What would you recommend – running on a MacBook. Tried free trial of Aperture 2 – keeps freezing some of the other software on the computer. Wondering about Photoshop – not tried the free trial yet.

Any suggestions would be great, thanks.

what camere do you have?, and what type of processing?

I think adobe photo is pretty well though of, a bit hard to use at firs but v good

lightroom 2

Eos 30D. Just starting with RAW processing really – so steep learning curve ahead I'm sure. Was told photoshop better for graphic design etc, which makes me think prob not for me, but Aperture making things freeze a lot when it's running and this is putting me of it

For Nikon RAW (NEF) then it's hard to beat the quality of Nikon Capture NX2

capture one 4
best image quality of the lot imho. very easy to use but i don't run a workflow based on a 'database library' and prefer the session based system for each shoot.(i beleve you can run a central library archive if you wish) i use it tethered with a canon and phase1 back which is convenient and easy to use with both cameras.

unless you have lots of ram it's probably best to process without a lot of other apps running as processing files is ram/processor/HD intensive

Does the 'GIMP' programme work?

http://www.gimp.org/

Rick.

I process 100% of my RAW files on Photoshop CS4 along with Bridge. Did use Lightroom before, but only for quick JPEG touch ups.

DXO Optics Pro

takes out vignetting, pincushion/barrel distortion, chromatic aberration etc

unless you have lots of ram it's probably best to process without a lot of other apps running

Or just buy more RAM. Really. It is probably one of the cheapest upgrades for most PCs. You're talking say £20 for 2GB these days, so there isn't much good reason to be running with too little RAM.

(4GB on my home PC, makes RAW processing far less painful).

takes out vignetting, pincushion/barrel distortion, chromatic aberration etc

I think most of the RAW processors will offer features like this won't they?

I think most of the RAW processors will offer features like this won't they?

not to my knowledge

Or just buy more RAM. Really. It is probably one of the cheapest upgrades for most PCs. You're talking say £20 for 2GB these days, so there isn't much good reason to be running with too little RAM.

Bearing in mind XP can only use 3GB of course …

..as well as older Mac's too.

Bearing in mind XP can only use 3GB of course …

unless you have xp 64 bit, likewise vista needs to be 64 bit to use more than 3-3.5gb ram

the gimp can do raw, but you need a free convertor. It's very clunky compared to the slick workflow of something like lightroom.

A number of solutions depending on what exactly you want to do:

– Manage files and do general editing stuff: Aperture or Lightroom. I use Aperture, but it does have a problem with lack of support for new cameras.
– Heavy duty creative editing – Photoshop is pretty much the gold standard, not least because of the amount of training material available
– Convert RAW files – for my money CaptureOne knocks the socks off the others, but it does not have detailed editing capabilities like Photoshop.
– Nikon Capture NX2 – a compromise between Photoshop and CaptureOne

Of course there are other programmes, but these are ones I'm familiar with …

Not relevant to the OP (as he is on Canon), but for me the ability of CaptureNX to read all the in-camera settings and apply genuine Nikon algorithms, marks it ahead of the rest.

Does the free trail of Photoshop have the Raw image import capability? I heard somewhere, once, long, long ago, that it didn't…

(Currently 1/4 through importing some 200 raw images and about to have a day faffing…)

Canons own (free) Digital Photo Professional package?
http://www.canon-europe.com/Support/software/dpp/

and of course, no-one has mentioned elements yet.