Who is using RawShooter essentials - opinions?

[hillrg]

I have been using this converter for several weeks now and I am quite impressed. It has a very clean UI, an efficient browse > select > tweak > convert workflow and it is fast.

It will read D2X files (but not the WB as nikon is purported to have encrypted it), but I understand it will not read D1X NEFS. It works on D2H NEFs as well.

Ron R. - if you are reading this thread I would be interested in your opinion.

You can download from http://www.pixmantec.com/index2.html

 

[Philippe Roger]

Rory,

I have tried it myself, with D70 NEF files. I find it easy, fast and it produces very decent result, if not quite up to the quality of NC 4.2, PS/ACR and RM, particularly in the color accuracy and noise departments. I think it does pretty well, in a pinch, however. YMMV.

 

[Uncle Frank]

Philippe and Rory, seeing your atavars next to each other, I'm wondering if it's possible you are long lost brothers.
A DNA test may be in order :lol:.

 

[hillrg]

Philippe and Rory, seeing your atavars next to each other, I'm wondering if it's possible you are long lost brothers.
A DNA test may be in order :lol:.

Philippe was always the good looking one ...

BTW, Philippe, I agree with your comments regarding the colour. I can duplicate the colour in RSE, but it can sometimes be a little tricky.

 

[Philippe Roger]

Philippe and Rory, seeing your atavars next to each other, I'm wondering if it's possible you are long lost brothers.
A DNA test may be in order :lol:.

Philippe was always the good looking one ...

Why thanks Rory, but you did start that fashionable hair-style trend didn't you? I only followed your blazing trail... :roll: And, don't listen to Frank, he's just jealous: he started working on the bottom part of this combination, but hasn't been able yet to replicate the crucial top part... :wink:

BTW, Philippe, I agree with your comments regarding the colour. I can duplicate the colour in RSE, but it can sometimes be a little tricky.

Do you try to get the RGB indicators next to the histogram (in the shadows and highlights) to go away? I think they mean blocked shadows or clipped highlights for the respective channels, but I am not sure...

 

[hillrg]

Do you try to get the RGB indicators next to the histogram (in the shadows and highlights) to go away? I think they mean blocked shadows or clipped highlights for the respective channels, but I am not sure...

Not sure what you mean by this. I have been able to recover more highlights in RSE than Capture. The fill light slider works really well. I typically move the fill light to about 15 and the highlight contrast slider to -70 when I have saturated whites or RGB. An area that reads 255 in Capture will be 245 in RSE.

Okay, I see what you mean about the RGB indicators in the histogram - I just did not have any photos that triggered them. I can get them to flash by really overexposing in the exposure compensation slider. Honestly, on most of my photos I have made very little exposure adjustment.

Capture tends to produce a warmer rendering than RSE - I suspect RSE is closer to true colors but Capture is more pleasing. You can make a correction for this in the global processing parameters dialog.

 

[hillrg]

Here are two samples processed using RSE. The only changes made were cropping and resizing for the web in photoshop.

The first photo illustrates burned whites andrich, saturated colours. RSE pulled more detail out of the white and equaled Capture in the rich colours.

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This photo was taken in difficult lighting conditions. RSE managed similar results to Capture, and the auto WB was closer than Capture.
View attachment 6276

So, if you are having workfow speed issues you might want to consider this free software.

 

[NeilCam]

Rory, every now and then for some reason your images appear to be very washed out/faded. The cormorant is an example. I'm not sure why, because I know that you take fantastic saturated images so it's obviously something weird happening somewhere along the line.

I'm wondering if it's just me or if I'm the only one rude enough to say and others, far more polite than me, are seeing it as well, but are too polite to say so.

The duck image is a fine shot indeed and I'm sure the cormorant is as well, it's just that, at the moment, it's showing up somewhat washed out.

As far as RawShooter goes, I d/l and installed it, but have only played with it very briefly. Besides Ron's ebook arrived today and so I'm going to immerse myself in that, which will mean concentrating on NC and PS for the moment. When I think I have a better understanding of all things processing, then I'll give RSE another go.

Neil

 

[realeyz]

I think that shot was just taken in foggy conditions - I like it. Sometimes the light around is rather flat, but this IMHO makes it more interesting in everything we normally see in those bright sunny high contrast conditions.

 

[Gale]

Yes it does look foggy.

Gale

 

[hillrg]

Rory, every now and then for some reason your images appear to be very washed out/faded. The cormorant is an example. I'm not sure why, because I know that you take fantastic saturated images so it's obviously something weird happening somewhere along the line.Neil

Hi Neil. I appreciate the feedback. You are correct that several of my photos were washed out - I got a new monitor and was having problems calibrating it. Thanks to Andreas I have that all fixed now.

However, in this case it was foggy and I used flash fill. I should have explained that.

 

[NeilCam]

Seeeeee, I told you it was just me. :lol:

Where's that "I'm so embarrassed smiley"? Ahhh, this one will do

Neil

 

[pbenedic]

I like it

Takes a few days to get used to, but once you do, it is highly effective and pretty fast.
Batch processing is really cool.
This is no artistic photo, but RS was able to spiff it up so that it at least looks decent (looked terrible before).

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[Gale]

Wow Pat,

I that your garden. ohhh I am jealous.
All I have to look at is a cement driveway and cement apt building. argggggg.

Nice image.

I have also tried RS.. Easy, Fast. Accurate well not to sure about that.

Cheers
Gale

 

[hillrg]

Wow Pat,
I have also tried RS.. Easy, Fast. Accurate well not to sure about that.
Gale

I agree with your assessment Gale. I am hoping that the camera profiles improve and the riddle of the D2X WB encryption is solved.

However, on several photos I was surprised at how accurate the auto WB worked, and then on others it was way off. I definately prefer the 'as shot' WB from Capture as a starting point. I also found the contrast adjustment tricky at first.

 

[pbenedic]

Are you kidding??

My garden is snow and slush covered right now!!
I use auto WB, and as I said before, I thing the gray dropper in RSE is a pretty good starting point, if you hav a remotely neutral gray area in your image.
That being said, I still WANT MY ACR BACK!!

 

[Removed User 2]

I think it'S no good...

Am I the only one to really think it 's no good? :shock:

 

[Iliah]

Am I the only one to really think it 's no good

No, you are not IMHO one can't substitute demosaicing of raw file with uprezzing and sharpening - even if it is fast But what do I know, anyway...