RAW: Image preview for selecting / sorting

[bedantabd]

Hi,

Need some guidance regarding RAW image previewing. As long as I was shooting JPEG only / JPEG+RAW, after downloading the images to my folder, I could open them in Window's Picture Viewer for previewing / selecting the keepers / deleting the rest. Now that I have started shooting RAW only, this step of "previewing / selecting the keepers / deleting the rest" has become rather slow and cumbersome. ACR will open only one image at a time and I need to go back to the folder for opening another image. Have downloaded / tried Windows RAW viewer also, which is even worse.

Would like to know from the members here in CiC whether there is any better way to accomplish this? What workflow do the follow?

Thanks.

[Colin Southern]

I do all of mine in Adobe Bridge, a key component in Photoshop.

It allows you to sort / group / flag / rate / copy / move / duplicate / filter etc images, and allows you to open hundreds at once in ACR if you wish.

[herbert]

Here are some things to try:

http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/
Allows support for all raw images within the windows picture viewer.

http://www.breezesys.com/BreezeBrowser/index.htm
I have not used this but it is meant to be a fast way to preview all your raw images.

http://www.faststone.org/
Faststone Image Viewer is free for personal use. A nice program and should support raw browsing and image review.

Personally I do all my review in Lightroom. It takes a while to import the images but I put in the memory card, wait 5 minutes and then I am ready to start sorting.

Alex

[Shadowman]

Or how about the software that came with the camera? If you didn't get it at the time of purchase, there is usually a fee for downloads.

[rpcrowe]

Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop Elements can open RAW images and sort and file them also...

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Bedanta,

I can't remember/don't know what you are shooting with, but at the moment, for my Nikon, I use the free (supplied) ViewNX2 from Nikon themselves.

Cheers,

[Manfred M]

Microsoft put out a RAW codec a few months ago. If this is the case, downloading and installing it should work with your Windows viewer.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl....aspx?id=26829

[dje]

Microsoft put out a RAW codec a few months ago. If this is the case, downloading and installing it should work with your Windows viewer.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl....aspx?id=26829

Thanks for that Manfred. Tried it and it works fine in Windows Explorer and Windows Picture Viewer (I'm using 64bit Windows 7). It wont replace Adobe Bridge for me but every so often it's convenient to do a quick preview of a RAW file from Windows Explorer.

Dave

[dan marchant]

Now that I have started shooting RAW only, this step of "previewing / selecting the keepers / deleting the rest" has become rather slow and cumbersome. ACR will open only one image at a time and I need to go back to the folder for opening another image.

ACR is a RAW developer, not previewing software (and comes as part of other Adobe software).
Which actual software are you using, Photoshop or Photoshop Elements? If Photoshop then it should include Bridge, which is what you use to preview/cull/tag images. In Photoshop Elements you load the Organizer, which also allows you to quickly preview images, tag them, add star ratings and/or delete them.

You should be doing this all from within the program and not going back to your windows folders.

[Manfred M]

Thanks for that Manfred. Tried it and it works fine in Windows Explorer and Windows Picture Viewer (I'm using 64bit Windows 7). It wont replace Adobe Bridge for me but every so often it's convenient to do a quick preview of a RAW file from Windows Explorer.

Dave

That's exactly why I downloaded it. Works fine so if I'm running through a folder with Explorer, I can see the files. It doesn't replace the other software for sure, but at least I don't have to open Bridge or Lightroom for basic browsing any more.

[koolkat]

Hi, as mentioned, the canon software that came with both my XTI & 7D is just great for reviewing, sorting and the * rating is a very worthy process. DPP, Digital Photo Professional is a solid program and works well with PS Elements 9.

[Colin Southern]

ACR is a RAW developer, not previewing software (and comes as part of other Adobe software).
Which actual software are you using, Photoshop or Photoshop Elements? If Photoshop then it should include Bridge, which is what you use to preview/cull/tag images. In Photoshop Elements you load the Organizer, which also allows you to quickly preview images, tag them, add star ratings and/or delete them.

You should be doing this all from within the program and not going back to your windows folders.

Agreed.

[bedantabd]

Thanks all for your suggestions. Never knew that so many options were available. I have CS5 with Bridge / DPP (Canon) / Microsoft RAW codec installed already, never bothered to check. Right now, I find DPP to be the most useful.

Thanks again.

[Colin Southern]

Thanks all for your suggestions. Never knew that so many options were available. I have CS5 with Bridge / DPP (Canon) / Microsoft RAW codec installed already, never bothered to check. Right now, I find DPP to be the most useful.

Thanks again.

Hi Bedanta,

My suggestion would be to invest in a book or two that'll help you get the most out of Bridge (& Photoshop). Honestly, comparing DPP against Bridge / ACR / Photoshop is like comparing a pedal car against a Formula 1 car, in terms of capability.

[kris]

As far as I know DPP is RAW an image processing software developed by Cannon, mainly for EOS camera.
It should then be compared with Capture NX2, developed by Nikon, or the more general ACR.

All of them offers some catalog and sorting capabilities. These however are really basic, since they are not developed for them.

To overcome these limitations Nikon and Adobe provide a companion program, View NX2 and Bridge.
Maybe Canon does the same, but having only Nikon cameras I just used DPP for testing/curiosity
and did not investigate the Canon world deeply.

My personal experience is:
I started with ViewNX2, it is supplied with the camera when you by it.
Then I moved to Bridge because it offers some capabilities I found more comfortable with.
Now I use LR because it is a software really designed for catalog/sorting/selecting pictures and offers
more advanced options. I think once you get use to it it is difficult to switch back to others.

Cheers,

Andrea

[dan marchant]

Thanks all for your suggestions. Never knew that so many options were available. I have CS5 with Bridge / DPP (Canon) / Microsoft RAW codec installed already, never bothered to check. Right now, I find DPP to be the most useful.

OK well on that basis you shouldn't be previewing your images in explorer and then loading each one individually. Bridge is going to be a much better option, or else one of the other image browsers suggested above.

I use Lightroom (and Photoshop Elements' Organiser before that) and it is really quick and easy to preview all the images and just hit X on the ones to cull (marks them as rejected). Then once I have run through them all I can batch delete and move on to developing the ones I want to keep.

[Colin Southern]

I use Lightroom (and Photoshop Elements' Organiser before that) and it is really quick and easy to preview all the images and just hit X on the ones to cull (marks them as rejected). Then once I have run through them all I can batch delete and move on to developing the ones I want to keep.

Sounds a lot like Bridge, except one can just flag them with the delete key and have them disappear immediately (only flagged though). Then Ctrl+A -> Enter to open them all in ACR