Processing RAW images

[vanyagor]

Question for friends and whoever reads this: which tools are you using to process your raw images?

I decided to avoid using non-free software as much as possible (except Windows) on my new laptop. I'd rather donate to projects that people offer for free than pay for overpriced products from big companies.

Until recently I did not shoot RAW much and

Comments

[vanyagor]

Well, Picasa does not make the full use of RAW. Basically it treats them in the same way as jpegs. The controls it offers are EXTREMELY limited and the end result lacks detail compared to the output of a dedicated RAW processor. Picasa is just a RAW viewer with basic ability to process RAW images. (You can find more details on why picasa is not good as a raw processor on the web).

On the other hand to get basic resized jpegs (for web or email) from all your RAWs it should do the job. Considering this is what I'm doing most of the time, using picasa (or shooting jpg) is not such a bad idea in my case :)

[dandriy]

Donate some money to Adobe for the Lightroom 2. It's worth it. Or donate some money to DxO labs for DxO Optics Pro, it will also fix all your lens aberrations as well.

[vanyagor]

These are the 2 I will be looking at when I decide to spend some money :)