Raw Developer

I am constantly in search of a better program for developing my RAW files. Since I've moved to MAC I've tried a whole new assortment of tools. My favorite along the way has been Capture One, but since the switch to MAC I've sort of forgotten about it. Great results on the PC though. Fabulous.

Instead I've been hooked on Adobe Lightroom. Now, to be fair I have to say that the Adobe Camera Raw conversion engine is really not satisfactory for Nikon Image files. The colors are just not accurate. The detail is just not acceptable. The noise suppression algorithms often completely miss the mark. Adobe Camera Raw is often so bad for my digital files that I question Adobes commitment to quality products. After all, if Adobe can't get digital imagine right- who can?

That said however, I love the way lightroom handles my work flow. It's really a breeze (a few things to clear up but it's still in Beta so I forgive them). But if it's critical Raw Developing work- I export to .DNG and work with something else. Which brings me to the title- Raw Developer. I just purchased Raw Developer from Irident Digital the other day after trying it out for a couple days. Fabulous raw developer program. Oh the colors are so nice (thus far, I haven't tested it too intensively yet) and the noise suppression thus far works like a charm. I shoot quite often at slightly higher ISO's and I need it. Raw Developer tames my noise without destroying the integrity of the image. And like I said, the colors are great. I've actually decided to go back to shooting with a grey card so that I can color balance easier in Post Production. (Yep you heard me right. For awhile I stopped bothering to even gray card my digital shoots because if I knew I would be using Adobe Camera Raw to develop I knew I had so much color correcting work ahead of me that a grey card won't matter. To the other pro's out there I know this will sound like blasphemy, but gray cards have consistently failed to give me anything near automatic results in ACR. The gray might be gray, but the skin will be green, green, green.

So. Now that I've made a purchase, I'll be using Raw Developer in much greater portions. I will keep you in touch.