Adobe Lightroom or RAW Shooter essential?

[LX-A343]

Hi there

I am using RAW shooter essential since a few months and after getting used to I am delighted with it. Nevertheless, I installed the testversion of Adobe Lightroom. Somehow I see some advantages, on the other hand RAW shooter has also its advantages, ease of use being the first which comes to mind.

Now, who has worked with either of them or both? What are your opionions?

PS: I'm working with Canon RAW files.

Cheers
Gerardo

[cja]

Gerardo,

I have seen a couple of demonstrations of Light Room and although it had some editing tools it seems to be a tool for organising photos. An excellent tool for people like photo journalists who need to organise a large number of photos quickly with minimal processing . It is not really a substitute for Photoshop. Adobe RAW converter is easy to use and is available either in cs2/3 or the latest version of Elements.

[Mark Ralph]

I haven't used Lightroom, RawShooter was ok but I actually prefered Canon's Digital Photo Pro. I now use CaptureOne LE beats the 2 above hands down. It was available free with some Sandisk CF cards don't know if it still is though.

[Top_Gun]

I guy I work with does wedding photography and he just told me about this software. He says it works great and thinks it would be much easier for streamlining many photos when editing.

He supposed to pick it up.

[Billsville]

Gerado,

I read a review on the RAW conversions being done in LR and they seemed to indicate that the RAW conversion is not as good as some other programs. Can't remember the exact details, I will try and dig the link out somewhere.

I'm also giving it a run at the moment. I might post some processed shots to get some opinions.

Steve Brown

[LX-A343]

Hi all

I would use either Raw Shooter or Lightroom mainly for RAW converting. I had some very good results with Lightroom yesterday, but the user interface is a bit hard to get used to, at least at the beginning. I'm much faster with RAW shooter, mainly because it has far less options, but apparently the ones I need.

On the other hand, what I like about lightroom is, that I don't get a new TIFF file, but directly a PSD file.

[dvincent]

Rawshooter is a dead-end software because Adobe bought Piximantec, makers of Rawshooter. You won't get updates to it anymore, but if you did buy Rawshooter after June of 2006, you're entitled to a free copy of Lightroom from Adobe.

Lightroom is a workflow software, you will still need Photoshop to do your "final edits" as it may be. Lightroom helps make mass edits, tag and keyword your photos, et cetera.

Check out Ars Technica's review. I'm not just plugging it because I have photos in there (though it helps ), but because it's an in-depth review that compares it to other RAW converters and workflow software. Dave's very thorough and the review will answer most questions about the software.

[LX-A343]

Thanks for the link. It answers a few questions ... and leaves me with my main question: "buy it or not?" )

I recieved a special promotion for Lightroom, as I am registered owner of PS CS2. I guess, I'll give it a go.

Gerardo