PixBuilder addition to PicturesToExe?

[Henri.R]

Pixbuilder seems to be a nice addition to PicturesToExe, but can anyone tell me whether I can use the application for the raw files of my DSLR?

Henri.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Henri,

PixBuilder isn't an "addition" to PTE, it's a totally different program designed to create and manipulate graphics and photo files. To my knowledge, just like other graphics programs it doesn't support RAW file formats. Even Photoshop doesn't support RAW files, you have to have specialized plug-ins (8bi) for that purpose.

Best regards,

Lin

Pixbuilder seems to be a nice addition to PicturesToExe, but can anyone tell me whether I can use the application for the raw files of my DSLR?

Henri.

[Henri.R]

Hello Lin,

Thank you very much. I said 'addition' , but indeed it's better to say that Pixbuilder and PtoE can be a good team together..

But then, can Pixbuilder manage a 8bi raw plugin?

Henri.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Henri,

Not as far as I know. The Camera Raw.8bi file is an Adobe product and couldn't be used without special and probably very expensive licesensing agreements if at all. There are some less expensive alternatives used by some software developers such as IrfanView but the problem is that new dSLR cameras keep using new and different RAW algorithms and even Adobe has problems keeping up. For example if you have Photoshop CS you can't use the latest Camera RAW files. I think Adobe forces upgrades by not furnishing the Adobe Camera Raw as a separate program as they did when they first sold it. I paid $99 for it when I was using PhotoShop 7 then when Adobe released Photoshop CS they included the Raw Converter. But when CS2 was released the RAW converter (CameraRaw.8bi) was not compatible any longer with CS and you had to "upgrade" to CS2 and they no longer sold it as a separate item. Then CS3 was released and the RAW converter wouldn't work with earlier versions. So I bought Elements 5.0 just to get the RAW converter. It also works with Elements 6 but I would be willing to bet that when Elements 7 and the next Adobe version of Photoshop comes out the RAW converter having the latest and greatest dSLR RAW conversions won't work with earlier versions.

It's almost a full time job keeping up with all the new RAW files being developed by Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Olympus, Samsung, etc. There may eventually be a way of doing this with PixBuilder but I'm guessing that would not be something of primary interest for the development team since it would be terribly time consuming.

Best regards,

Lin

Hello Lin,

Thank you very much. I said 'addition' , but indeed it's better to say that Pixbuilder and PtoE can be a good team together..

But then, can Pixbuilder manage a 8bi raw plugin?

Henri.

[JudyKay]

So, what do you professionals do? Leave everything in RAW? Convert to some other format?

Does anyone use Dng conversion?

What format do you save in?

Do you just "trust" Lightroom for the foreseeable future? (I don't).

Does anyone use Canon's Digital Photo Professional?

Don't laugh, but I am honestly impressed with Picassa's capability when I want to browse quickly, and have been quite impressed when it did a better "automatic" job of adjusting a picture than my 5 minutes of manual labor.

Presently I tinker with pictures using Lightroom, then keep the RAW images and jpg's, and occasionally tiff's. The rare really good pictures may get tinkered with in PS. So there are original images, adjusted images, special images and back up copies, and you know how much hard drive space that consumes?

There's got to be a better way! Can anyone suggest a workflow for the future?

[Lin Evans]

Hi Judy,

Generally I archive my RAW files for possible future processing. I convert from RAW to either JPG or Tiff depending on whether I see a need for extensive processing. I use a variety of RAW conversion software both from the manufacturer and from third party developers. I use Adobe Camera RAW for some conversions but also sometimes use others depending on which gives me the better conversion. I find for one of my Canon bodies that Digital Photo Professional does sometimes give me better conversions from my Canon 40D right now than ACR but Adobe is always "tweaking" ACR and in the future that may change. For my Nikon D2XS I use Capture One and for my wife's Olympus E3 we use both ACR and Olympus' own software. For Sony and for my older Canon dSLR's I generally use ACR.

I used to use DNG but it adds an additional step. However it does allow some flexibility for those not inclined to keep paying the bills for Adobe by upgrading every few months.

Workflow is always problematic. The one thing which is dirt cheap today is storage. If you have lots of photos then invest in a couple external hard disks. They are generally much more reliable than storing on DVD media which is prone to inexplicable failure. I also use Ultrium 2 tape as backup but don't suggest it for other than professional use because the drives are prohibitively expensive (around $5K).

Perhaps the best investment one could make when there are lots of photos involved is a good catalog program. Actually, Picassa is quite good if you don't have too many photos. When you get into the hundreds of thousands then it becomes problematic unless you religiously keep up with your indexing.

I wish I had better suggestions for workflow but after over 40 years of doing photography professionally I'm still scratching my head - LOL.

Best regards,

Lin

So, what do you professionals do? Leave everything in RAW? Convert to some other format?

Does anyone use Dng conversion?

What format do you save in?

Do you just "trust" Lightroom for the foreseeable future? (I don't).

Does anyone use Canon's Digital Photo Professional?

Don't laugh, but I am honestly impressed with Picassa's capability when I want to browse quickly, and have been quite impressed when it did a better "automatic" job of adjusting a picture than my 5 minutes of manual labor.

Presently I tinker with pictures using Lightroom, then keep the RAW images and jpg's, and occasionally tiff's. The rare really good pictures may get tinkered with in PS. So there are original images, adjusted images, special images and back up copies, and you know how much hard drive space that consumes?

