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I have Photoshop CS3, Capture NX, Adobe Lightroom, Corel Paint Shop Pro, plus plus......

Does anyone actually use multiple programs as part of their normal workflow. It has taken me three years to become what I consider to be proficient with PS, and adding another program into the mix might be confusing.

Hi One

I have stopped using the program that came with my canon
Now I download to lightroom and use as my number 1 program and do all my adjustments, Tags , Rating. If they require more I take them to CS3
These are the only programs I use now except for plug-ins to CS3

My workflow is as follows:

* NikonNX to browse the raw images and from here I can open directly in CaptureNX
* CaptureNX to do basic stuff: WB, exposure, levels and from here I can open directly (as a TIF) in Paint Shop Pro 9
* PSP9 to do USM and any other manipulations, add the copyright message and the EXIF tags, save as the JPG for web.

here is my workflow,

Lightroom - Import, tagging 99% of edits, export for DSLRusers/Red Bubble/Website
Photoshop - HDR with Photomanix Plugin, and compositions.
CaptureNX - for NEF's I am not happy with in Lightroom.

I think if you were just to add Lightroom for import tagging and image management you would see your workflow become far more simple i konw it has made my life allot easier.

I too have too many image processing/editing centric programs installed. I do make use of more than one in my workflow, but only out of habit. I know there are new features in these later versions that will claim to do all and be all, and be the only program needed in a digital workflow, but old habits die hard. eg. I still don't like Adobe's Camera Raw rendition, so I stick with CaptureNX for NEF conversion (Although Lightrooom definitely makes for faster browsing). Then, while all the fancy hoopla over control points and such in NX is supposed to be an improvement over masks and adjustment layers a la Photoshop, it is still my preference to stuff around in Photoshop before any images are deemed 'finished'.

My normal web-target process is: Downloader Pro, Breezebrowser, ACDSee 3.1, Bibble, Paint Shop Pro 9, Breezebrowser, FileZilla.

In order:
1: download files off card, rename and put in "new photos" directory in relevant tree structure by date.
2: rename directories
3: filter out duds, first cut shots for further processsing.
4: process raw files to jpeg
5: fine editing of jpegs (cloning, distortion correction, anything involving layers)
6: generate HTML
7: upload to web.

In theory I could use BreezeBrowser for 3 but it's very slow (partly because it processes the raw files for the slideshow/large view). Likewise, generating HTML and uploading it could be done with other programs but I can't be bothered... that works well enough for me. BTW, I'm still using BreezeBrowser because I'm one of the "lucky" people who bought the "lifetime upgrades" version and got screwed by Chris Breeze deciding that he was only going to support annual subscriptions. Eventually I'll switch to something else, probably Bibble + a custom HTML generator (or even a web gallery).

Oneputt wrote:I have Photoshop CS3, Capture NX, Adobe Lightroom, Corel Paint Shop Pro, plus plus......

Does anyone actually use multiple programs as part of their normal workflow. It has taken me three years to become what I consider to be proficient with PS, and adding another program into the mix might be confusing.

....... depends on the subject matter, but I use CS3 and CaptrureNX, have lightroom but do not like the results......... both of the programs that I use give me a professional finish to my work, but as stated it comes down to subject matter

Phew so many choices. I must admit I like the colour rendition of NX more than PS, and from here on in I might use Lightroom to tag images.

Now y'all know why I try to get it right, in the camera.

gstark wrote:Now y'all know why I try to get it right, in the camera.

So you shoot all your images in JPEG with a maximum width of 800 pixels (so you can post them here)?

gstark wrote:Now y'all know why I try to get it right, in the camera.

I couldn't agree more with Gary's comments. I have always said, from the very beginning, that it's best to get it right in-camera and then do as little PP as possible (only what's necessary). Otherwise you become a slave to your computer and spend most of your time in front of a screen.

Most of my published shots over the years have had absolute minimal PP, yet I keep getting more and more requests for photos.

It works for me and I get to spend more time out in the field taking photos (which is the best part).

By the way, the little PP I do is in Photoshop and Picassa

Cheers

Michael

As my understanding and, dare I say it, skill improve, I find that some of my studio-light shots require only some exposure tweaking and resizing/SFW. Interestingly, I felt something was lacking when I didn't have to make too many adjustments to my photos.

This doesn't relate to any shots that I want to make significant changes to.

For me, I live by my histogram and highlight clipping on the LCD.

No One mentioned Dxo?

Photoshop Elements for the catalogue and tagging, then straight to CS2 for processing.

Capture 4.X for RAW conversion. PS for everything else.

I need to get off of my behind and do something about image tagging etc.

I too didn't like the results that lightroom gave, I think I am just quicker and more comfortable with PS, plus I have a number of set actions that do most of the work for me