Canon® EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital Field Guide

Appendix B. RAW Processor Choices

In This Appendix

• Overview

• Canon Digital Photo Professional

• Capture One Pro

• Iridient Digital RAW Developer

• Adove Lightroom 2.2

• Adobe Camera Raw

• Aperture 2

The software you choose to process your RAW files and how well you can use it has almost as big an impact on image quality as which lens you choose, how you frame and light, or any of the many other steps that are now part of the process of moving a digital image or assignment from vision to finished file.

Overview

As you probably know by now, a RAW processor is the software that allows you to modify the RAW file captured when the camera is set to RAW mode. Usually the RAW file type is proprietary to the manufacturer. The RAW processor allows you to adjust many parameters of the image before processing the image to a TIFF, JPEG, PSD, or other file type commonly used in post-production. Some of the current RAW programs available now allow you to print directly from the RAW processor. There are many adjustment choices, including the following:

• Overall Exposure. This is an exposure slider that moves the entire file up and down in exposure value.

• Controlled Exposure Range. Each program contains various ways to adjust shadows, midtones, and highlights separately.

• Exposure Recovery. Each program allows recovery of shadow and highlight detail that previously would have been lost.

• Color Temperature. As all the color information in a scene has been captured to the best of its ability by the sensor and into a RAW file, ...