Photography tips

I shoot nearly everything in RAW format and as such, I need to "develop" every image into a useable format.  The normal format for me is to end up with a jpg file in order to present the photo in my photoblog. In some instances, when I am going to do a large print I produce a tiff file.

A large print to me is 9x12 inch or bigger, and the pro lab that I use to do my printing can print either from a jpg or 8-bit tiff file. If possible, I use a tiff file, as I normally get them to do colour correction on all printed images. They match the colourspace to their Printer colour profile and I get a much better looking picture.

Now, onto the software that I have settled on....

My Primary RAW developer is RSP -RawShooter Professional. It is an all-in-one (nearly) Raw development software that gives me incredible flexibility in processing my photos. It is a pity that the software is no longer available as the company sold out to Adobe about 6 months ago.

RSP allows me to change nearly all aspects of the RAW file so I can produce my final output image. By taking the decision out of the camera and into software, It gives me, the photographer incredible flexibility so I can produce the best possible photo. When you shoot jpg, you are letting the camera decide on how to best represent your picture and sometimes, it just doesn't get it right.

I try and use RSP as the 1 tool to develop and produce the final jpg image for viewing on the web, but when I can't and need some of the other tools I use, I simply do what I can in RSP, then process a tiff image (or series of images) for further work.

Noise can be a problem with high ISO shots, and when I have noise that RSP cannot handle, I look towards Noiseware. I use both the free community Edition and the Standard Edition. The Standard Edition will let you save the image as a tiff - which is important, as you only want to save as jpg once if at all possible.

If I have a photo that has extremes in light levels I use another piece of software - photomatix. It allows me to combine 2 or more images (sometime developed from the same raw file) with different exposures. When a photo has exteme lighting conditions such as a shot inside wth a bright light coming in a window, you might want to have both the outside scene and the indside scene appear to be lit in a similar fashion. By processing 1 image for the highlights (outdoor scene) and 1 for the shadow detail and then combining them with photomatix you can often turn a somewhat ordinary image into something much better.

If I need to use either NoiseWare or Photomatix, I work with tiff images. This is to ensure that there are no additional losses introduced by having multiple generations of jpg files compressed and un-compressed do not add any noise or artifacts to the photo.

I have one more tool that I like to use and that is  Autostitch. This software will take a series of overlapped images and create a panorama. Unfortunately, it can only work with jpg files.

When I need to call on tools other than RSP to produce the desired image, then I finally use the Gimp to do the final processing of the photo.  I simply use the Gimp to do the final jpg conversion and resizing of my photo ready for it's intended use. When I have created a Panorama, I also use the Gimp to crop the stitched image as there is always some mis-alignment when stitching photos into a panorama. In the cases where I shoot jpg from the camera (sometimes you have little choice) I use the Gimp to do any corrections and resizing necessary.

I have tried all sorts of software and basically settled on the tools and basic techniques that I have outlined to produce my photos. The Digital workflow is different for everyone, and it truly is an individual preference. As a photographer, I simply recommend that you try several different PAW tools and find what works for you.