Workflow and software....

I use Nikon Capture for RAW conversion to JPG.
Adobe Photoshop Elements for minor post processing and editing.
Irfanview for resizing and signature for forum posting.

With NC I get to use the curve and other settings I used for the shot, so the post-processing is very little.

 

I like the features in Nikon Capture and use it exclusively for RAW conversion and tweaking then convert to Tiff. Process the TIFF in PS CS and then convert to JPEG.

 

Charles...good post. Ken and Gordon, you both use NC, do you find it to be slow? I have tried it and it is soooo sloooowww that I switched to ACR 3. I have a Mac Powerbook with 1.2 gigs of memory which I think would be enough.

 

Slow is such a relative term.... with a "clean" (rebooted) system, I find the speed to be okay.

It's slower than I would wish on my DELL desktop PC, because it only has 512MB RAM and is a Pentium 4 - 2.00GHz, so I don't expect it to be "fast" with NC.

When I replace this system (hopefully I can wait until "Longhorn" is shipping with new systems) I will get a much faster CPU, and will have 2GB of RAM. If it still isn't fast enough with NC, I'll just have to accept that!

In 1986 I opened a business and was using a Panasonic "portable" 8088 PC with 2 floppy drives and no HD. It took nearly 3 minutes to sort my client database, and compared to doing it without a computer, it was wonderful - all my billing was done automatically on that PC too! Then I bought a 286 PC with a 10MB hard drive - how gigantic! It would sort my client database in 10 seconds. And, when I sold my business in 1995 and retired, my computer would sort that database so fast that my finger would still be on the enter-key when it finished! So, fast and slow are relative.

 

I disagree. I have RAW Developer, Nikon Capture, Print Buddy, but I use good old Photoshop CS2. I've been using the program since v4 and so I am very comfortable with the interface Photoshop uses. (This is not to say that other photographers aren't just as happy with other software.)

I build and use use my own actions to do batch processing. The new program Bridge, makes it very easy to sort my images into half a dozen or so bins for different batch processes. On my last job (dang! it was 3 WEEKS ago!) I took 152 RAW images. Then using CS2 I culled them down to 130 keepers and semikeepers, in 8 different bins. Using batched actions, I converted (with exposure and WB adjustment, as well as croping and sharpening) all 130 shots and saved them on a CD for taking to a printer in a single afternoon.

Now granted, they were all taken under the same lighting conditions, but most required cropping, and all needed some sharpening. A handfull needed individual attention (such as a clone-out or curving outside of ACR. I converted two to black and white as well.)

Now that the new, improved and faster Bridge is out - zoom, zoom!

On some images though (for example digital cosmetic surgery, an elaborate clone-out, or major re-purposing) I can still spend hours tinkering.