Bibble for JPEGS?!

MarkR

Now that I have a camera capable of shooting RAW, I was looking at different RAW converters (ACR 3.7 just doesn't seem to have a lot of the options I am looking for .)

Bibble Pro seems to have a lot of options I like for raw conversion, including a ptlens-style lens corrector, independent color curves, noise ninja, B&W plugins, as well as a one-button superfix (Perfectly Clear) which seems to do a better job 90% of the time than my own sad attempts using Photoshop.

I also noticed that one of the file formats that Bibble works with is JPEG (!), which puts it, as near as I can tell, on feature parity as a JPEG editor, with tools like PSP and PS Elements.

So, anyone want to opine? What am I missing, I mean really missing by using Bibble Pro as my primary image editor?

As an aside, I currently use an intel-based iMac with 10.4.10 and CS2. This all started because I was looking at the Raw features in ACR 4.1/CS3 and trying to justify the price.

EDIT: well, I've been playing with it, and the only thing I really miss is the ability to view pixel values in CMYK or Lab format. Unless someone knows of a good way to do this?

claudermilk

It is not an image editor. PSP and PSE (and by extension PS itself) is a pixel editor. You can go in and change individual pixels, or groups of them, while Bibble's changes with the exception of then sensor and dust tool are all global. You certainly can use it on JPEGs to perform similar tasks as on RAW conversion--I have in fact done this. However it is a different, complementary tool to a proper pixel editor.

Bibble will not show CMYK or LAB values, only RGB.

MarkR

claudermilk wrote:

It is not an image editor. PSP and PSE (and by extension PS itself) is a pixel editor. You can go in and change individual pixels, or groups of them, while Bibble's changes with the exception of then sensor and dust tool are all global. You certainly can use it on JPEGs to perform similar tasks as on RAW conversion--I have in fact done this. However it is a different, complementary tool to a proper pixel editor.

Bibble will not show CMYK or LAB values, only RGB.

That's kind of where I was leading up to. Luckily I still have Photoshop for more pixel-based editing.

Where I'm at now is trying to decide: 1) am I over-buying by getting Bibble and having CS2, (would I be better off just getting CS3?), and 2) developing a workflow that will integrate iPhoto, Bibble, Photoshop, and Smugmug. Assuming I buy Bibble Pro, of course. We're still in the 14 day honeymoon phase. :-)

Rhuarc

Keep in mind you can also use Adobe Camera Raw that comes with Photoshop to edit JPEG files now.

MarkR

Rhuarc wrote:

Keep in mind you can also use Adobe Camera Raw that comes with Photoshop to edit JPEG files now.

Yes. Guess the question is, which offers me more of what I want?

Right now I'm leaning toward Bibble for it's automatic lens correction, Perfectly Clear, and (basic) Noise Ninja.

On the other hand, the interface is sometimes a little wonky, and the curves adjustments are a little too basic. CS3 also seems to have a vastly superior B&W system. :shrug.

EDIT: Whoops! Found the Bibble B&W Converter. (The actual one, not the Andy Plug-in.) I'd say CS3 and Bibble are at about a tie, with an small but noticable edge toward CS3.

claudermilk

Actually the Bibble B&W converter is just a demo of the plugin interface Colleen wrote. Sean's Andy plugin is the gold standard B&W converter, pretty much all the B&W conversions in the Showoff forum are done with Andy. I have yet to see a better one (yes, I'm still on CS). IMHO AndyPRO is far superior to the Bibble B&W converter. I've been using AndyPRO since he offered it, so don't recall the limitations, but it's worth the $20.

The interface does have it's quirks, but as I mentioned in another thread, that's a side effect of the cross-platform compatibility. I have high hopes for v5. As for PC, I really never use it. It's good for sunny landscape-type shots, but gets confused easily & for me often I can get a better result by using the advanced tools myself (most of the more accomplished Bibble users feel the same).

