Workflow

[charleswood]

<p>I just downloaded Olympus Viewer 2 at a time when I am wondering if Lightroom and Photoshop Elements would serve me better in processing, editing and organizing images. To those I would consider adding Topaz DeNoise, or get Topaz's package deal. Would I miss Olympus raw lens specific distortion correction? Presently I use Olympus software to process raws into TIFFs. I wonder what other Olympus DSLR owners use to process images?</p>

[jim nichols]

<p>Charles, perhaps this is not in fashion, but I have never loaded Olympus software on my computer. I use Photoshop Elements 6.0 to process RAW (ORF) images from my E-1 and E-510, and save them as either TIFF or jpeg files, depending on the end use of the image. I have never seen the need for distortion correction while using the ZD 14-54 (1st version) or the Zuiko 35mm f/3.5 Macro. I also shoot with Leica-R and Pentax lenses, and, for me, everything works out fine.<br>

I don't have extreme wide-angle lenses, so I can't comment on the need for distortion correction with that type of lens.<br>

Jim Nichols</p>

[charleswood]

<p>Thanks Jim. I do have some wide angles where the distortion correction does make a difference. </p>

<p>I'm wondering how competent Olympus software is compared to Elements, Lightroom.</p>

[Greg M]

<p>Olympus' software is "OK", but there's definitely a ceiling as to how far it'll get you to better images than the cameras' own JPEG engine can produce. It's severely crippled in not having any ability to retreieve clipped highlights or shadows, noise controls are no better than the in-camera noise filters and the best quality JPEG you can output from the RAW converter is equal to the second-best in-camera quality option. Many users who use Viewer output TIFF files and then finish the processing somewhere else like Lightroom.</p>

<p>I prefer to not deal with tons of 30+MB TIFF files on the way to a final JPEG and simply use Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop CS5. Recently, I upgraded from CS4 and the emmediate benefit I saw after using the newest version of Adobe Camera RAW was, I no longer needed my third-party Noiseware Professional noise reduction system. I now can effectively, completely control noise/grain in my Olympus E30 and E620 files simply using the new noise filters in Adobe Camera RAW and output a high quality JPEG that needs no additional noise control, or anything else for that matter. ACR is the same whether you have CS5 or Lightroom3. I assume when the next upgrade to Elements comes out, the ACR program included will not be crippled and have the same noise controls</p>

[mukul_dube]

<p>I use the GIMP under Linux. This <em>free</em> software is also available for Windows and Mac. Raw conversion is done by UFRaw. For batch resizing and conversion to JPEG, though, I often find Digikam better.</p>

[charleswood]

<p>Greg and Mukul: that's good information. Thanks.</p>

[john gettis]

<p>I use Olympus software to process raw files currenty Studio 2 and Paintshop Pro X3 to finish the files. I have in the past considered buying Elements. John</p>

[charleswood]

<p>I'm leaning towards Lightroom and Elements with the Topaz package and perhpas Photomatrix to play around with HDR. The highlight recovery, noise reduction and better jpg conversion seem to tip me away from Olympus.</p>

[Tom Wiggins Photography]

<p>Charles: I used Olympus Master 2 (OM2) for a few years, I store my photos there, but do all my work on PSE8 currently. I like the OM2 viewer better that the PS organizer. If you program OM2 correctly you can open and adjust the images using PS. Tom</p>

[Greg M]

<p>If you buy Lightroom 3, I highly suggest that you work with the new noise filters in Adobe Camera RAW before spending any extra money on noise reduction programs. You can process RAW or JPEG images in ACR and the new noise filters in ACR introduced with Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 (same version of ACR in both) are incredibly good.</p>

<p>The next upgrade to Elements will also include the same version of ACR. You may find little need to foot the expense for Topaz. I have used Noiseware Professional with Photoshop CS2 and CS4, but have not bothered loading it to CS5 because the noise filters in ACR do such a great job.</p>