 2006.


Allowing you to have complete control of how your RAW images are displayed
by allowing you to create and save a Personalized Appearance. This could be
to match a favourite high saturation slide film, to create perfect skin
tones for portrait photography or to correct for a DSLR that tends to over /
under expose. This level of personalization, a unique feature to RawShooter
| premium 2006, will save you valuable time, a vital consideration in these
times of constant family and work pressures.


By packing RawShooter | premium 2006 with state of the art image
correction tools that use our Scene Adaptive Technology (patent pending) to
work "under the covers" and make subtle changes to image contrast and other
parameters. For instance, the new Vibrance tool progressively enhances
colors in areas that need it. Intelligent, easy to use tools that give the
maximum quality output with the simplest single keystroke.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------New Features In Detail - RawShooter | premium 2006RAW vs. RAW comparisonA DSLR encourages you to take a number of similar images, which causes atime delay during the editing stage of your workflow. The new RAW vs. RAWcomparison tool removes this headache by allowing 2, 3 or 4 RAW images to becompared on the same screen in either vertical or horizontal format. Usingthe fully integrated zoom and navigation functions of RawShooter | premium2006 all of the images can be magnified to 800% simultaneously for theultimate in sharpness evaluation. Once the best image in the sequence hasbeen identified it can be prioritised for further processing; the others canbe marked for immediate deletion. Ful ly integrated with the dynamic previewand navigator, this fantastic new tool will greatly improve your workflow.Curves / Levels supportThanks to everyone who requested this on our support forums. Full curves /levels support has now been integrated into the product. Centrally locatedon the Corrections window, curves / levels support will allow sophisticatedcorrections to be made to the tonal and exposure range of the image in thesame fashion that is possible on much more expensive editing programs.Several pre-defined curves are provided (linear and high / medium contrast),as is the ability to fix points to create and save your own custom "S"curve. Eyedroppers are also provided to allow an experienced user to specifyboth highlight and shadow points.Integrated DownloaderOur fully integrated downloader will manage the download of your RAW filesfor you from an external card reader or a portable downloader / storagedevice to a chosen workstation directory. It will automatically flatten anynumber of directories (which are typically created on a portable downloader)to a single one (or preserve them if required) and will automatically createthe high resolution files needed for preview and correction. This means thatwhen you come back from a shoot, you can let RawShooter | premium 2006 doall the hard work in downloading and preparing your RAW files for editing.Options are provided for renaming to o, complete with masks, and you canalso specify whether to move the files from their original location or justcopy them. A great new feature that will save you time and hassle.Personalized AppearanceThis great new tool allows you to save away a combination of corrections asa personalized appearance. One obvious example is to match the output ofhigh saturation slide films, something which DSLRs have struggled to do, todate.Sophisticated Correction ToolsSeveral powerful and intelligent new tools have been added to the RawShooter| premium 2006 workflow. Vibrance is an intelligent saturation tool thatcreates the visual impact (the "punch") of high saturation slide films byapplying saturation only to areas where it is needed. It gives the effect ofa high saturation slide film. Colour Balance allows a colour caste to beapplied to an image and produces the same effect as using a filter on alens. The Hot Pixel / Pattern noise suppression tool has a dual purpose; thehot pixel suppression combats the e ffect seen by photographers who takelong-exposures (landscape photographers for example). The pattern noisesuppression assists those of you who have budget DSLRs or compacts to reducethe noise generated in your RAW images.FastBrowseA new option which allows RawShooter | premium 2006 to act as a browser forlarge numbers of RAW thumbnails without degrading the performance of thehost PC. This feature is useful if file management operations such as move /copy need to be carried out on a large directory of RAW files using thepowerful drag & drop capabilities of the user interface.Image Formatting ToolboxRawShooter | premium 2006 provides a great new toolbox to help you formatyour images. Got a horizon that is not as straight as you would like? Usingthe new horizon straighten tool this is a thing of the past, just one clickand it will be straightened for you. The image rotation tool allowsarbitrary rotation as required. The new CropTool allows cropping of an imageeither to set aspect ratios or completely freeform; you can also create andsave your own aspect ratios and use an on-screen grid for composition. Thesetools are the most sophis ticated to have ever been included in any RAWworkflow application and are seamlessly integrated into the RawShooter |Premium 2006 application.MagnifierThis new tool allows a small section of a selected image to be magnified onscreen