Post Processing Sfwr - What Is Everyone Using and Why?

[John Geerts]

What version of Photo Ninja do you use, John? All versions from 1.25 to 1.38b (the latest) do read NEFs from the Z systems, even the latest Z50 addition. I'm running versions up to 1.37 on my Linux boxes and Z NEFs are all digested, as are they on Windows with 1.38/1.38b . However, only 1.38 has built-in the proper profile for Z6. I should have the Z profile available somewhere.

At the moment I am running 1.37a

[chris dees]

I abandoned Adobe last year after I purchased a Z6 (before that LR 6.14 and PS6, no subscription).
I first tried ON1 as it is a kind of a LR Clone. I couldn't migrate the LR catalog (as they promised) and I find it's more a filter program than a RAW-converter.
Now I'm using DxO Photolabs 3 (with U-point technology and NIK-plugins. I'm pretty happy so far.
The lens corrections are very good as is the noise reduction (Prime).
It has no Panorama, HDR nor stacking functions. I use Affinity Photo for that (PS clone). There's no history of edits yet.
The DAM functionality is very poor (they just started with keywords), but I don't miss it.
I'm thinking of adding Topaz Sharpen AI to my workflow. I'm reading good things about it.

[Fons Baerken]

Photoninja 1.2.5 on a Z6

[Birna Rørslett]

Probably.

The colour stripes are caused by using uncompressed NEFs. Set the camera to record compressed lossless and all is well.

Convert your problem file to DNG, Fons -- then Photo Ninja can deal with it

[Birna Rørslett]

At the moment I am running 1.37a

Then it should read Z6 NEFs, provided they are 12/14 bit compressed lossless. I can send you the Z6 profile if you require this for improved colours.

[Fons Baerken]

Probably.

The colour stripes are caused by using uncompressed NEFs. Set the camera to record compressed lossless and all is well.

Convert your problem file to DNG, Fons -- then Photo Ninja can deal with it

Thanks, it does work on .dng's how i like Photoninja

[John Geerts]

Then it should read Z6 NEFs, provided they are 12/14 bit compressed lossless. I can send you the Z6 profile if you require this for improved colours.

Dng's work and compressed too.

But I refuse to change my settings (Uncompressed) to comply with the rules of the image-processor.

[Birna Rørslett]

The author of PN explained to me that Nikon had made significant changes to their uncompressed format and those additions caused existing code to go hay-wire.

I cannot see any real tangible significance of selecting uncompressed instead of lossless compressed as the RAW format. More disk space is consumed and that is a difference ...

[Fons Baerken]

Dng's work and compressed too.

But I refuse to change my settings (Uncompressed) to comply with the rules of the image-processor.

My files are uncompressed while significantly larger they promise beter iq; tiffs will open in pn also.
However they donot convert into tiff or be opened by PN.

[John Geerts]

The author of PN explained to me that Nikon had made significant changes to their uncompressed format and those additions caused existing code to go hay-wire.

I cannot see any real tangible significance of selecting uncompressed instead of lossless compressed as the RAW format. More disk space is consumed and that is a difference ...

Thanks for the Info, Birna.  The changes in the uncompressed format is with regard to the Z-camera's ?    I have not tested it with Z, but especially with darker scenes the shadow lifting and noise-reduction was better with the uncompressed NEF. Perhaps this does not work any more since the Z-camera's?

[pluton]

Now I'm using DxO Photolabs 3 (with U-point technology and NIK-plugins. I'm pretty happy so far.
The lens corrections are very good as is the noise reduction (Prime).
It has no Panorama, HDR nor stacking functions. I use Affinity Photo for that (PS clone).

I would give DxO a look, except no Fujis allowed, at least right now.
Speaking of panoramas and Lightroom, when Lightroom manufactures a pano, it creates the pano as a DNG file.  Great...except no other processing app (that I've tried) can read these Lightroom-created DNGs.  Photo Ninja, Iridient, Capture 1.  They see the preview thumbnail, but cannot open the DNG for adjustments.
A further limitation of the Adobe universe? So much for the "universal" DNG format?

[CS]

I would give DxO a look, except no Fujis allowed, at least right now.
Speaking of panoramas and Lightroom, when Lightroom manufactures a pano, it creates the pano as a DNG file.  Great...except no other processing app (that I've tried) can read these Lightroom-created DNGs.  Photo Ninja, Iridient, Capture 1.  They see the preview thumbnail, but cannot open the DNG for adjustments.
A further limitation of the Adobe universe? So much for the "universal" DNG format?

Have you asked Adobe about this?

[Seapy]

I would give DxO a look, except no Fujis allowed, at least right now.
Speaking of panoramas and Lightroom, when Lightroom manufactures a pano, it creates the pano as a DNG file.

A further limitation of the Adobe universe? So much for the "universal" DNG format?

I take the DNG output from a pano or HDR, straight into Ps, add signature, any edits, cloning etc. and perhaps border then export as uncompressed TIFF, the DNG gets dumped.

[John Geerts]

My files are uncompressed while significantly larger they promise beter iq; tiffs will open in pn also.
However they donot convert into tiff or be opened by PN.

It is an extra step to convert from NEF into Tiff or DNG. Extra work.

[CS]

I take the DNG output from a pano or HDR, straight into Ps, add signature, any edits, cloning etc. and perhaps border then export as uncompressed TIFF, the DNG gets dumped.

Yeah, TIFF is one of the export format choices in Ps. But I wonder what Keith would see out of his Fuji based DNG if he had DxO loaded, and he used the "Edit In" function in Lr to go directly into DxO? I'm not clear on whether his issue is somehow Fuji based or if it's because the DNG is a pano.

TIFF panos, that ought to take care of unused disk space.