Raw conversion software , what's best.

F

foo

Senior Member
Using lightroom 5.4 has brought great benifits to my photos and should hase done it years ago.
My question is converting RAW to JPEG or TIFF , tiff is uncompressed and lossy less I believe so is it best to convert to tiff for those specail photos and jpeg for stuff your not too concerned over.
How can I change RAW to TIFF with Lightroom rather than JPEG.
I used nx2 to convert to TIFF , just wondered if I can do the same with lightroom 5.4. bet its in the settings somewhere .
 
Fred Kingston_RIP

Fred Kingston_RIP

Senior Member
When you Export an image... under the 'file settings' section of the Export dialogue, there is a drop down for Tiff... selecting it gives a complete dialogue section of Tiff parameters
 
W

wornish

Senior Member
Select File - Export and in the window that opens
scroll down to File Settings you can select the Image Format to TIFF from the drop down.

You can then save this as a custom setting if you wish.
 
A

aroy

Senior Member
I am using the Nikon Capture NX-D beta. It is an extremely comprehensive RAW converter and all the tools required to manipulate the RAW images.

What I like is :
. The edit commands are stored in a separate file in a modified XML (if you are proficient in XML you can build your own custom script), so that the original RAW image is always available.
. Nikon's own software is reputed to give the best colour out of the box.
. It is still free.
 
W

wornish

Senior Member
aroy said:
I am using the Nikon Capture NX-D beta. It is an extremely comprehensive RAW converter and all the tools required to manipulate the RAW images.

What I like is :
. The edit commands are stored in a separate file in a modified XML (if you are proficient in XML you can build your own custom script), so that the original RAW image is always available.
. Nikon's own software is reputed to give the best colour out of the box.
. It is still free.
Click to expand...

Be careful using Beta software - the files that capture NX-D beta creates are only readable by capture NX-D beta Nikon actually say they may NOT even be readable by the final release version when it comes out.
So if you have spent many hours doing you're post processing it could all be lost.
 
4

480sparky

Senior Member
aroy said:
........
What I like is :
. The edit commands are stored in a separate file in a modified XML (if you are proficient in XML you can build your own custom script), so that the original RAW image is always available..........
Click to expand...


You'll like it until somehow the original and the sidecar files get separated, then your edits will disappear and you'll have to either hunt the sidecar file down and restore it, or start all over with your edits. That's why I prefer Capture NX2.... the edit steps are written back right into the .NEF file and can never be separated. And the editing steps can always be reversed. Or, if I prefer, the edited and original image can be saved as two Versions within the same .NEF file.
 
A

aroy

Senior Member
Each software has its own advantages and problems. If I am not wrong the Capture NX-D is written by Silkypix, and would be released soon. As yet it is free and I use this.
Yes, the new Nikon NX-D software is made by Silkypix | Nikon Rumors

. The edits are written to files XXXXXXXX.NEF.nks (where XXXXXXXX.NEF is the original file name), one for each NEF in a subdirectory (under the directory where the file is) NKS_PAR. The originals are not touched, and are readable by all software which can read NEF.

. The sidecar files are in XML, here is the first line
"<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x="adobe:ns:meta/" x:xmptk="XMP Core 4.1.1"><rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">"
This file is read by the software and all operations applied. If you know XML you can decode the file, or better still write your own steps for transforming the RAW image.

As the sidecar files are in a subdirectory of the original files, all that you have to do while archiving the files is to archive it with the subdirectory. Yes it is not as idiot proof as having the data in the original NEF, but that will bind you to one RAW software for extracting edit information from the NEF file in future as others may not be able to read NEF with embedded edit data. In this case you can use different software (which do not change the NEF) on one single source file and compare results. On my desktop, with 3 monitors, I can theoretically open up three RAW editors and compare the edits simultaneously.
 
Top