and works in the Slideshow and Dynamic Preview applications. Thisprovides a simple, quick method of determining sharpness for a single imageand can also be used to quickly assess the effect of corrections such asnoise suppression and sharpening.FastProof ModeMade all your corrections and need to get images to clients / family /friends in a hurry? Simply use the amazing FastProof mode, either before orafter colour correction, and create email sized JPEGs at blazing speed. Youcan specify output options such as size, dpi and sharpening preferences,then watch as RawShooter premium | 2006 creates them in the blink of an eye.Batch RenameThis feature allows you to rename groups of RAW images either at thedownload stage or after editing. Options allow you to specify your ownrenaming format and a sequence number if required. This sequence number isupdated with the last number in the renaming sequence and saved acrossproduct closure. When the batch rename feature is next used the new value ofthe sequence number is displayed, along with the format, thus saving youhaving to remember it.InterpolationIf you are shooting for prints, or submitting to an agency, you will oftenneed a larger image than your DSLR can actually produce. Using proprietaryalgorithms, RawShooter | premium2006 now provides the capability forre-sizing an image up to 300% of its default value. This allows even morecapability to be performed at the RAW stage of a workflow, which results inimages of the utmost quality.Extended Colour SupportThe colour profiles for several DSLRs have been fine tuned to provide evenmore accurate colour rendition and shadow detail.Additional Camera RAW SupportSupport for several new cameras has been added including the Canon EOS 5Dand Canon EOS 1D II N.Raw Workflow GuideWritten by professional photographer Andy Rouse, this guide takes youthrough a logical workflow to maximize your usage of RawShooter | premium2006. This is in response to many requests from users who are new to RAW andneed some guidance with the workflow and how to start using the product.Experienced users may also want to quickly view this document as it gives anoverview of how all the new features fit into a typical workflow. The UserGuide has also been completely updated and revised throughout.Miscellaneous FeaturesIn addition to the main features listed above, the following has been addedto RawShooter | premium 2006:Enhanced thumbnail appearance - you now have an option to display either thetraditional RAW thumbnail view or one with basic EXIF information added(shutter speed, aperture, ISO, camera, focal length).RGB Readout - allows you to get the RGB values at the exact cursor location.EXIF display on dynamic preview screen.Finally RawShooter | premium 2006 contains all the existing features,functionality and camera support (including the Adobe DNG format) that hasmade RawShooter | essentials 2005 such a roaring success. With an updatedworkflow-orientated User Guide, RawShooter | premium 2006 is the ultimateworkflow tool for all photographers no matter what their level of expertise.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Your Questions AnsweredOf course, with such a feature-packed new release there are bound to be manyquestions about it and to help you out a little, we have answered some ofthe most common heQ. How much will it cost?A. The list price is $99.00. It's a great price for a great product, butwait, there is more to come. To show our thanks for your loyal support ofthe essentials product we're giving registered users a one-time amazingdiscount upgrade price of $59.00. This offer will only be available if theproduct is purchased during the remaining days of October. You will be ableto pay in your local currency when downloading from our e-Shop.Q. Will there be a trial period?A. Yes, the trial period will be 15 days. After that you will need topurchase the product and obtain a serial number to continue using it. Don'tforget to purchase the product before the end of October to get the amazingdiscounted price of $59.00.Q. Does this serial number mean that I can install it on a PC that is notinternet connected as I am very concerned about viruses?A. Yes, this has been a popular request from our user community and we arehappy to confirm that using the serial number system means that you do notneed to have RawShooter | premium 2006 installed on an internet connectedPC.Q. How will this effect RawShooter | essentials 2005?A. As we have constantly promised, RawShooter | essentials 2005 willcontinue to be supported by Pixmantec and a new version RawShooter |essentials 2006 will shortly be released with additional camera support.Q. What Do I Do Now?A. Simply click here to download your trial copy of RawShooter | premium2006 and begin to experience the immediate benefits to your workflow. Don'tforget to purchase the product before the end of October to get the amazingdiscounted price of $59.00.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Until Next Time.That's it for the seventh edition of Pixmantec NEWS. Once again thePixmantec team would like to thank you for your continued support ofRawShooter | essentials 2005. We look forward to talking with you again soonand to sharing your experiences of our ground-breaking world of digitalimaging. Happy Shooting!Newsletter Unsubscribe | Contact UsLicense Agreement | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use© 2005 Pixmantec ApS. All rights reserved

