A post processing query.

Now forgive me for being a little longwinded but bear with me. I shoot RAW (DNG), and when i post process i exclusively use PSP X2. Why? Well, I can open up my RAW files there and play around with them before saving as TIFFs or JPEGs.

However, whenever i pick up a magazine and read about post processing it seems that everyone (possiblt slight exaggeration) opens their RAW files in the software they got with their camera and do some basic tweaking in that (WB, contrast, saturation, cropping, alignment, etc), then they save as TIFF and do some more in other software such as PS or PSP.

So, can anyone enlighten me as to why this is? Now i have a C***n S90 (apologies for not getting a Pentax compact) and I find that when i open the RAW files in PSP X" they have a green tinge to them but when opened in their own software they dont. So I change to a TIFF and then do the rest in PSP.

Is it better to do basic adjustments in the camera software or does it just not matter?

Independent software is often more powerful than software that comes with the camera, but users may be too frightened to learn anything complicated, or they're just saving money.

As for the green tinge: that sounds like a specific incompatibility between PSP and that particular camera, rather than a general fault of PSP.

Perhaps in this case you would be better with the camera software, or you could try a different independent program, such as Silkypix Developer Studio.

I open my RAW files in Picasa, do a quick view edit, i.e - get rid of the c....p, then open whats left in CS4 and convert to Tiff and edit / process as required.

ps. I've just realised my first paragrapg above doesn't make sense if the users already use a program that can open RAW files.

I don't think Photoshop can directly deal with RAW files, though. (I'm not a PS user).

Anyway, nevermind what other people do! Do whatever you think is best!

I use the GIMP and the UFRaw plugin. UFRaw opens the file, at which point I tweak white balance, exposure, saturation, etc. It then passes the file to the GIMP, at which point I heal any blemishes. After that it's a simple "save as" to get a JPG.

what u said makes sense to me. All the stuff I've read is regarding Photoshop. I have noticed that using my Pentax software makes it far easier to remove CA and PF though.

think I'll stick to what i know. cheers all for clearing summat up for me.

Just to clarify - CS4's Photoshop *does* deal directly with RAW files, but via an automatic Adobe plugin/widget/import-tool called (uninspiringly) Camera RAW, I think.

You may find you need to update your Photoshop installation to get it working with Pentax PEF files though - mine didn't do them by default, but now whenever I load up a PEF, I automatically get taken to the Camera Raw interface first.

TBH, they're all much of a muchness - Adobe's Camera Raw for PS, Adobe Lightroom 3's RAW importer, even Pentax's own DCU4 - they all do basically the same job of enabling you to mess with the RAW in an attempt to rescue/tweak it before down-converting to a JPEG or some other format which you can't go back from (unless you've kept an original, of course). I've not seen anything in Lightroom's 'RAW' input pages that you can't do in PS-CS4's Camera Raw, both offer ultimately the same tools as Pentax's own.

Your tactic of sticking to what you know is probably best, imho - comfort with the software will help you make better choices, for sure.

I use Raw DNG instead of PEF, which gets around the problem of some software not recognising PEF files. For some reason I did not get a software disk with my K7, so I have never tried using anything except Lightroom and CS4.

Adobe Camera Raw works with both the full Photoshop and the Photoshop Elements. Since it is a plug-in that works within PSE, I regard it as pat of the PSE program.

You may have to download the correct RAW codec for your camera, but as this is free from Adobe, it's OK.