A free RAW editor? Sign me up…

So you just got home from a day of shooting and realize that you had the white balance all wrong.  You decide that you are going to shoot RAW.  So after fiddling with some photos, you want to edit them.  But you load the software that came with your camera and… you don’t like it.  Because you are not a pro with hundreds (or thousands to spend on software), I just found a product for you.

Welcome, RAW Therapee. It is your perfect price, free. That’s right, free. But if you like it, there is an option to donate a couple dollars to the programmer, which you will want to do after using this program.

It is a fully featured RAW editor comparable to Adobe Camera Raw (a plugin for Photoshop).

You can easily edit :

• White balance
• Exposure
• Channels
• Recover highlights/Shadows
• Sharpness
• Colour
• Noise reduction

All of these things are easily accessible and easy to use. Click save and you have a proper JPEG (or what ever file format you choose) to give to your family and friends.

Check it out at Raw Therapee. It is available for Windows and Linux (sorry Mac, weird, I know).

The Church

Here is a photo from a recent trip to the Westcott United Church. The church is closing due to decreased support from the community. Very Sad. Taken with my FA 50mm f1.4 lens. I love the OOF areas with this lens.

As always, thanks for looking and comments, criticisms are welcome!

Nintendo DSi

So, after rumors and speculation, The big N finally announced a revamped DS.  The Nintendo DSi is slimmer, a little bigger, lighter, and has bigger screens.  Also Nintendo realized that they might want to compete with the PSP and the iPhone.  The new DSi has an Internet browser built in, with an .mp3 player and photo browser built in.  Which is handy because the new DSi has two (2) cameras (ala the Nokia N95), one for self portraits, and another for other people.

So wait a second. If you are taking .3MP pictures, you better have somewhere to store those pictures. Well, the DSi has an SD card slot. Awesome. After you take the pictures, you can view and slightly edit the photos right on the DSi. The self portrait camera might be used for VIOP or even “games”?  Imagine using your face in Tiger woods. Sounds good to me.

With the built in Internet browser, big things are on the way. Apparently with the new SD card slot downloadable content (like games) can be stored and played (hopefully). Is Nintendo jumping on the digital distribution revolution all ready? Sounds good to me. Maybe you can download virtual console games on to the Wii’s SD card and play them on the DSi? Another sound idea.

People (Analysts) are saying this isn’t a big enough upgrade. But if it was any bigger, It would be a whole new platform. So I’m sure Nintendos R&D is working hard on a replacement, but we will have to enjoy the DSi for now.

The Japanese price is equivelent of $180 US dollars, and should be in stores within the year. I know I will be picking one up (still have the DS fat), as soon as the DSi hits the shores. Are you picking one up?

Image copyright nintendo.co.jp