Old Bob wrote ...

ANNOUNCING THE ULTIMATE RAW WORKFLOW TOOL
RawShooter | premium 2006

Anyone know how many computers you can load it on with one license? I
need to load stuff like this on 3 to be fully utilized ...

I've been using RSE and Capture One side by side for the past six
months, sometimes I prefer Capture One, sometimes RSE ... for $60 it
might be worth a look.

Bill

Bill Hilton wrote:

Old Bob wrote ...

ANNOUNCING THE ULTIMATE RAW WORKFLOW TOOL
RawShooter | premium 2006

Anyone know how many computers you can load it on with one license? I
need to load stuff like this on 3 to be fully utilized ...

Two.

Simon.

Bill Hilton wrote:
Old Bob wrote ...

ANNOUNCING THE ULTIMATE RAW WORKFLOW TOOL
RawShooter | premium 2006

Anyone know how many computers you can load it on with one license? I
need to load stuff like this on 3 to be fully utilized ...

I've been using RSE and Capture One side by side for the past six
months, sometimes I prefer Capture One, sometimes RSE ... for $60 it
might be worth a look.

Bill

I'll check tomorrow, as I'll be attempting to load it on my work computer.
I'd be surprised if they won't allow two...
Just for kicks, I'll try it on a third and see what happens.
I've installed the new version, and it's pretty slick (just like the free
version) but with the added curves/levels/vibrance, etc. For some reason, I
can't get it to register my monitor profile...
-Same problem with RSE. Have you had a similar issue with yours, Bill?

Anyone know how many computers you can load it on with one license?

Mark M wrote ...

I'd be surprised if they won't allow two

Simon said two, which sounds right ... ideally I'd like it on a laptop
and two desktops but I understand and could probably skip the laptop if
need be.

Just for kicks, I'll try it on a third and see what happens

A couple of times I've been able to legally load programs on a third
computer even though the license said two ... at least when I phoned in
to activate it was accepted.

For some reason, I can't get it to register my monitor profile...
Same problem with RSE. Have you had a similar issue with yours, Bill?

I *think* it picks it up automatically ... in RSE just open the
Preferences from the green icon at the top-left of the menu bar and it
should list the monitor profile at the bottom ...

Bill

Bill Hilton wrote:

I've been using RSE and Capture One side by side for the past six
months, sometimes I prefer Capture One, sometimes RSE ... for $60 it
might be worth a look.

Bill,
I've been looking at these converters too, and while they seem to
produce an apparently sharp image, they seem to have extreme level
changes from pixel to pixel with the result that the the images
appear pretty pixelated when zoomed in to 100%. In contrast
the photoshop converter produces a softer pixel to pixel variation
so that one does not notice pixelation nearly as much when zoomed
in 100%. The result is that I can do a pretty good job of
image restoration using Richardson-Lucy deconvolution with
both the Canon converter and Photoshop. I have more trouble trying
to do Richardson-Lucy deconvolution with RSE converted images.
So I'm not sure I like the RSE output. I need to experiment
more, but I was wondering if anyone else had these impressions.

Roger

"Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark)" wrote:
Bill Hilton wrote:

I've been using RSE and Capture One side by side for the past six
months, sometimes I prefer Capture One, sometimes RSE ... for $60 it
might be worth a look.

Bill,
I've been looking at these converters too, and while they seem to
produce an apparently sharp image, they seem to have extreme level
changes from pixel to pixel with the result that the the images
appear pretty pixelated when zoomed in to 100%. In contrast
the photoshop converter produces a softer pixel to pixel variation
so that one does not notice pixelation nearly as much when zoomed
in 100%. The result is that I can do a pretty good job of
image restoration using Richardson-Lucy deconvolution with
both the Canon converter and Photoshop. I have more trouble trying
to do Richardson-Lucy deconvolution with RSE converted images.
So I'm not sure I like the RSE output. I need to experiment
more, but I was wondering if anyone else had these impressions.

There's a bash RSE/RSP frenzy going on over at the dpreview 5D forum. The
RSE/RSP sharpening is pretty ugly, but it does give you control over the
pixel level detail rendition with its "Detail extraction slider". The
previous comments I've seen have it that with sharpening off and detail
extraction at its lowest level, you ought to see images very similar to
DPP/ACR with sharpening off.

Still, RSE/RSP are designed to produce snappy looking images, so it makes
sense that they'd not be good fodder for further processing. (I like
RSE/RSP's ability to rescue highlights and control tonality, and I'm less
fussy on color than some (color is always wrong; it's a cutesy gimmick: real
art only happens in B&Wg).)

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark) wrote:
Bill Hilton wrote:

I've been using RSE and Capture One side by side for the past six
months, sometimes I prefer Capture One, sometimes RSE ... for $60 it
might be worth a look.

Bill,
I've been looking at these converters too, and while they seem to
produce an apparently sharp image, they seem to have extreme level
changes from pixel to pixel with the result that the the images
appear pretty pixelated when zoomed in to 100%. In contrast
the photoshop converter produces a softer pixel to pixel variation
so that one does not notice pixelation nearly as much when zoomed
in 100%. The result is that I can do a pretty good job of
image restoration using Richardson-Lucy deconvolution with
both the Canon converter and Photoshop. I have more trouble trying
to do Richardson-Lucy deconvolution with RSE converted images.
So I'm not sure I like the RSE output. I need to experiment
more, but I was wondering if anyone else had these impressions.

