Different Software and Plugins

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Oztours

Oztours

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I use Lightroom, Photoshop, Bridge, Topaz (various versions) and FastStone Image Viewer for post processing. Many of the same processes can be done in each one, albeit in a different way, but all are convenient at different stages of the post processing. I also used to use a program called Proshow Producer to turn my stills (and sometimes videos) into "home movies". That program is now defunct and have switched to PTE AV Studio. Until last week when my motherboard blew up, I had started trialling several other programs to see what may help my procedures. It would be interesting to hear from the members here, what programs and plugins you use and the benefits they each have.
 
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I use Lightroom a lot. I use Photoshop occasionally, but I have not used it enough to get past finding it frustrating and non-intuitive. I very recently started using Topaz DeNoise AI, and really like it, and that led me to purchase the bundle of Topaz Studio 2, Adjust AI and Mask AI earlier today after trying each of them briefly in the free trial.
I also own Exposure X5, which I had considered as a Lightroom alternative before I switched to the Adobe subscription, but I don't use it much now as for me personally, it seems not to be as fast or smooth running as Lightroom.
One program which came in the bundle with Exposure was "Snap Art 4". I really like playing with it on occasion to take a photo and see what it would look like as a painting.
 
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I primarily use Lightroom, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoise AI, and Topaz Sharpen AI for my photo work.

You mentioned video and I have been using DaVinci Resolve from Black Magic Design. It comes in two versions DaVinci Resolve the free version and DaVinci Resolve Studio the paid version. The studio version adds some significate enhancement tools and more features but the free version is very good. The studio version is $300 but you own the software and you get updates for life. The free version lets you get a good feel for the software and depending on your needs you may never have to upgrade.

I used Adobe Rush as my video editor for awhile, and tried Adobe Premier Pro, but I liked working with DaVinci Resolve much better.
 
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Mostly Capture One, for ingest and processing. I use a few (free) style packs but no other plug-ins, but if you are fussy about noise you probably should as noise re-education in C1 is not great. For those cases I often use DxO PhotoLabs, which could be my main software but for the lack of Fuji support (I primarily shoot Nikon but my better half shoots Fuji) and lack of ingest renaming etc. DxO is great for local adjustments, as their control points and luminosity filters are excellent.

For object removal and so on, Affinity Photo which I find easier than Photoshop and which is a bargain!
 
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My process is NEF files straight into Lightroom, the I use (plug-ins) variously Photoshop, Skylum's Luminar and Aurora, Topaz’s Denoise, Sharpen and Gigapixel; back to Lightroom and exported as TIFF or JPEG depending on end use.
 
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I went from NX-2 (now unsupported) to LR (loss of trust issues) to Luminar (started going in a direction I wasn’t interested in) and have ended up in Capture One.

The two great things I found with LR was the DAM that if done properly is amazing, and its friendliness for hopping in and out of other programs.

The Capture One DAM is in desperate need of updating. It works for me as I do things in an unusual way (I have subject folders so only populating a small part of the catalogue), but if you’re used to working with the entire catalogue it has to populate the database each time and for me it’s about 1000 images a minute. That may sound quick, but do the sums. The good side of Capture One, and why I love it compared to LR is the detail it gets out, the use of layers, and the colour management. I’ve reprocessed nearly all the images I liked and prefer the end result in every case. I don’t use plug ins as I mostly only make modest adjustments relying on the original image. I do sometimes also seriously over process and I’ve had great fun and results with Capture One.

I’ve tried (2 days of testing) Topaz sharpen and denoise and really wanted to like them. Yes, they brought up detail and did amazing things, but these are what I’d call rescue programs, and when I compared a properly taken photo to an almost that was rescued it was a no brainer. I’m convinced that for a beautiful wall hanger you’ve got to get it right in camera. For record photos getting around heat haze etc I’d love it.

For “hostile” processing I use Silver Efex Pro and have had lots of fun. It’s very limited in what it’s going to produce but I’ve never been able to get similar results in other programs.

I used Aurora and it’s fine, but I’m finding Capture one handles detail so well and it’s much easier to get an image that looks like it’s been taken on this planet that I don’t think I’ve opened it this year.
 
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In my short time of photography I'm using DXO PL3 for the majority of my RAW processing, however I also use LR as it seems better for landscape RAW editing at times. Topaz Denoise when needed.

I trialed Topaz Sharpen & Gigapixel and found Gigapixel to be reasonable. I have PS but I have no idea how to use it, I've tried to play a few times but get frustrated.. I need to find a course.
 
