Anyone familiar with Bibble? Compare to Nikon Capture?

[BrianFoster]

Just got a D70s (love it) and I am now considering buying some software to go along with it. PS I'm strictly an amateur, unlike many of the pros who post on this forum, so my needs are clearly different. But I do like buying the best when I can afford it!

I downloaded a trial of Bibble Lite and it is very cool. My question is, should I buy it ($69 for lite version, $129 for pro version) or go with Nikon Capture 4.3 ($99)? If I don't intend to shoot using the NEF format (I think shooting in JPEG-Fine mode will suit me perfectly) is Nikon Capture unneccessary? Should I stick with Nikon Capture since, after all, I am shooting with a Nikon camera? Or, should I just stick with Photoshop, which I already own, and save my money?

Any feedback on Bibble or Nikon Capture appreciated. Thanks!

[Peter_AUS]

have you tried Capture One or Rawshooter as well. Don't fork out money until you try a few. It depends on what you are really after as well.

Capture One is http://www.phaseone.com/ and rawshooter is http://www.pixmantec.com/index2.html download the capture one LE version and Rawshooter is current free as well (they are using everyone as Beta Testers but that is OK for a free converter as well).

[Michael Fanelli]

Just got a D70s (love it) and I am now considering buying some software to go along with it. PS I'm strictly an amateur, unlike many of the pros who post on this forum, so my needs are clearly different. But I do like buying the best when I can afford it!

I downloaded a trial of Bibble Lite and it is very cool. My question is, should I buy it ($69 for lite version, $129 for pro version) or go with Nikon Capture 4.3 ($99)? If I don't intend to shoot using the NEF format (I think shooting in JPEG-Fine mode will suit me perfectly) is Nikon Capture unneccessary? Should I stick with Nikon Capture since, after all, I am shooting with a Nikon camera? Or, should I just stick with Photoshop, which I already own, and save my money?

Any feedback on Bibble or Nikon Capture appreciated. Thanks!

I would also suggest trying a few products first. I use BreezeBrowser Pro for my work. They have a trial version you can download.

I would avoid Capture One. Although their product works very well, their business practices are borderline fraudulent (I'm being kind). I, like so many others, have been burned by them more than once. There are plenty of other choices out there.

[thobe]

Hi Brian,

provided you intend to shoot mainly JPEG, Bibble or Nikon Capture are wasted money. Stay with Photoshop and get the free "RawShooter essentials" for the occasions you deal with NEF files. You can always switch to raw data processing later if it suits you better and the software tools will become even better with time.
In my opinion, at present, Capture provides the best quality (since NEF is a proprietary format and not all details are known to the competitors) whereas Bibble and RSE have the better workflow (both are cool!). Photoshop is mainly for polishing the outputs of the RAW converters and not obsolete at all.

Hope this helps,
Thomas

[davidmichael]

Actually, if you are a serious amateur, I would recommend that you start shooting more in NEF. Once you realize the control you have, you will never want to go back to JPEG Fine again! The problem with JPEG, as you probably know, is that the format has already made exposure decisions for you that are irreversible. Why not start with everything your camera captured and make your own decisions?

If you do shoot NEF, I would recommend Nikon Capture. It is surperior to Photoshop in how it handles NEF images, and once you learn how to use it, it will speed your workflow. I am not sure which version of PS you have, but be sure to download any patches you need and keep it up to date.

While I am at it, I will heartily recommend Photoshop CS2 (I get nothing out of doing so--I am a lowly professional photographer and do not work for Adobe--but it is an excellent program once you master its steep learning curve).

[BrianFoster]

Davidmichael, thanks for that suggestion on giving NEF a try. No one has ever really pushed me to use this format, but your post has intrigued me. Who knows, maybe I will leave JPEG Fine behind!

Great advice, thank you all.

[davidmichael]

Brian,

I think you find the versitility of shooting RAW intriguing, but I did not mean to suggest that you completely abandon JPEG Fine. There certainly is still a place for it in your toolbox, but you have less control of the image.

While it is a bit off-topic (forgive me, all), if you do decide to shoot RAW, an efficient workflow is:

1) Do your initial exposure/tint/etc. corrections of the image in Photoshop (again, I recommend CS or CS2) and save it as a PSD (Photoshop format). Then do nothing else to the RAW file except to be sure to back it up to another drive, CD, or DVD taht is preferrably off-premisis to preserve it as you would a negative. In other words, don't touch it. Ever. Oh, and be sure to use the Export Cache command in Bridge to preserve your metadata, sorting, flagging, etc. when you burn to CD/DVD or that information will be lost in the event of a disaster because it remains on the computer to which you originally transferred the RAW files.

2) On your PSD that you cerated, don't touch the background layer! Simply make new layer copies of it to do any retouching. By doing this, you always have the ability to turn layers off and return to your original image because it has bene preserved.

3) Save the final image as a TIFF and print from there. By doing this, you can simply create a mask for your varying image print sizes without ever having to resize the image. Pretty neat trick, huh? I learned that one from Jack Davis, my PS guru.

Whatever you decide, I hope the best or results for you. Don't let Photoshop get you down because of the learning curve. I was originally a film guy who said he'd never touch digital, and now look at me!