Raw Therapee

[mike_downs]

<p>Just started using RT for my raw shots. Any hints,tips or time saving methods would be great. Only been using three weeks, but have made good process. I have just recently become very interested in the whole pp process. Am, also looking for comments about the pro/cons of Elements7 and Corel Paint Shop Pro. Just started a thirty day trail on both programs.<br>

Thanks for the help! </p>

[peter]

<p>I changed to Paint Shop Pro X2 when my old copy of Photoshop Elements (PSE) 3 got lost in a hard drive crash and I could not locate the installation disk. Never regretted it. PSPPX2 has a broader range of features than Elements (even the later versions of elements) - and some reviews say it is between PSE and the full PS in functionality. I would agree.</p>

<p>The thing that I like about it is that it has a lot of tools that are wizard like and designed for easy use and easy learning. Much easier than PS at about the same cost as PSE in fact. As a result the learning curve for a newbie is no where near as steep as it would be with PS or perhaps even PSE. Having said that maybe I would not recommend it so freely for someone who is already experienced in PS. Whilst many advanced concepts are the same (eg layers, channels, selections etc) the commands and naming conventions differ a bit. With the result that there is a need to relearn some of these things if you already have a good command of PS. (But no more difficult than say getting into a European sports car after driving a domestic sedan model if I can put it that way.)</p>

<p>In addition PSPPX2 has some nice extras - as well as having all the normal options for converting to black and white (like channel mixer) it has a specific tool that does this based on a color wheel. Very nice. It also has special filters inbuilt like digital camera noise reduction, texture preserving smooth, and so on. There is also a local contrast filter called - clarify that does a wonderful job of cleaning up middle tones and increasing apparent sharpness. One tool I really like is the frames tool (found under the image tab) Most of the frames that came with the software are pretty kitsch and I would not use them but its a simple matter to make your own or download them and resave them in the correct format and directory in the system folder and they work just like the ones that came with it. Although you can create and install a frame manually using layers, its nice to be able to install a frame on your photo at the click of a button - it even resizes it to fit each image. If you look at my Flickr site everything has been post processed in PSPPX2 and you can see my affection for frames - although here mostly I use the same two or three styles.<br /> http://www.flickr.com/photos/80702381@N00/<br /> PSPPX2 supports almost all PS compliant plugins - download them, install them in the plugins folder and off you go! its as simple as that. It is also able to work with many PS file formats (like .PSD files) and a wide range of RAW files. (Oh and by the way it supports up to 16 bit images so no worries with working in extended bit mode before converting to jpg.)</p>

<p>So all in all its very professional and quite easy to learn. The only slight downside I would report is that it does need a reasonable amount of RAM to run well on a PC with larger file sizes and most internet downloadables, resources and tutorials are for PS not PSPPX2 - so some resources (e.g. like PSPPX2 scripts - their equivalent of PS actions) are a bit hard to find. But as most PS resources work in PSPPx2 thats not so much of a problem.</p>

<p>At the end of the day either PSE or PSPPX2 will work fine but I feel that the latter program helped me build my skills much more quickly than I could have if I were using PS or PSE which are not as user friendly.</p>

[mike.go36]

<p>Hi... I'm using PSPPX2 on a 30-day trial and love it. Last year I bought PSE7 on CD. This turned out to be flawed, with the Crop tool and Resize function not working properly. So, I've abandoned PS7 altogether, and in a few days I'll buy Corel's PSPPX2. Tho' many love their PS editors, I've never done well with PS. </p>