Just curious what program people use for editing their RAW photos... Aperture, Lightroom, Photoshop RAW editor, or other?
Me... I used to be a huge fan of Aperture - and still am because of it's interface, usability, tethering ability, & dual monitor support - until I realized that apertures RAW convertor does NOT apply any of the 'in-camera' effects that I do... such as... added saturation, forced white-balance change, exposure compensation, added sharpness, etc.
To back up a touch, I shoot with a Nikon D300 and shoot completely manual (no auto-ISO, no auto aperture, etc.). I like to do a lot my added effects right in the camera (it's a little more artistic that way), I crank up my saturations, I will change the white balance to really shift colours (ie. shoot with my W/B set to tungston lighting when shooting in broad daylight), increase my Dynamic Lighting control, etc.
Anyway, what I have found, is that when I import these RAW files into Aperture 2, NONE of these changes (or manipulations) have been appllied to the file, what I get is a very bland looking image with no life in it... until I re-do all of the adjustments again in Aperture.... which completely defeats the purpose of shooting RAW. If I import jpgs from my camera, completely different story, all of the effects are applied, but, I can't really edit them further because they are no longer RAW files.
I've had to start using Nikon's proprietary software called Capture NX, it actually imports the RAW files with the added effects which I can than further manipulate if I need. The only problem... I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT THE PROGRAM... it's not user friendly, it's incredibly slow... well... I could go on.
SO... the question I guess is... what do the rest of you do? Does Canon have the same problem with RAW file interpretation? Do people just shoot in Standard mode on the camera & do the manipulating in the RAW program editor? OR.... am I completely missing something in Aperture when it comes to importing my files (if I did, than this whole thread is almost for nothing
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Look forward to hearing about people experiences