Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

[Bob Wright]

I get more and more frustrated with Elements 8 and am not prepared to splash out on Adobe CS. I can use the free "Picasa" but it is very basic. Can anyone suggest a good alternative, free or reasonably priced, for working with RAW photographs taken on a Canon EOS D50?

Birding Bob

[MX5]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

Elements 8 works fine with RAW files (from 40D, 1D4, 7D and G10) ... what is it that's frustrating you with it? AFAIK CS5 uses the same ACR 6.1 plug-in as Elements 8.

An alternative is free and came with your camera ... Canon's own Digital Photo Pro.

[briansquibb]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

I am using Elements 8 with my 50d without any bother

[Canon-Fodder!]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

Hello Bob;

Canon's own DPP is (IMO) the very best place to start...

Personally I use it as my #1 RAW processor; way better than ACR (IMO), because it's built specifically for Canon files...

DPP takes out a lot of the initial/primary adjustments you need to make in ACR - because ACR won't read the CS2 file in-camera parameters. It treats all RAW files (from whichever manufacturer) the same... Sure, it doesn't have all the bells & whistles of ACR, but it's close enough. Anything that can't be done in DPP, I then finish off in PSE8!

What problems are you having with PSE8 and/or ACR then? I've found it to be 100% stable so far!

[briansquibb]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

Elements 8 works fine with RAW files (from 40D, 1D4, 7D and G10) ... what is it that's frustrating you with it? AFAIK CS5 uses the same ACR 6.1 plug-in as Elements 8.

An alternative is free and came with your camera ... Canon's own Digital Photo Pro.

Elements 8 comes with RAW 5.5

[briansquibb]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

Elements 8 works fine with RAW files (from 40D, 1D4, 7D and G10) ... what is it that's frustrating you with it? AFAIK CS5 uses the same ACR 6.1 plug-in as Elements 8.

An alternative is free and came with your camera ... Canon's own Digital Photo Pro.

Elements 8 comes with RAW 5.5

[MX5]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

ACR 6.1 (Windows) is available via http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...atform=Windows

Actually I'm not sure if PE8 will automagically update ACR when you click on 'Help/Updates...' but I also ensure I'm uptodate by manually checking. Which is what I meant to say.

But you also need to ensure that DPP is uptodate (currently 3.8.x) in order to get support for the latest Camera specific RAW files.

[Bob Wright]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

Have now had chance to read advice and work on some more photos. Perhaps it's me doing all the wrong things - or the wrong way round! My technique has been as follows:
First load shots from camera into Elements Organiser to see what I have (much quicker than trying to do a pre-load edit). Then I find that I can only access the Editor "Quick Fix". To us the "Full" Edit I have to load one shot at a time. (I should point out that whilst in Organiser I first duplicate all the shots - in RAW- that I want to work with.)
Having cropped and adjusted, if I "Save" then the new file becomes a .dng so, instead, I have been using the command on the far right ("Open" I think without loading the program) which then enables me to save the shot as a .jpg.
Eventually, the shot is saved as requested following the usual commands, etc and I have to return to Organiser for the next shot, load the "Full" Editor and start again, repeating process until the full task is completed.
There must, surely, be a quicker way. However, I cannot find a way of loading all the shots needing treatment into the Full Editor so that I can simply move from one shot to another.
My question: am I missing something somewhere?
Thanks for your help
Birding Bob

[colin C]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

Hello Bob

It does seem like a lot of buggeration!

Try the DPP route as follows:

* Load your RAW shots onto the computer in a new file and name it.
* Open DPP and all the shots will appear.
* Adjust the slider on the bottom right of the screen until the thumbnails are a good working size for you.
* Open the first shot you want to adjust and take some time getting the adjustments as right as you possibly can.
* Close the adjusted picture.
* Press "Ctrl C" to copy the recipe of the shot you have just adjusted.
* Highlight all shots that were taken at a similar time, with similar exposures.
* Press "Ctrl V" to paste the recipe to all of those shots.
* Move on to another shot, taken in different conditions.
* Adjust, copy recipe and paste recipe to all similar shots etc. etc.

With practice, you can now do a full card of RAW shots in 20 minutes rather than 2 hours. Finish by pressing "Ctrl A" to highlight all shots and save them to a new file as Jpegs.

Hope that helps.

Colin

[Mark]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

OK first things first, you can update Elements to ACR6.1 but as far as I can see on mine it still only updates to 5.7 when using .cr file from a 1D4 or 30D.

My route is as Colin say, use DPP it is the best RAW converter for Canon files. No it's not a good editing package, but if you want to CONVERT your RAW file and get the most detail and correct colours the DPP is the one to use.

My next choice and one that is very good and better than ACR is Phocus for Hassleblad (a free download ) and one I would seriously give a try. Phocus has the one thing over DPP which I use a lot and really is missed from DPP a metadata ITPC editor.

If you want to do digital art as part of your photography, then you'll need an picture editor, which really mean GIMP, Element, Photoshop, and so on.
There is a site with 14 free photoshop alteravies for you to try hereLINKY


Just remember CANON DPP and Hassleblad Phocus are RAW converters, Adobe make art packages with a RAW converter stuck on the end, there is a difference.

[colin C]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

Just remember CANON DPP and Hassleblad Phocus are RAW converters, Adobe make art packages with a RAW converter stuck on the end, there is a difference.

That sentence says it all Mark.

Colin

[Rover]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

Adobe Lightroom has been designed specifically as a photography tool. You work on the RAW file throughout so nothing ever happens to your original file. You don't need to 'convert' the file and then go into another program unless you want to do some arty sort of stuff. Version 3 (recently released) is very capable and has much improved noise reduction capabilities together with a transform tool for reshaping converging lines on images. You can add graduated filters and do local adjustments for most things. In my view it is the easiest and most capable 'developing' program for photos. There's no messing about with layers and such like. It uses the same RAW engine as CS so no worries there. In addition it will do your importing, cataloguing, printing, slideshows and web uploads if you also want these things. It's cheaper than CS and well worth a look.

[Mark]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

RE Adobe Lightroom,, if you have a Apple Mac then Aperture does all the same at half the price, your just not paying for the Adobe name.

[Bob Wright]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

9 August 2010

Again, many thanks for all the helpful comments, even though some seem a little technical and I have been busy working out some of the acronyms!
I can see where you are all going by telling me to start with Canon's own DPP which I can then save to .jpg and, if necessary, touch up in Elements 8. However, as yet, I am unable to find a cropping tool and when using "Help" the program responds with "Unknown". Does that mean I should be looking at all other items and then cropping in, for example, Elements?

Has anyone used or know anything about the program ACDsee; earlier versions downloaded fro free and the latest at the same price as Elements (or cheaper!) on Amazon and Canon D50 listed in the supported cameras?

Birding Bob

[briansquibb]

Re: Non-Adobe Editing with EOS RAW photographs

You can crop and rotate in DPP. Rotate was intorduced in DPP 3.8