Durf said:
ACDSee Photo Studio Professional 2018 looks like a half way decent program for 55 bucks!
Oh, better than "half way"..!
8)
Not my best image from
last weekend, but challenging, as it was shot in
intense light, so the shadows and darks were really dark; the highlights and lights
really light.
I've just turned it out from Raw, in less than 5 mins.
I've converted; resized; added a signature; "Light EQd" the shadows and highlights; "healed" some distracting background stuff; and sharpened by selectively applying a "Deblur" at a strength of 17, in Topaz Detail (called from within Photo Studio).
You can brush native ACDSee sharpening on without using the plugin, incidentally - I'm just comfortable with Topaz Detail's results, but if I decide that I can get similar results from within ACDSee, Detail will get less use.
It's a good indication of how capable ACDSee is, I reckon. Colour is spot-on; Highlights and shadows managed very well (the head was
black, with no visible detail, in the Raw preview); and plenty of of fine detail/texture in the plumage and beak.
It's just "right".
Note that I've been a beta tester for both DxO and Phase One (Capture One Pro); and was on the path to Adobe Certified Professional (LightRoom). I was also part of Raw Therapee's development team back in the day, so I think I can lay some claim to an "informed perspective" when it comes to raw converters.
I recommend Photo Ninja and ACDSee products purely because they're better than the rest in any test/evaluation that I've undertaken, for the things I need from a converter - detail/acuity, highlight/shadow handling, clean detailed demosaicing.
Photo Ninja will still get the "heavy lifting" if I've been shooting very high ISOs or in "impossible" light; but I'm more and more impressed by the end-to-end capabilities of ADCsee's offerings.
Remember that I could have achieved exactly the same end-result from Photo Editor.
$25..!