Hey you photographers - raw file question

[DosVerde]

Hi all,

Now, I know there are a few camera buffs hanging around here, so my wife has a question.

She just bought a Canon D500 (the twin lens deal) which she is loving. She's been taking photo's in raw format so she can do more with them. She does graphic design so she's got half an idea about manipulating photo's.

She's currently using the Canon software that came with the camera on her iMac to adjust the photo's and then saves them as jpegs. She says the software is OK, but she know's that the pro's use better. She originally thought that Photoshop CS3 would be able to handle them, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Anyone got any handy hints or can point to a better software package, or is the standard Canon supplied one fine? Any other suggestions? What do you use?

[NFG]

Without being Canon-specific, there are a handful of tools I use and recommend.  Most are cheaper than the standard Adobe products (Lightroom, photoshop) and have free demos:

SilkyPix
Bibble
ACDSee Pro

I also use Corel's PaintShop Pro for editing.  They're up to version 12 or something, but I still use 9.

I shoot 14-bit RAW on a Nikon D700.

[Justo]

Make sure your Photoshop is up to date. Not necessarily to CS4, but just CS3. I too am designer, and notice Adobe are always updating the Camera Raw as new cameras and firmware come out.

Or yes there is other software out there depending on how far you want to push your editing/colour tweaking etc. Photoshop is pretty much the top end (bar the real high end retouchers stuff, whcih i wont bore you with).

Alternatively do a search for Canon Camera Raw phtoshop plugin, or combinations of, surprised the Canon site doesnt have any support on this, or does it have a squiz there too.

[DosVerde]

Thanks for the tips. I had a look on the Adobe web site and it looks like Photoshop CS4 supports RAW format. My wife has been putting off upgrading to CS4, but this seems to be the catalyst she needed.

Cheers.

[mattyvas]

Sorry it's taken me a few days to comment I've been away from the digital world.
When I got my new camera last year 5DMkII and started shooting RAW's as normal.
I quickly found out that Adobe had decided to update PS from the CS3 to CS4 as has been said.
No amount of updating will get the new RAW format (5.6.1 I think) to work on CS3 as Adobe want users to buy/upgrade
to CS4 as they make more coin out of doing so.

You do however get software with your camera from Canon called Digital Photo Professional, this is the Canon version
of RAW conversion tool. It is not as easy to use as CS4 but it can still be done.

Happy RAW shooting.

[monstermick58]

Gosh I wish I could shoot (in the) RAW





                             Mmick

[mattyvas]

You can from the comfort of your own home and certain outdoor places around Sydney!