You should grab this cool FREE software while you can as the company that created it was recently taken over by Adobe so it’s unsure if you’ll be able to get this in the future or not.

RSE (Raw Shooter Essentials) is a pretty good RAW file manipulator for all brands of RAW files (most importantly Canon, Nikon and the DNG or Digital Negative format).

Adobe Systems Inc has acquired the assets of Pixmantec (RawShooter). RawShooter Essentials will no longer be updated but will be available for download until shortly after Adobe Lightroom 1.0 is released as a shipping product.

RawShooter Essentials 2006, is a RAW workflow software tool that sets new standards for digital photography. It is a fully functional RAW converter which allows any level of user to get excellent results with the minimum of effort and knowledge. It provides the highest quality output and fastest conversion time for any RAW converter on the market today.

Now supports 15 additional DSLR cameras including Nikon D200 and Canon 5D!

RawShooter Essentials 2006 contains core functionality such as:

• Powerful File Browser: Full support for drag & drop, shortcuts, cursor sensitive hints and tips, scalable thumbnails, customizable background color and directory management including creation / rename / deletion and defining favorites
• Image Priority: Assignment of priorities to individual or group of images
• Slideshow: Full screen slideshow of RAW images. During the editing process, individual files can be assigned priorities via the slideshow, or consigned to the recycle bin
• Dynamic Preview: True to life representation of how your converted image will look. Unlike, other previews, the dynamic preview instantly shows the effects of any changes that you make to the RAW iage, even at high magnifications
• Powerful Image Correction Tools: Image adjustment tools are provided for white balance, exposure compensation, dynamic range (fill light), shadow and highlight contrast, hue & saturation, sharpness, detail extraction, noise supression (both low frequency and color). Effects of slider based adjustments will be shown on the Dynamic Preview, no matter what the magnification
• Snapshot: Several variations of the same RAW file, all with different levels of correction applied
• Integral Color Database: Fully color managed. No direct changes are made to RAW files. Any color changes made are stored externally from the product
• Multi-threaded Batch Processing: Options such as output format (TIFF/JPEG) and automatic tagging of ICC profiles. Converts huge files in seconds with images queued for conversion in the background. Supports dual processors for maximum conversion speed

Full info here.

You can download RSE here:

RawShooter Essentials 1.2

One of the videos that made Extreme Photoshop makeovers famous.

The neck extension part is the one that freaks me out..

It just shows the power of creative lighting, good makeup and hair, a good clean photograph and a LOT of post processing.

The girl looks just about average to begin with, but so striking on the billboard.

I can recognise most of the moves, quite a lot of perspective transformation, can you see them all?

Awesome work, done with Photoshop.

I’ve mastered some of these techniques, but certainly not to this degree of expertise.

If you lose the detailed RAW editor and just get RAW Adjustements dialogue, it’s most likely you have installed Nikon Capture or Picture Project.

Lose this:

And end up with this:

Pictures from: earthboundlight.com

This stupid software installs a plugin to Photoshop without your permission and overides the default RAW handling.

You can find the Nikon NEF plugin at

Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Plug-ins\Adobe Photoshop Only\File Formats

There you can delete it, after that you may get an error message such as:

could not complete your request because it is not the right kind of document

After you can go to the Adobe Camera RAW site and download the latest version (3.6 at this time).

Adobe Camera Raw and DNG Converter for Windows

After you’ve download this plugin put it in:

Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS\Plug-Ins\File Formats

And all should be well!

I start this post with a couple of pictures. The first photo was how the sky looked like in the evening, processed from the RAW file with minimal adjustments. The second is the photo after some level tweaks in Adobe PS. Which catches your eye more?

Before manipulation

After manipulation

This brings me to the thoughts where photographs can be altered for various reasons. I am not posting this to start a debate on what is right and what is not but you can feel free to share with us your thoughts on this.

Since the dawn of photography, some photographers have strived to change reality pre and post exposure. Salon photographers pay cyclists to cycle in the sunset to capture their silhouttes and they also pay old men to dress up as monks so that they could be interesting subjects. Today, in the digital realm, the manipulation of reality is more prevalent with tools like Adobe PS being ubiquitous and graphics artists use such tools as tool to create fantastical creations.

The only stance I take firmly is if a photograph, used for purposes of documentation, is altered. I do not agree to this.