While playing with my new Nikon D2Hs, I've been shooting in RAW mode and looking for the best way for me to post process these files. I personally run Linux on all of my machines, so Photoshop was not initially an option, nor was Nikon Capture, or any of the other Win/Mac programs.
My adventure began with GIMP and the RawPhoto GIMP plugin, which didn't strike me as very user friendly to begin with. I should specify, that I am talking about the RAW converter here. I don't like the UI at all, and feel it is very lacking in features, including a white balance adjuster with meaningful labels. For me, this is a must. I also did not find the auto adjust feature to work as well as I would have liked it. I end up with a magenta cast to my whites when using this. Nothing I can't adjust for, but I would think auto should get closer than that.
Gimp has also proven disappointing with their Curves tool, (the inability to see the changes to the image as I am adjusting the curve without unclicking), the lack of a free rotate tool, and just other general UI frustrations.
Luckily, my parents have a nice, fast AMD x2 that runs the Windows tools just fine. I started down this road with Nikon Capture 4.1, and saw a world of difference immediately. The curves tool had exactly the functionality I was expecting, the auto levels worked very well, and the UI was, I though, very user friendly.
My 30 day free trial quickly expired, so I figured I would try out Nikon Capture NX. Wow! Another vast difference. I really like this product. The auto levels and curves worked even better than with 4.1, and the UI was much improved. This will definately be on my purchase list.
I am also playing around with Adobe Lightroom Beta 3. I don't use it as a RAW converter, but rather as a photo management tool. I like the ability to split images up into shoots, keywords, and other topics just by draging them around. I also really like the built in print functionality that even allows me to print a "contact sheet", which I have used for clients already. I have not heard a definitive price yet, since this is still in Beta, but people are guessing around $200. Not sure I will shell that out if I'm not using the RAW converter, but I will have to see. One thing missing is the ability to add copyright data to the images in batch. I can do it individually, but not to multiple images. KIND of disappointing there.
Posted by doug at September 8, 2006 09:04 AM