Posted Feb 4, 2011, 4:59 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Calgary
Posts: 474
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While the only decent camera I have is an old film SLR (Canon A-1), I've been playing with my friend's digital SLR lately (a shiny new Nikon D3100), and I've been using Photoshop to handle the conversion from RAW. It does a really nice job of it. Loads of tweakable parameters, corrections for loads of different kinds of lenses. Basically, if there's any particular detail you want brought out, you can do it, provided the photo itself is of good quality to begin with. Garbage in, garbage out still applies.
I just happen to have CS5, though. I needed it for an ongoing web design job, and Illustrator has come very much in handy for school. It definitely isn't cheap, even with the education discount I got.
I've heard good things about Lightroom, but I haven't tried it myself. As far as I know, it's like iPhoto or the Windows Live thing in that it basically takes you through the complete workflow (import, processing, organization), just with more features in between. I've been using Photoshop to convert from RAW and generally massage images I'm particularly happy with, and iPhoto to actually organize them. If you have a Mac, you can also try Aperture. Same deal as Lightroom really, and only about 90 bucks in the app store. Some people seem to love it, others seem to prefer Lightroom.
It sounds like, for your needs, Lightroom would be a great place to start. And you can pick up Photoshop later if you ever find Lightroom deficient in any way.
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