alternatives to CS3

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by andy153

I shoot RAW & JPEG but tend to use the JPEG versions for most online work. I only use the RAW for stuff I want to print and that goes from Aperture straight into CS3, but again looking back, I notice I rarely sharpen.

A bit puzzled by this Andy.
Do you do any processing of the jpegs or are they posted essentially out of camera but resized.

What level of in camera sharpening have you set on the camera, or in your case perhaps I should say camera's ??

This will have an effect as I believe only NX ( as you use Nikons ) RAW converter will recognise that level of sharpening and allow you to change it before conversion to tiff or jpeg.

I use RAW with camera set to NO sharpening, and as others have said apply that as the last pp step in CS.

Don

Originally Posted by Roy C

Why do you need to sharpen at all during conversion - you can do this after the file has been converted

One talks of 'conversion' but really it is more accurate to call it 'selection' as what one is doing is choosing one of the manifold options encapsulated in a RAW file.

Clive's original is shown below left in DPP as it comes up from the CR2/RAW, L to R
the sharpness as set in the camera is '1', the image which is very soft, not as the one posted at beginning of this thread to its right.

http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...1&d=1201124519

I am suggesting that it is better to get the appropriate degree of sharpness, by setting the scale to 7, right hand pic (which could have been done in camera parameters), still nowhere near the sharpness of the finished version at this point where DPP is 'selecting' the info from the sensor. At this stage the display is still only a PREVIEW. Conversion is only finished when you either go to 'tools>transfer to Photoshop' which sends the converted file as a tif to photoshop, or command D which converts and saves it in whatever form you choose.
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...1&d=1201124893

As what I was doing was trying editing in NX, I saved as tif and continued in NX. Had I started with a Nikon NEF/RAW file, I would likewise have set a practical level of sharpness in the camera controls, again, choosing from the options set by Nikon within the RAW file rather than use sharpen tool later as once you have progressed beyond (in NX) the Camera adjustments you are in the editing portion of the prog, not conversion portion. Again you are working on a preview that is only fully converted when you 'save as' some other file form. You can, and I would save the edited work as a .nef so that everything is still open for improving or changing later.

BTW one of the things I hated when using using PSE4 (at least on mac) was that the preview quality was atrocious, re-opening the saved file produced something markedly different, so making nonsense of the editing.

[sassan]

Chris:
1- Your are right that for photo editing you need a Right computer first but if you are a patient person and I know you are, even a 5 years old computer (Every computer year is equivalent of 20 to 25 human year), is still good enough.

2- There is no substitution for Photoshop, lets put it this way, PS is the equivalent of English language for a traveler; You can talk to most people that way.

3- If you really need a substitute that wont cost an arm and foot, think of Corel paint shop pro. I used it when I was in need of CA (Chromatic aberration) removal when PS would not give me that option. I did the 30 days free trial that I found to be a very very effective program, being offered for a fraction of cost of others. Here is a link and this is a newer generation that is on sale now for $59, so consider this as a gift from me here is the

L I N K

4- Free Picasa that is given by google is a program that needs admiration as well. It was my introduction to software use for post processing and I found it to be a very useful elementary level program. Still if in need of sending a lot of picture via email, I prefer its use that is so easy.

5- At times when you buy the right old computer, you may land up with treasure of softwares on the HD, of course I am not sure about the legits of their questionable third party use.

Hope this helped.

[sassan]

Ignore my notes if you like as I only saw the first three comments on the first page of this thread.
How embaressing...

Following Andy's kind pointing to ebay, I see you can get CS3 for £155 or even £130, if you are attending a college, on ebay (buy now UK source).

You don't even have to race me to it.

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by Chris

One talks of 'conversion' but really it is more accurate to call it 'selection' as what one is doing is choosing one of the manifold options encapsulated in a RAW file.

Clive's original is shown below left in DPP as it comes up from the CR2/RAW, L to R
the sharpness as set in the camera is '1', the image which is very soft, not as the one posted at beginning of this thread to its right.

http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...1&d=1201124519

I am suggesting that it is better to get the appropriate degree of sharpness, by setting the scale to 7, right hand pic (which could have been done in camera parameters), still nowhere near the sharpness of the finished version at this point where DPP is 'selecting' the info from the sensor. At this stage the display is still only a PREVIEW. Conversion is only finished when you either go to 'tools>transfer to Photoshop' which sends the converted file as a tif to photoshop, or command D which converts and saves it in whatever form you choose.
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...1&d=1201124893

As what I was doing was trying editing in NX, I saved as tif and continued in NX. Had I started with a Nikon NEF/RAW file, I would likewise have set a practical level of sharpness in the camera controls, again, choosing from the options set by Nikon within the RAW file rather than use sharpen tool later as once you have progressed beyond (in NX) the Camera adjustments you are in the editing portion of the prog, not conversion portion. Again you are working on a preview that is only fully converted when you 'save as' some other file form. You can, and I would save the edited work as a .nef so that everything is still open for improving or changing later.

BTW one of the things I hated when using using PSE4 (at least on mac) was that the preview quality was atrocious, re-opening the saved file produced something markedly different, so making nonsense of the editing.

I much prefer to shoot in RAW, set DPP sharpness control to 0. export to CS2 and sharpen there using Marc Wilson's method of a duplicate backround layer set to Luminosity and applied USM or by selective sharpening via a layer mask.
Each to their own but I consider any sharpening done in DPP to be basic and crude but if your prefer it then that's fine.

I wasn't really meaning to bring DPP into this, though for newcomers to Canon DSLR, it is a very easy to use intro prog and comes free with camera.

It also has excellent stamp/clone tool and print layout.

Editing CR2 files in the RAW section is a matter of getting to know what a few sliders and sub-menus do. For more difficult eg landscapes with vast range of exposure, it is not too clever. The supplementary curves/levels tool in the RGB section relies on fine tweaking of the curves, assisted by cunning option to 'square' the curves so as to control much smaller bits of the image.

However it has no levels or equivalent and not even a horizon leveller, so the need to move on elsewhere is frequent.

This is definitely my last post in this thread.

[greenbunion]

Just to show what Photoshop can do to a pretty rubbish shot. The first is a straight jpeg conversion from the RAW file and the second is an attempt to make it even remotely acceptable. The finished article won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I cannot imagine any other single program could have achieved this.

a couple of minutes quickie in NX
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...1&d=1202076253

[greenbunion]

Not even close, Chris!