iPhoto, RAW and the GIMP

Shawn Hirn wrote:
In article ,
"babaloo" wrote:

Or you can get a real photo editing program that is used by actual
photographers: Photoshop or Elements.
"Gimp" is the most accurately named program in history.
Aperture is ok. It is not the real deal. It is an Apple only program that
has an unclear future upgrade path. The truth is that given the history of
Apple abandoning platforms and programs you should think carefully before
investing in the considerable cost of Aperture.

Oh puleez! Apple has a history of supporting its software for decades.
There are still people who use Hypercard, for Pete's sake.

Lightroom used without Photohop is crippleware. It has very limited
adjustments that are intended for images more or less optimally exposed
under studio conditions. It is good for what it is but it is not enough for
general use.
If you are serious about digital photography, and do not have some crazed
bug up your butt about Adobe, it is inevitable that you will want to use
Photoshop. The current Mac version of Elements is one generation behind the
Windows version and the current version of Photoshop CS2 does not run
natively on Mactels (that naughty Apple abandoned yet another platform and
generation of users!) but will run via the emulator kludge packaged with the
Mactel OS. You can download a trial of CS3 that the Macaholics at Adobe put
out so that a version of Photoshop will run natively on Mactel.
If you do not see why CS3 is superior to the other packages noted above you
got lots of learning to do.

Photoshop is an awesome product. I have CS2, but I haven't tried CS3
yet. For most people there, Photoshop Elements is more than adequate.

For the money, Corel Paint Shop Pro XI may offer more than Photoshop
Elements.

wrote:
Hi All,

I'm trying to settle on a workflow for RAW images. I'm currently using
Nikon PictureProject, but am thinking of moving to iPhoto. I'm having
problems with both of these packages though: When I've got a RAW image
which I'd like to edit, I can open it without a problem in the GIMP
(courtesy of ufraw). I can then save it as a JPG. The problem is that
this resultant JPG is then outside of PP or iPhoto's library, and I'd
have to import the resultant picture to be able to make further
modifications to it.

Is there any way to allow editing of RAW photos from within one of
these packages, and then having them automatically realize what the
edited picture is? Will something like Aperture, or lightroom, allow me
to do this?

(This all started when I accidentally left my camera on RAW mode, and
proceeded to take a few hundred pictures. I'm happy with most of them,
but there are enough that I'd want to further edit, and still keep
track of the original RAW file, that doing this manually will be a real
pain).

Any ideas would be welcome.

Nir

Another poster already mentioned that you can set an external editor in
iPhoto. I recently stopped using iPhoto all together since I got Adobe
Elements. I just could not see keeping that many copies of the same
image on my hard drive.

Note that with iPhoto, it creates a thumbnail image for its own use. So
if you delete the file, you still have a .jpg file left until you remove
it from iPhoto.