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RAW converion programs

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:33 pm
by gstepic
I am fairly new to these forums and finally bought focalblade and will probably buy colorwasher. I am still trying to learn all I can to get the most out of post processing. I now shoot everything in RAW (NEF) and have been using ACR 3.2 as my RAW editing and conversion program.

I also own Rawshooter Premium but have not really given this program a fair chance. Advice I have been given is if I did do sharpening in at least two stages that PSP would do a decent job for capture sharpening.

I am getting off track a little, what I want to ask is opinions on conversion programs and if Photowiz products work any better with one than another. The main reason I like ACR is there are plenty of reading materials on how to get the most out of the program but I am seeing that I really don't need to have a lot of books to edit and convert with RAW editing and converting programs.

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:04 pm
by HaraldHeim
I'm not a fan of the two or three step sharpening workflows. I think it involves investing too much time and a greater risk of overdoing it.

ACR and PSP offer a sharpening feature that is fine for sharpening for screen viewing, although there are some images (noisy, blurred areas, blue sky) where more sophisticated sharpening (e.g. in FocalBlade) produces better results. The sharpening features of these RAW converters are also not sufficient for sharpening for printing.

I personally prefer ACR, because it offers a few advantages (e.g. recovers highlights more effectively) and has much better auto correction features, which can save a lot of time.