As pointed out on the other thread, you may have missed my last qualifying comment quoted above - 'LR is no different in that respect really is it, at least as far as pure RAW conversion goes?'

I have clearly made the distinction therefore between RAW format and raster editing processes. That is because I am aware that LR continues a non-destructive workflow after 'conversion' stage.

Gee, the forum must be absolutely littered with all this nonsense! But you may have missed the last sentence - 'LR is no different in that respect really is it, at least as far as pure RAW conversion goes?'.

Thats the distinction isn't it? 'Pure RAW conversion' is nothing to do with JPEGs or TIFFs - I'm aware that LR performs non-destructive edits on these as well, so I have clearly qualified my comparison with other software by those words quoted above. How is this an example of my lack of authority or vague understanding of LR?

But, what is the big deal about who exactly it is that says things? It shouldn't be about the person, it should be about the argument - that's the mantra we're encouraged to follow So if you can actually find something I have said about LR to pull apart then lets see it. No doubt the details will be helpful in this context to everyone who's considering what they might choose to try out.

What the others here are looking at in highlight recovery is more interesting I think -

Andrew, were you the using just the main Highlight Recovery slider at the top of the 'Exposure' panel, or also the 'High Quality' controls further down. I don't know why, but I find that after activating these the highlights can jump way back up again, so you have to pull them back with the sliders further down under 'High Quality'.

Also as I said above, for coloured textures the 'Colour Propogation' mode works a treat, but I have no idea what the other options do? Would they provide a better solution to the blown clouds in that example shot maybe?

David, thanks for those detailed tips, that is very useful. Also Algi, thanks.

+ 1, well done!

Oh come on, lets have it! This forum's been dull over the summer and needs some spicing up

But be fair - I've never claimed to be an 'authority' on LR, and have never hidden my actual experience. What I have done is try and offer some balance to the discussions. I'm very glad that this thread has offered up a range of good quality 'opinion' and knowledge on what's available.

I ask you again - why don't you quote those things I've said about LR that you consider wrong or misleading? I'll gladly retract anything I've said that is misleading or not factual.

David, very good Macro shots, I was very impressed to hear that they are handheld!

I've found CIF works OK when you place the subject in the centre of frame with lens slightly de-focussed then turn the focus-ring slowly until it 'catches' and triggers the shutter. Of course, the limitation is that you need your point of sharpest focus in the centre as its only the centre point that is active.

Maybe this technique is not ideal for static macro shots? As I said on my other thread about CIF, (link ) the 'turning focus ring' technique works very well with moving subjects, or even subjects that are not good at staying totally still, and also works well in combination with continuous shooting mode, which would increase the keeper rate.

Yup, just like any RAW converter - any parametreic edits are just data records of the inputs you make. It makes no difference what order you actually set the sliders. LR is no different in that respect really is it, at least as far as pure RAW conversion goes?

Keep 'em coming shaun - always good to think about different ways of doing things. Hey maybe we could have the 'thumbs down' button put onto PentaxUser?? I'm sure it wouldn't take some of us long to accumulate the record numbers of clicks

Both Silkypix and RawTherapee are very strong in their Highlight correction abilities in my experience (don't panic - I have used both of them quite a bit) In fact quite a number of the Silkypix Highlight correction sliders are provided in PDCU which is a nice free bonus.

In RawTherapee I recently had a shot of a person that had strong side-lighting burning out the left arm and left leg and shoe - a glaring white - totally gone. Activating RawTherapee's 'High Quality' Highlight Correction tab , I chose 'Colour Propagation' from the dropdown as the processing method, and after it did its stuff (which can take up to 15 seconds to complete all the processing steps and redraw the preview), there I had it - fantasically reconstructed texture and colour in the clothing where none apparently existed beore! You wouldn't know it had been blown at all.

I've been able to acheve similar things in PDCU using the 'Saturation or Brightness' slider on the Highlight Tab. Admittedly its probably not as effective as what I've seen in RawTherapee, but it makes a very good stab at recovering colour on these hotspots.

It makes sense to sharpen to some degree at RAW conversion stage - this is to correct for the effects of the AA filter (if fitted!), and also you're in 16bit so it may the best stab at it in terms of boosting definintion without casuing any degradation.

Also you can balance this 'Capture Sharpening' step in RAW with Noise Reduction in the RAW converter, which is also a good opportunity to get this right in high quality. If you don't apply sharpening in the RAW converter to balance the effects of any NR then you risk having to use less effective or more aggressive options at the Pixel editing stage.

I would add that the more complex converters will include options to limit the effects of sharpening to edges with a defined radius amount, which would benefit many types of images. This is an option you can use in RawTherapee for example.