Lightmancer
Legend
- Location
- Sunny Frimley
- Name
- Bill Palmer
So, here's the thing.
I want the best quality outputs from my cameras without spending all my time slithering sliders.
In the past, there were three "levels", for want of a better word. A bit like the Frost Report sketch featuring John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, there were the "working class" who dropped their camera into Boots and the nice spotty lad behind the counter processed the film, dropped in a new one for them and handed back a wallet of prints with "helpful" stickers all over them.
Then there were the "middle class" who looked down on them, and used slide film. They were very careful to get everything right in camera, and send their rolls off in the little mailers to Mr Fuji and Mr Agfa and of course Mr Kodachrome.
They looked up at the "upper class", who did it all themselves, with a home darkroom and enlarger they would spend hours like mad scientists trying out new brews and spotting their big prints. They looked down on everybody.
The Boots people knew their place...
Today, it's different. The "working class" of yore now snap away with their mobile phones and share photos on Facespace and Triller. They rarely print, but if they do the JPEG is adequate to their needs.
The "upper class" have swopped their darkrooms for Lightroom. They still manage to avoid talking to their spouses in the evening by sitting in front of a screen and primping pixels to their hearts' content.
But what of the "middle class"? Where is the modern equivalent of the slide - high quality but low maintenance?
I have a life. I don't enjoy sitting in front of a computer screen. The thrill for me is in the chase and the capture not in endless vistas of faffing with esoteric settings followed ultimately by a brief visit to the divorce court and pot noodle for tea forever thereafter.
What I am looking for is a RAW converter that requires a minimum of user input. I require one that doesn't force me to buy a Mac, or completely restructure my fileproof fooling system. I want one that offers controls labelled in English that do clear things, not something that is less easy to understand than the Euro crisis.
At the moment I am using Rawtherapee - it is about the best I have found so far, but I am open to suggestions - keep 'em clean though
I want the best quality outputs from my cameras without spending all my time slithering sliders.
In the past, there were three "levels", for want of a better word. A bit like the Frost Report sketch featuring John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, there were the "working class" who dropped their camera into Boots and the nice spotty lad behind the counter processed the film, dropped in a new one for them and handed back a wallet of prints with "helpful" stickers all over them.
Then there were the "middle class" who looked down on them, and used slide film. They were very careful to get everything right in camera, and send their rolls off in the little mailers to Mr Fuji and Mr Agfa and of course Mr Kodachrome.
They looked up at the "upper class", who did it all themselves, with a home darkroom and enlarger they would spend hours like mad scientists trying out new brews and spotting their big prints. They looked down on everybody.
The Boots people knew their place...
Today, it's different. The "working class" of yore now snap away with their mobile phones and share photos on Facespace and Triller. They rarely print, but if they do the JPEG is adequate to their needs.
The "upper class" have swopped their darkrooms for Lightroom. They still manage to avoid talking to their spouses in the evening by sitting in front of a screen and primping pixels to their hearts' content.
But what of the "middle class"? Where is the modern equivalent of the slide - high quality but low maintenance?
I have a life. I don't enjoy sitting in front of a computer screen. The thrill for me is in the chase and the capture not in endless vistas of faffing with esoteric settings followed ultimately by a brief visit to the divorce court and pot noodle for tea forever thereafter.
What I am looking for is a RAW converter that requires a minimum of user input. I require one that doesn't force me to buy a Mac, or completely restructure my fileproof fooling system. I want one that offers controls labelled in English that do clear things, not something that is less easy to understand than the Euro crisis.
At the moment I am using Rawtherapee - it is about the best I have found so far, but I am open to suggestions - keep 'em clean though