Help! IDC newb here

[KevinBarrett]

So I've just got back from a 5-day road trip through New Mexico and dumped nearly 12 gigabytes worth of RAW images onto my computer. I can count on one hand the number of RAW images I have processed in the past, and I'd like to extract the very best JPGs from the images I have now, so what do I need to know about Sony's IDC? Most things are straight-forward, but where I'm most confused is in the Noise Reduction area.

I shot everything from blustery snow-covered mesas at 8000 feet to cavern formations in near darkness, from blue skies over volcanoes to a sunset at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Basically, I've got RAW bootcamp ahead of me, and I wonder if there are any pointers for a novice such as myself.

[Dusty]

Kevin, now is the perfect time to download several Raw converters, (trail versions) such as DXO and Bibble, to play with. I've played with both, but the trouble was that I used them when I had very few Raw files to process, and really couldn't do a direct comparison.

You won't hurt the RAW unless you erase it, so play with the feature set and see what each feature or combo does. Several of the drop-down choices you get are the same as what the camera applies to the JPEGs when you choose those settings while shooting. Choose one and see what it does. Turn DRO on and off, select Vivid instead of Std, just keep tweaking to see what it will do. One word of warning, make sure your computer isn't doing virus scans or anything else CPU intensive while working, it slows things own.

Play with it, then come back with specific questions.

Dusty

[Dr. Harout]

I agree with Dusty. Give a try with dcraw, rawhide, rawtherapee and so forth.
I kind of resigned from IDC long ago. Most of the time I'm on ACR/LR.
12 GB is LOTS of images, so I wish you patience.

[bakubo]

So I've just got back from a 5-day road trip through New Mexico and dumped nearly 12 gigabytes worth of RAW images onto my computer.

You've got your work cut out for you! How many photos is that? For me in a typical one month foreign trip I will take about 700-800 photos. With my A700 using cRAW that is about 7.5-10gb. I used IDC for all the photos in my Mexico gallery and it worked fine. I had IDC send its output directly to PS so it was pretty easy to use. I rarely need NR, but when I do I use Neat Image.

[KevinBarrett]

After a bit of initial weeding out, I have 576 pictures at 10.3 GB. It was closer to 600 when I started, and my estimate of 12 GB was because I filled my 4 GB and 8GB cards to the brim. I'm sorting through in Lightroom first and then taking the best to IDC...then it will go on to PS6 to remove the dust spot on the sensor that plagued me for the first day and a half.

[bakubo]

After a bit of initial weeding out, I have 576 pictures at 10.3 GB. It was closer to 600 when I started, and my estimate of 12 GB was because I filled my 4 GB and 8GB cards to the brim. I'm sorting through in Lightroom first and then taking the best to IDC...then it will go on to PS6 to remove the dust spot on the sensor that plagued me for the first day and a half.

600 photos in 12gb. I use cRAW, are you using RAW? Which camera?

By the way, if you have LR why not just use it to do the raw conversions? That is what I would do. Much easier and faster.

[KevinBarrett]

Whoops! I meant "Lightbox" as in "Image Data Lightbox SR," the program that came with my Sony. I haven't invested in any other RAW converters yet. I haven't been able to determine which would be the best option for me. I was shooting RAW on an a700 v4.

[david antony]

Kevin:
If you have Elements Win 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0 or Mac 3.0, 4.0, 6.0 you can Upgrade to CS4
for $299 ending Feb 28th You can also save an additional 30% off Adobe Photoshop
Lightroom 2 and 50% off select plug-ins along with the Upgrade. I have Elements 6
Mac and am considering this deal!

[KevinBarrett]

Am I out of luck if I've got a plain old copy of Photoshop 6.0, no lightroom, no elements?

[bakubo]

I have PS CS2 and it doesn't support the A700 raw files. I also have PSE 6 and it does. To tell you the truth, I would not buy a new version of PS. It is overpriced, IMO, and I don't want to give Adobe even more money just to get A700 support. In a year or so I may get another camera and then would have to upgrade PS again just to get support for it. I'm not getting on that merry-go-round. PSE 6 has a better ACR with more features than the one in PS CS2, but PSE 6 doesn't conform to Windows standards like every other app out there does, even free ones such as Irfanview and FastStone. It is *very* annoying because it has so many very basic bugs with regards to its Windows interface. It is amazing to me that Adobe gets away with releasing stuff like this. By the way, I only use the PSE 6 editor. I have read many times that the PSE 6 organizer is even buggier.

I suggest that you just use PS 6 for editing and Sony IDC for your raw conversion. You have both already and they work fine. As I said, configure IDC to automatically send the file to PS where it will pop up and it makes the workflow reasonable.

[KevinBarrett]

I'm still not sure what I'm doing with so many NR and Sharpening sliders. I hear talk of "chroma noise reduction" but I only get "color" and "edge" with another slider to control "amount" with IDC.

[bakubo]

I'm still not sure what I'm doing with so many NR and Sharpening sliders. I hear talk of "chroma noise reduction" but I only get "color" and "edge" with another slider to control "amount" with IDC.

I generally turn off NR and sharpening in IDC. I do that in PS.

[marktuma]

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Capture One as a RAW converter. It has to be worth a look, and again there's a 30 day trial. I like it and am pleased with the results - it appeals to me because it's not trying to be a swiss army knife and do everything, it just focuses on the RAW conversion and does that simply and well.

[marktuma]

Ah, I never got into the Adobe way of doing things, and I originally got C1 free with a Sandisk memory card a couple of years ago. Now I don't think I would ever consider it worth spending the money to go the Adobe way. I'd pay for C1 if I had to for it's speed and ease of use, but I can understand how it wouldn't fit for everyone.