Roger

Have you tried fiddling with detail and turning off sharpening?
Now I'm curious...I'll have to take a closer look...

Bill Hilton wrote:
I've been using RSE and Capture One side by side for the past six
months, sometimes I prefer Capture One, sometimes RSE

Roger Clark writes ...

I have more trouble trying to do Richardson-Lucy deconvolution
with RSE converted images. So I'm not sure I like the RSE output.

The RSE defaults for sharpening and 'detail extraction' (not sure of
their exact term without opening the program but something like this)
are pretty aggressive so unless you turn these off you'll basically get
starting images that already look sharpened ... when you try to process
these or resharpen or interpolate there are problems. At least that
was my experience. C1 is less aggressive, depending on the version
you're using.

I've been looking at these converters too, and while they seem to
produce an apparently sharp image, they seem to have extreme level
changes from pixel to pixel with the result that the the images
appear pretty pixelated when zoomed in to 100%. In contrast
the photoshop converter produces a softer pixel to pixel variation
so that one does not notice pixelation nearly as much when zoomed
in 100%.

I have to disagree with you on this for Capture One ... I left you a CD
(I think June 2004 when you took me to Mt. Evans) with pics of an owl
head shot with the 1Ds with out-of-focus background that was converted
with Capture One (V 1.3.1 so an old version) and with Photoshop CS RAW
and if you blow that up to 400% you can see that Capture One has more
detail in the feathers and also smoother demosaicing in the out of
focus area (ie, smoother so you get a cleaner interpolation). This is
one of the main reasons I went to C1.

I'm still working on the large print order for a hospital and for grins
I took six of the digital files and started back with the RAW file,
converted with all three programs, interpolated to 360 ppi and printed
each at 11x14" ... the prints from the Photoshop conversions simply
don't look as good as either the RSE or C1 prints, which is why I don't
use it.

Bill

I've tried Photoshop ACR, Capture One, RSE, and DXO with 20D RAW
images. There are clearly differences. ACR (latest CS2 version) is
generally good except for one thing which RSE and DXO cleary do better.
When there are strong light to dark transistions in an image, sometimes
ACR (as well as Canon's converter) introduce a dark or reddish band
along the light to dark transition line. This has nothing to do with
sharpening (happens with sharpening off). Examples that produce this
are a 'lantern' light with metal framework over the bright milky glass.
Traffic lights in the dark, other strong light to dark transitions (yes
sometimes in daylight scenes). I find it somewhat frustrating that one
now has to 'match' a RAW conversion to whichever converter does the
best job for a particular image. I also had a nighttime city image shot
at 1600. DXO seemed to do the best overall job on this one in terms of
noise reduction, detail and artifacts. I used the color noise reduction
on ACR with this image and it produced a significant artifact (Writing
on a dark awning appeared to have ghosting when I used color noise
reduction). RSE and DXO had none such artifact.....very frustrating!

W


Bill Hilton wrote:
Bill Hilton wrote:
I've been using RSE and Capture One side by side for the past six
months, sometimes I prefer Capture One, sometimes RSE

Roger Clark writes ...

I have more trouble trying to do Richardson-Lucy deconvolution
with RSE converted images. So I'm not sure I like the RSE output.

The RSE defaults for sharpening and 'detail extraction' (not sure of
their exact term without opening the program but something like this)
are pretty aggressive so unless you turn these off you'll basically get
starting images that already look sharpened ... when you try to process
these or resharpen or interpolate there are problems. At least that
was my experience. C1 is less aggressive, depending on the version
you're using.

I've been looking at these converters too, and while they seem to
produce an apparently sharp image, they seem to have extreme level
changes from pixel to pixel with the result that the the images
appear pretty pixelated when zoomed in to 100%. In contrast
the photoshop converter produces a softer pixel to pixel variation
so that one does not notice pixelation nearly as much when zoomed
in 100%.

I have to disagree with you on this for Capture One ... I left you a CD
(I think June 2004 when you took me to Mt. Evans) with pics of an owl
head shot with the 1Ds with out-of-focus background that was converted
with Capture One (V 1.3.1 so an old version) and with Photoshop CS RAW
and if you blow that up to 400% you can see that Capture One has more
detail in the feathers and also smoother demosaicing in the out of
focus area (ie, smoother so you get a cleaner interpolation). This is
one of the main reasons I went to C1.

I'm still working on the large print order for a hospital and for grins
I took six of the digital files and started back with the RAW file,
converted with all three programs, interpolated to 360 ppi and printed
each at 11x14" ... the prints from the Photoshop conversions simply
don't look as good as either the RSE or C1 prints, which is why I don't
use it.

Bill