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ruley74 said:
In my short time of photography I'm using DXO PL3 for the majority of my RAW processing, however I also use LR as it seems better for landscape RAW editing at times. Topaz Denoise when needed.

I trialed Topaz Sharpen & Gigapixel and found Gigapixel to be reasonable. I have PS but I have no idea how to use it, I've tried to play a few times but get frustrated.. I need to find a course.
Click to expand...

For PS the masters are Ben Willmore and Dave Cross.
 
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I mainly use Ligthroom for year.
I tend to use more and more Photoshop for focus stacking and layer masking in landscapes photos.
I also use Topaz DeNoise and Sharpen AI.
I tried Luminar 3 and 4, but don't like it at all. I'll not try Luminar AI, as is helping too much people to fake their shots (Sky replacement), and I don't like that.
 
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For post processing I use Lightroom Classic with a small number of add-ons (Photoshop, Topaz DeNoise & Sharpen). I have also started to use On1 RAW as a replacement for LR and am getting to grips with its different methodology.

Other packages that live on my computer are Nikon's ViewNX-i and CaptureNX-D. ViewNX-i is used to get images off my memory cards and into my primary and secondary storage areas. I still use this because it gives me the same directory and folder routine that I started off with. ViewNX-i is also used for culling - it isn't the fastest but I'm not in a hurry :)
 
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When getting into post processing after having been converted to a RAW shooter years ago I first used View NX2 and Capture NX2, because it was recommended to me. Reason was that the Nikon algorithms to process their own RAW format were and still are considered superior to third party products by many phtographers out there, especially compared to the Adobe software. After getting my D750 I could not use the discontinued Nikon software anymore and swithced to Capture NX-D, where Iwas missing the selective post processing functions of NX2 for occasional tweaking of particular details in some photos. After I learned here in the forum that Capture One uses the Nikon algorithms - at least in the Nikon only version, I tried C1 for the 30 days and then got a subscription a couple of days ago. After taking my first days practicing I see no reason to go for an Adobe product and I must admit that this company has driven me nuts a couple of times in the past in relation to my job. Thus I made it a principle not to use any of their software, being it PDF stuff, photography or whatever...

As I was used to work without catalogues, sessions etc. I stay with this approach and use C1 just for processing the NEFs and exporting them to JPG. Everything else like tagging, shrinking etc. I do with XnViewMP, which is great from its functions and because it is a PortableApp, i.e. runs without installation. So I can have it on an SSD together with my photos and it will run on any PC where I plug in the SSD.

Currently I am not using plug-ins. I tested Topaz DeNoise and I realized that there is the same detour via auxiliary file formats like TIFFs that I had to take when using Capture NX2 as a plug-in to Capture NX-D to be able to occasionally use its selective processing tools. But I didn't like that. At the moment I am still trying to get in the new software and before I haven't learned to use its functionality properly I will not be ble to tell whether the denoise functions in there are sufficient for me or not. Once I get to a point that they are not, I will think about plug-ins again.
 
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For a few years after moving to digital I used PS elements 6 and then upgraded to PSE 12 which I found adequate for my needs. I uploaded the Nik collection when Google gave it away and last year I bought DxO Photolab 3. My workflow now is to convert RAW in PL3 - the local adjustments and noise reduction are really good, as is Clearview + for haze reduction, export to PSE 12, tweak in Nik Viveza or ColorEfex, sharpen using Steve's PS action which works well in PSE, crop and save as .jpeg. I find it a good idea to save files as .psd at various stages, to duplicate before processing so that I can keep a reference copy that I like before trying to improve it.
 
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Currently on Capture 1 ver 20 after being on LR since ver 2. Just find that for most images and especially with portraits, I get a much better conversions out of C1. Once the raw processed, I will go into Photoshop to finish the image. Only on rare occassions will stay with the conversion right out of C1 or LR and just size and save and convert to jpg within PS.

For Plug-in's have started using Topaz denoise AI as a 1st step in photoshop when needed. From there it various adjustments applied using the luminosity masks created via the TK Actions panel. Image (depending on what's needed) is finished using the filters Pro Contrast and Darken/lighten Center from the Nik/DXO plug-in Color Effect Pro or one of the presets I've modified in Exposure 5. Will also play with Infinite color panel or in Photoshops one the LUT’s for any color grading .

For Black and white will convert in Photoshop instead of Silver Efex Pro and then use Silver Effects Pro global contrast and brightness sliders to adjust the overall dark and light tones of the image.

Fairly comfortable with Photoshop as I've been using it since the original Version 3 released in 95. 1st with jpgs / tiff's from film scans from Nikons coolscan or Kodak Photo CD's. Later in 2002 with images from the D100 used Nikons Capture, Capture NX, ACR and then Lightroom with the intro to v 2.0. My 1st Plugins were several from Nik that worked in Capture NX and it's u-point technology.
 