There's got to be a better way! Can anyone suggest a workflow for the future?

[Henri.R]

Hello Judy,

I fully agree with Lin; after more than 40 years in 'the audiovisual world' is to have a good workflow a continuous and ever changing process, simply because the developers of hard- and software always are some steps ahead.

I made my first digital print back in 1992 and sometimes I'm still surprised by the things coming out of my printer now and , as a consequence, still developing my own skills... (which was, apart from that, in the analog world of the sixties or seventies not so different ;-).

I think the best thing you can do is to work out the workflow that suited you (and probably only you!) and then every year make some small corrections , dependable of the (new) equipment or a new version of the software you use.

And stay with the software you are familiar with while developing your skills, unless you see something promising like I saw PixBuilder. My point of view in this case was that, as a user of PtoE, it could be useful to work with software build by the same guys as PtoE. But, because of the fact that I always shoot in raw, and also the very useful answer of Lin Evans, I decided to stay with PS Elements, just because of the good raw-converter. And sometimes I use Canon's free Digital Photo Professional.

And yes, I also store my pictures on harddisks; however I don't know what is happening after many times of making a copy on a new harddisk..... So sometimes, when I think the shooting is very important, I also make a backup on dvd or cd, but then I use an archival or so called gold cd or dvd.

And yes, a good cataloging program is essential; indeed Picasa is not so useful for cataloging thousands of pictures; I use Extensis Portfolio for many years now. In my opinion one of the best, but in the meantime not cheap anymore ( and with the same problem as Lin described for Photoshop: you have to buy a new upgrade everytime a new Raw algorhythm is showing up!). Maybe one of the forum members knows of a cheaper but also good alternative.

All the best,

Henri.

[AnKo]

For cataloging my pictures I use Bridge (that comes with Photoshop) because of the easy tagging of photo's with keywords AND the doorway to Photoshop for special perposes. In Lightroom, which I use to develop my RAW photo's, tagging and keywording can be done too but the interface is not as friendly Bridge for this job. The export function is perfect to convert the RAW photo's and include them with the right colorprofile.

It's this combination that I prefer above all other software that is on the market today. Sure, Capture NX (I have a Nikon D70) is perfectly converting the NEF's to the correct colors, ACR is not that good (jet), but it is hard to incorperate in an almost seamless workflow. So for me it's Adobe all the way.

And as mentioned before, HD-space is very important. Recently LaCie has brought very nice USB-harddisks on the maket (here in Europe) up to 1 TB for fair prices. They are great for storing my NEF files, included with the xmp's produced by ACR.

We might say that nowadays photografie as a hobby is more then then shooting pictures and proces them as we wanted them to look like. And altogether its great fun!

regards,

André

[Henri.R]

Hello André,

You're quite right, Bridge is one of the best, but the only way to work with Bridge is to buy Photoshop CS, and that's very expensive.

Remember we are talking here of programs in the price range of PtoE and PixBuilder; Photoshop Elements is also a possibility, but Elements unfortunately doesn't come with Bridge!

I think (but of course can be wrong) that for the average user of PicturesToExe, PhotoShop CS is a too expensive purchase... And Lightroom is not really cheap too.

gr.

Henri.

[Guest Dick Le Bleu]

Just to add my two cents worth...

I use Idimager for my cataloging. (www.idimager.com).

While it is not intended to be a comprehensive RAW converter, it does use the standard dcraw routines to extract preview images from RAW images, and has a fairly useful RAW conversion capability for processing the RAW image for editing purposes.

As a cataloger it is very comprehensive, and supports versions and stacks and complete metadata tagging. It has a fairly useful editor built in to perform the usual adjustments like leveling , red eye etc. And finally it provides a number of output features to create your own web galleries.

But the most significant feature of the program is the dedicated support given by its author.

Highly recommended.

Dick

[brian65photo]

For cataloging my photos I have, for many years, been using ThumbsPlus:- http://www.cerious.com/

and for editing photos I have been using Helicon Filter:- http://www.heliconsoft.com/

Both of these programmes are constantly supported by their authors and have free upgrades for life once purchased.

Trial downloads are available from their websites.

Thoroughly recommended.

Brian

[Almark]

RAW, if its just a free raw converter you are after there are plenty:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&c...earch&meta=

Adobe Raw Converter is very good and looks more and more like the 'develop' tab in Lightroom with every update. It works with Photoshop Elements V5 or above and Photoshop CS3.

If you are a Nikon user then Capture NX V1.3 is simply outstanding. Unlike Lightroom and Aperture, [which make global changes to the whole image] changes made in Capture NX to your raw file can be applied selectively - by painting on [or off] the changes. You simply look at the area you want to change, apply the changes and then paint on the change to the area you were thinking about, maybe adding more here and there, and at any time going back to erase [paint minus brush] any where were you think you may have overdone it. Such changes include almost everything; levels, saturation, sharpening, etc., etc.

http://www.capturenx.com/

However Capture NX doesn't do edits, so if you have a dust spot or want add a border and so on, then you still need Photoshop [or something similar]. I have plenty of info about Capture NX on my amateur photo web site. And if you need to know more - just ask.

[JudyKay]

Thanks everyone. This is a goldmine of good info for me.

jk