rawformat

RawShooter Essentials

So, just for fun, I downloaded the free version of pixmantec's RAW editing software (which can be found here) and took a quick shot around the house to see how well it worked.

Bottom Line: It worked well enough overall. Here's the RAW image exported "just the way it was shot" with no changes made in RawShooter:

Ironically, I think this image actually looks better (at least at this size in jpeg format) than the one I ended up with.

It seems like one of the better ways to easily test the quality of a program is to use their auto features and see how well they work. This program had an option to automatically set the white balance, so I did that. Other than that, there were sliders for saturation, exposure, (shadow and highlight) contrast, fill light, and hue.

There was a histogram and a few "appearance" settings, but it was all fairly basic. Then again, what can you expect for free? It's certainly better than not being able to use RAW images at all.

Converting the images was a bit strange. You had to "add the image to the batch queue," which then converted the image immediately. It only converts images into .tiff format, but it did automatically open Photoshop for me once the image was converted.

The image I ended up with looks like this:

RAW files vs JPEG

Chances are, anyone who's somewhat serious about photography or even bothering to read a blog "dedicated to the creation and use of an open digital negative format" isn't going to need much prodding as to the benefits of using RAW over JPEG when shooting. Nonetheless, I'm going to link to this article at PictureCorrect.com that harps on the benefits of RAW.

The most interesting bit in the article however, was not the funny little details about why RAW is a better format, but how Pixmantec offers a free RAW editing program called RawShooter Essentials. If you're too poor to have anything as newfangled and fancy as Photoshop CS2 (or too honest to steal a copy), then this is probably a good tool to get your hands on.

In stark contrast to the new Adobe beta for Lightroom, it's an app that seems to be available for PC only. I'm going to play with this one a bit and let you know how it goes.

Free chapters? I'm there

It turns out that the folks at creativepro.com have arranged to post an entire chapter (or at least at 18 full pages it's long enough to be a chapter) from  Ben Long's new book Getting Started with Camera Raw.

You can click through to creativepro and read their little blurb, but the real goodies can be found here. It's in .pdf format so download before opening if you'd like your own copy.

In this chapeter, which starts with the header "Where the Bits Are: Linear vs. Nonlinear Data," Ben talks about adjusting levels and touches on how to set your exposure when shooting. Most of the stuff in this chapter is pretty basic but useful tutorial info on image adjustment tools in Camera Raw.

The lightroom is abuzz

You'd have to be ignoring the world of Adobe and photo-editing software not to notice the gigantic to-do about Adobe's new app called "Lightroom."

Adobe just released a free public beta, probably hoping to simultaneously iron out some bugs and grab back a portion of the market they lost to Apple's Aperture. In conjunction with the beta, the NAPP has put up a Lightroom Learning Center, with videos and guides, including contributions from Photoshop TV hosts, on how to use Lightroom.

If, like me, you're curious about how the Lightroom beta stacks up against Aperture, you can find an overview of the differences and features on Digital Inspiration here, or you can go ahead and be a true geek and just download the beta.

If I get a chance to play with the beta later on I'll let you know. It's currently only available for Mac.

Aperture and LightRoom

As anyone who keeps a close eye on AppleInsider already knows, Adobe is not going to sid idly by while Apple trods on their market-toes. Up until recently, the RAW tools that come with CS2 were more or less the extent of available tools for working with RAW images.

That changed when Apple released Aperture, which, although it's gotten some grief for being slow and poor, even from hardcore fans and former top employees, it's also been praised for it's good handling of RAW image editing.

In any case, Adobe is expected to preview the application LightRoom at MacWorld Expo next week. More info here.

[FOLLOWUP: Apparently, Adobe has released a public beta of LightRoom today. Fun!]