Canon DPP Rating with Lightroom/Photoshop

[JessicaLuchesi]

Hi,

I'd like to conduct my workflow using DPP to first convert the RAW files into TIFF images, then importing those on Lightroom and continue from there on. Just because I love how Lightroom works, and have the set of Lightroom plugins from Nik Software ( but could not afford the Photoshop/Lightroom Combo yet, so, I need to start the process from within Lightroom ) which I use with some frequency. But, I prefer the raw conversion from DPP. In some situations, DPP handles shadows and shaded areas better than lightroom.  But converting a whole photoshoot into TIFF16 just to work on the selected few images, creates a jump on how much storage is used on my HD and later, on Backup, that I just cannot justify. I'd rather do a pre-selection using a rating system on Lightroom, and then convert only the selected ones using DPP. Problem is, DPP and Adobe use a different way of storing the rating.

Is there any way to integrate both, so that from within DPP I can see which ones were selected from within Lightroom/Bridge?

[elied]

Come at it from the other direction. Start in DPP and make your selection there. Batch convert to the folder containing the RAWs or to another folder if you wish to separate them and at the bottom of the batch dialog set it to open the tifs in LR. LR's Import dialog will open with the first tif. Wait until all have been converted and then click on the folder name in the left side panel and all your tifs (together with all the RAWs if they are in the same folder) will appear. Import from that whatever you want.

[kikashi]

Are you really so convinced that DPP does such a better job of raw conversion than Lightroom that you're willing to add that degree of complexity to your workflow?

Jeremy

[JessicaLuchesi]

Come at it from the other direction. Start in DPP and make your selection there. Batch convert to the folder containing the RAWs or to another folder if you wish to separate them and at the bottom of the batch dialog set it to open the tifs in LR. LR's Import dialog will open with the first tif. Wait until all have been converted and then click on the folder name in the left side panel and all your tifs (together with all the RAWs if they are in the same folder) will appear. Import from that whatever you want.

Well, DPP is a horrible selection tool. It's only strong point is that it's a marginally better raw conversion tool. Canon would really do everyone a great service by making a Lightroom ( and Aperture ) native Canon raw conversion plugin, instead of insisting on DPP on the Pro lineup. On location, I shoot tethered with Lightroom open for visualization.

Are you really so convinced that DPP does such a better job of raw conversion than Lightroom that you're willing to add that degree of complexity to your workflow?

Jeremy

DPP is marginally better for some food photoshoots, I did a side by size pixel peeping comparison on a few shoots, and DPP handles shadows on the 40D way better than Lightroom. Since the photos are for full size print on magazines and not web viewing, DPP gives that extra quality I'd like to provide. Still, for web viewing, Lightroom is enough, and for 99% of the time I just do it all inside of Lightroom. But there are those 1% where I want DPP to handle it, and I'd like it to be a bit less painful.

Again, wouldn't it be a great world if DPP just recognized Adobe's rating system, or, DPP came as a Lightroom raw conversion plugin or something? Meaning, DPP does the actual raw conversion on Canon cameras when you're in LR?

[Josh-H]

Meaning, DPP does the actual raw conversion on Canon cameras when you're in LR?

It should be technically possible to create a DPP plug in for Lightroom I think. In this case you would import the RAW file into Lightroom, fire up the plug in which would covert to Tiff inside of Lightroom using the DPP engine. But, it would be preferable if Canon just gave Adobe their 'secret sauce' so that no plug in was required to produce identical results. Or even better, if Canon went the Leica route and ditched the proprietary RAW file for DNG. This makes a whole lot more sense to me; but it is very unlikely to occur.

Just as an aside.. in my own tests I could see no appreciable difference between a DPP conversion and a Lightroom conversion once tweaked. At default, yes, DPP 'may' have a slight difference (edge?).

[elied]

But the DPP demosaicer is essentially different, just as Process 2010 is different from Process 2003. So would LR have an additional item in the Calibration panel drop-down; 2003, 2010 and Canon? Do you suppose Canon would generously hand over to Adobe their employees' work product or would they charge for its use? And what about all the other camera makers, each one with its own conversion engine? Do you suppose Adobe would just absorb the cost or would they pass it along to the consumer?

See what Eric Chan had to say about a similar topic:
"A practical reason why we don't adhere to the In-camera settings is that they can change (from model to model) and occasionally be expanded within a model (firmware update). Multiply this by the number of vendors, and we'd end up spending most of our time trying to model what other vendors have done, rather than working on imaging tools that will help users improve the final quality of their images! Instead, we figured it'd be more useful to let users define their own defaults and presets, and spend the time developing and improving the tool set."
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=52481.msg458015#msg458015

[Chris_Brown]

Is there any way to integrate both, so that from within DPP I can see which ones were selected from within Lightroom/Bridge?

No. Each program's method for rating images is different. DPP actually alters the metadata of the raw image (and stores all processing parameters in the image metadata), while Lightroom/Bridge utilize xml "sidecar" files. This is why DPP asks to "save" changes to the raw image when you close/quit the program. The raw data isn't altered, but DPP inserts its parameter data into the raw file for future reference/use.