Tip Tuesday – Photoshop Lightroom – 02 – Importing images

Second part of our series looking at Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, today we are looking at importing images, the file formats supported and a couple of notes on PSD files.

[Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/6173685%5D

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Aperture 2 + Canon 50D RAW, nice.

I have to say, based on my initial tests the latest Apple update for Canon 50D RAW support is pretty darn nice. Personally I think I prefer what I see in Aperture 2 more than Lightroom 2 and Adobe Camera RAW at this time, detail is nice and noise seems to be handled better.

Only Canon’s software can handle the 6400 and 12800 ISO noise still, and I do not see that changing anytime soon but in general everyday use I am leaning towards Aperture 2 at this point for my 50D files. And that surprises me since I simply adore Lightroom 2 for just about everything else.

No images to share this time, you’ll just have to believe me for now. I’ll take some decent images soon enough and post them using Aperture 2 for processing.

Apple updates RAW support

Apple has updated RAW support for some of the latest cameras.

From the update…

This update extends RAW file compatibility for Aperture 2 and iPhoto ’08 for the following cameras:

Canon EOS 50D
Nikon D90
Sony DSLR-A900
Nikon Coolpix P6000
It also addresses issues related to specific cameras and overall stability.

Find it in Software update or at this link.

Adobe updates – Photoshop Lightroom 2.1, Camera RAW 5.1

Adobe has released the following updates,

Photoshop Lightroom 2.1
For Windows here
For Mac here

Camera RAW 5.1 for CS4 tools
For Windows here
For Mac here

Canon 50D high ISO noise tests – Adobe Camera RAW with DFine 2, Part 3

All the images use the same RAW file so this is purely a test of the various software processing not hardware. The test image was shot with the Canon 50D, 24-105 F/L and all the camera noise and image lightning options were turned off. Essentially the rest of the actual exposure settings are meaningless since as I say this is to test the post processing software. Well, that’s my opinion anyway.

Part 3 is using NikSoftware’s DFine 2, I have to say it is impressive
(I use their Silver Efex plugin and simply love it for Black & White conversion).

Canon 50D high ISO noise tests – Adobe Camera RAW, DPP, Noiseware Professional, Part 2

Images scaled down so noise levels can be seen in a ‘real’ situation rather than 100% crop which I think is unlikely to be used for anything other than huge prints. For these I only went with the ISO 1600 and ISO 12800 to show the differences as I saw no point in showing all 4 ISO settings, these two give the story.

Canon 50D high ISO noise tests – Adobe Camera RAW, DPP, Noiseware Professional, Part 1

The tests below were inspired by a comment from Tom on my previous Adobe Camera RAW vs Canon JPEG test which I very much appreciate. All the images use the same RAW file so this is purely a test of the various software processing not hardware. The test image was shot with the Canon 50D, 24-105 F/L and all the camera noise and image lightning options were turned off. Essentially the rest of the actual exposure settings are meaningless since as I say this is to test the post processing software. Well, that’s my opinion anyway.

The results are most interesting I think. Clearly Adobe Camera RAW is terrible at processing the higher ISO settings compared to Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software, which actually I would expect since Canon does not share all of it’s RAW format details with 3rd party companies from what I’ve read, and that the companies essentially have to reverse engineer the file to understand it. That plus the fact that Canon can use the same algorithms it uses inside the camera firmware to handle the noise.

50D in camera JPEG versus Adobe Camera RAW 4.6 RAW file

A quick test with the new Adobe Camera RAW compared to the JPEG file shot with the standard setting in the Canon 50D reveals what I hoped…the camera is way better than I first thought with my initial tests….thanks Adobe for picking up where Canon dropped the ball on software.

Sample image grabbed using Skitch from Apple preview and Adobe Camera RAW dialog box.

[ Update, a complete set of noise processing tests can be found on this post ]