Microsoft Office Picture Manager

[Peter10d]

Looking for advice as I feel I must be missing something. I have until recently always shot in JPEG format, but recently tried using RAW with a free software program. I notice that the vast majority of photographers appear to shoot RAW. On occasions where I previously wanted to make adjustments, I used Microsoft Office Picture Manager (Vista) to a JPEG. I still can't see any difference in the end results, and the Microsoft program appears to allow, fairly significant adjustments.
Is it that I do not have the knowledge/experience with the RAW software to see what it can achieve, or is it that I do not have a good enough version of RAW software.

 

[tdodd]

I have no idea what your current software can do, but look at this thread over on POTN for an idea of what can be achieved with a decent raw converter....

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=684360

 

[Chappers]

Peter

I have not used Office picture manager, so I can't comment to much. But I suspect that you simply have similar controls for RAW and JPEG, which may be fairly basic as far as RAW conversions are concerned.

There are a number of RAW editing programs on the market, have a look at Adobe's Lightroom. You can download a 30 day trial to see what you think. The Develop module has a number of controls to enable you to get the image you want.

Before you start your 30 day trial trawl the web for som Lightroom tutorials to get the hang of the interface first.

Also check out Elements 7 as I think that can handle some RAW formats