MarkR

claudermilk wrote:

Actually the Bibble B&W converter is just a demo of the plugin interface Colleen wrote. Sean's Andy plugin is the gold standard B&W converter, pretty much all the B&W conversions in the Showoff forum are done with Andy. I have yet to see a better one (yes, I'm still on CS). IMHO AndyPRO is far superior to the Bibble B&W converter. I've been using AndyPRO since he offered it, so don't recall the limitations, but it's worth the $20.

The interface does have it's quirks, but as I mentioned in another thread, that's a side effect of the cross-platform compatibility. I have high hopes for v5. As for PC, I really never use it. It's good for sunny landscape-type shots, but gets confused easily & for me often I can get a better result by using the advanced tools myself (most of the more accomplished Bibble users feel the same).

But you're not as confused as I am...

Andy might be all that and a bag of potato chips, but I can't figure out the interface for the life of me. I suspect because I'm not really familiar with the different films/papers it's trying to emulate.

And PC might be a crutch, but when you're as photographically disabled as I am, you need all the helps you can gets!

But I'm still not sure. Maybe I would be better off with CS3 + Noise Ninja + Lens Correction.

Rhuarc

Have you considered Lightroom? It's a pretty nice comprehensive package as well.

claudermilk

The Hobbyist wrote:

But you're not as confused as I am...

Andy might be all that and a bag of potato chips, but I can't figure out the interface for the life of me. I suspect because I'm not really familiar with the different films/papers it's trying to emulate.

And PC might be a crutch, but when you're as photographically disabled as I am, you need all the helps you can gets!

But I'm still not sure. Maybe I would be better off with CS3 + Noise Ninja + Lens Correction.

I'm not all that familiar with the films & papers, either! I used to use Tri-X + some Kodak paper (don't even recall which). I'm learning more now that I have a couple of film cameras (Mamiya & Holga). All I do is cycle through the films list until I get the basic look I'm after, twiddle the development settings to see if any improve things; then do the same with the papers. On the whole I'm finding I have an affinity for a few of the selections and tend to look at them first now, but it's all pretty much trial-and-error until I get the look I want. Most of the rest of the controls are for fine-tuning and can be ignored much of the time. So just pick a film/paper combo that gives the look you like & leave it at that.

PC is a nice crutch, and does do a good job on some images. I do turn it on to see where it's going, but usually go back and do it myself. GIve it time, and you will be doing the same.

Part of Bibble's strength is the built-in NN & lens correction (used to be reworked PTLens; they went far beyond that about 4.7 or so & it's all Bibble code now AFAIK).

MarkR

claudermilk wrote:

I'm not all that familiar with the films & papers, either! I used to use Tri-X + some Kodak paper (don't even recall which). I'm learning more now that I have a couple of film cameras (Mamiya & Holga). All I do is cycle through the films list until I get the basic look I'm after, twiddle the development settings to see if any improve things; then do the same with the papers. On the whole I'm finding I have an affinity for a few of the selections and tend to look at them first now, but it's all pretty much trial-and-error until I get the look I want. Most of the rest of the controls are for fine-tuning and can be ignored much of the time. So just pick a film/paper combo that gives the look you like & leave it at that.

PC is a nice crutch, and does do a good job on some images. I do turn it on to see where it's going, but usually go back and do it myself. GIve it time, and you will be doing the same.

Part of Bibble's strength is the built-in NN & lens correction (used to be reworked PTLens; they went far beyond that about 4.7 or so & it's all Bibble code now AFAIK).

Unfortunately I won't be getting Bibble.

I played around with it and the trial version of ACR 4.1, and of the 16 images I converted (both ways) I liked the results I got with ACR better for about 8 of the 16. another 4 or so were ties, leaving only 4 pics that I thought Bibble did a better job with.

Bibble does seem to have a slightly warmer white balance, which helped with pictures that had faces in them, and Noise Ninja really helped with the handful of high-ISO shots, but I ended up feeling that I would be better off saving up and getting ACR/CS3 and the noise ninja and Lens Correction tools seperately.

Unless, of course, Bibble comes out with 5.0 soon ...

claudermilk

That's why we have choices. Much as I like BIbble, I keep looking over at LightZone--I think I'll add it to my arsenal in the near future.

There is a v5 coming out, but they aren't say when yet, so it's still a while off.