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@Howard5252. Yes I can still use it; however, I was starting to have some issues with it and of course, there was no longer any support, so I made the decision to change over.
 
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I use LrC as my base software both for processing and organizing of images. Everything starts there and goes back there after anything is done to the image in a plugin, always used via LrC, and this includes PS. I use PS a lot for cleanup and sometimes for very specific processing and sharpening, using High Pass sharpening mostly. I use PS for any time layers are needed, I do a lot of adding of various artistic backgrounds as I like this look. Other plugins are Topaz, ON1, Nik and sometimes some other program depending on what I want to do. I have around 20 software programs, some I use often and some I don't use very often.
 
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I use DXO PL3 for raw processing. I really like the local adjustments, Clearview and when necessary Prime for noise. The library system is basic but I prefer to use the Microsoft file system for photos. Also nice is that I don’t need to import photos into the program. Edited photos have a sidecar file with edits. This means it is easy to move files from one location to another without worrying about catalogues as in LR. I purchased the Nik Collection in June and I am having lots of fun with these plug-ins - especially Color Efex, Silver Efex,Viveza, and recently I have started playing with Analog (which isn’t as intuitive as the other plug-ins).
 
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In the last few years I mainly used DxO PhotoLab. Before that I used Lightroom. When I tried out DxO I was quite impressed by the level of detail that DxO manages to squeeze out of my raw files. I just couldn't get the same results with Lightroom (perhaps just my own lack of skills). As others have already mentioned, the Prime noise reduction in PhotoLab is superb.

In the last weeks I have started to experiment with Capture One. Like Lightroom it's a much more "complete" program than DxO, with good cataloging functionality etc. One thing I particularly like is the possibility to use all editing tools on local adjustments rather than just a selection like in PhotoLab. However, with high ISO images, C1's noise reduction doesn't come close to the Prime NR in PhotoLab.
 
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These days it's:
- LR Classic
- PS CC
- Topaz DeNoise
- RayaPro luminence masking plugin for PS

I've gone through phases where I used various DAM programs including DigitalPro (for many years) and PhotoMechanic but though that's quick and supports some great features like folder specific file renaming these days I just import directly to a single ingest LR folder and then drag and drop images into their appropriate folders and collections.

For the folks that are struggling with the non-intuitive aspects of PS I recommend the Scott Kelby books aimed at digital photographers. He describes things quite well and does so from the perspective of a photographer, not a general graphics artist and gives great examples of tasks we do all the time.

In terms of my workflow, at one time I imported, sorted and then went to PS for everything. These days I import and sort in LR and most of my images are processed then exported straight from LR for screen use. If they need noise help they go from LR to Topaz DeNoise and back to LR as copies. If they need selective editing beyond what LR can do with the adjustment brush they go from LR to PS and are saved as copies back in LR. I'll typically print from PS as I'm much more comfortable with the PS print interface compared to LR.
 
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To say the least, I'm cheap, and therefore only use free software: PhotoScape 3.7 (prefer it to the newer version), FastStone, Canon's DPP4, Picasa, PhotoStudio 5.5 (old but still works pretty well) and GIMP. That's the order in which I use them if necessary, but usually find that PhotoScape is fine for whatever editing is necessary. I only shoot in jpg since I don't need/use the finest images and I've found that RAW images take too long for me to edit with my limited skills.
 
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gordon_g said:
Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw, Nikon transfer, Luminar, Topaz , Nic and imagenomic
Click to expand...
Brand new to processing. Use Adobe PS for my library of pictures/albums. Overwhelmed reading all these posts wondering where to start. Is there not one program that can do it all? Would also look at buying a computer, but am a “deer in the headlight” in regard to how much memory, which graphic card! Afraid going into Best Buy, I wouldn’t know what questions to ask or evaluate their recommendations! Any kind of a resource available in regard to “if this is what you want to do, here is what you need!”
with the depth of knowledge most of you have, I feel like I am a 7th grader, that walked into a Graduate level class!😱
 
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[QUOTE=" These days I import and sort in LR and most of my images are processed then exported straight from LR for screen use. If they need noise help they go from LR to Topaz DeNoise and back to LR as copies. If they need selective editing beyond what LR can do with the adjustment brush they go from LR to PS and are saved as copies back in LR. I'll typically print from PS as I'm much more comfortable with the PS print interface compared to LR.
[/QUOTE]


That's exactly the way I now do my processing Dave.
 
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