I've been quite happy with Canon Digital Professional Pro and have been using it up until the most current version, but today it just refused to open up and no amount of reinstalling worked. I'm wondering if I should just move on to a different RAW editor. I've tried a few alternatives a few years back and none of them were as easy and intuitive to use as DPP and quality wise they weren't different enough to warrant a change.

What I love the most about DPP is being able to make changes on multiple files of the white balance, picture style (a Canon-specific setting), sharpness, and copy & paste changes to other files. The trim tool is also quite nice, as is the finer detailed color temperature tool and white balance click tool.

Are there any RAW editors out there that matches all of these features, including the speed/intuitive GUI of DPP?

If you like DPP, I would just stay with it. Did you go to the add/remove program control panel and delete the existing copy of DPP? Also, reboot your computer both before and after the removal. Then reinstall. If this doesn't work, report back here.

I tried all that and nothing worked. Even when the app opens up, the folder view is completely blank--I cannot browse to any folders or open up any images from File menu options.

Download and install the latest version of DPP. The install routine does a good job of removing the older components and replacing them with the new ones. If on a windows system you could also try the system restore. It's possible an update has corrupted something.

Gordon.

I'm using 3.6.1.0, and I think it's the latest version? I've tried to uninstall and reinstall using older versions and nothing worked.

I encountered same problem yesterday using 3.4.0 - it suddenly stopped working correctly. Installing 3.6.1 update never helped.

I also tried uninstalling completely (with deletion of all files, folders and registry entries i found) and then installing again - this didn't help either.

Have you tried a registry cleaner?

I recommend http://www.ccleaner.com/

Install, click on the registry icon on the left and it'll allow you to scan and fix your registry.

Have used it many a time to fix PCs at work that have started doign funny things.

It does more that clean your registry though, so if you play with the other clean up options, just be careful what you delete.

Andy

I tried that too--didn't work. I've been using CCleaner for years.

One other thing I do if things start playing up is run a system restore to when I know things worked, although I suspect it might be a bit too late for you to do that. The other thing i can think of is firewall anti-virus causing problems- what AV/ FW do you use?

I've just downloaded DPP- I've never used it before as I had no intention of shooting RAW at the time I took up photography (too much to learn at once- so stuck with JPEG).

Will let you know if it doesn't work...

I used DPP for years until I switched to Lightroom. When friends ask me to describe Lightroom, I tell them it is like having a RAW adjustment palette attached to Bridge. The interface is quite similar to DPP, but even better. And without a doubt the Adobe RAW "engine" if you will, is better than DPP. Basically, LR has the power and control of Adobe's RAW with the lovely interface of DPP, or even better than DPP.

The main things that sold me on Lightroom:
-Adobe's RAW "engine" if you will, does a much better job with very bright/blown highlights. Absolutely no comparison.
-Rotation during cropping is very nice.
-Tweeking of individual colours has taken a while to get the feel for, but now is very important for me.
-Editing is even better than DPP, which I always thought was a strong point of DPP.
-Oh, man, I almost forgot Vibrance. What a better way to do saturation.
-Sophisticated vignetting controls.

Maybe this is the excuse to try LR.

Lance - Can Lightroom do all the stuff I like about DPP (mentioned in my first post)? The most important features that keeps me using DPP would be to batch change white balance, or to copy/paste edited parameters between files, the picture style parameters (Canon only I think), the intuitive color circle for tweaking white balance and the white balance click tool, revert each parameter individually to original setting instead of the entire file, monochrome filter tool (very fast for creating good B/W versions), the toning effects (like sepia tone)...etc

Lightroom is far more feature rich than DPP. Everything you can do in DPP you can do more of in LR. However LR has its own way of doing things so you'll have to learn it. It also has no interaction with the in camera settings so you'll need to create your own default starting point. LR does have "camera profiles" but these aer reverse engineered. They don't know what the camera settings were.

Batch settings change - yes
White balance click tool - yes
Colour circle - no - but it has it's own way (with the TAT!!)
Monochrome Filter looks weak compared to what LR can do with B&W and you can download hundreds of presets to try.
Reset each Parameter - yes and you also have a history pallette.
Toning effects - you can download presets or you have infinite toning options from within the program itself.


Download the 30day trial and give it a go. It will take some learning. But as far as I'm concerned DPP is just incredibly limited to compared to LR.

There's also Capture One, Bibble and a few others as well if LR doesnt suit.

Gordon

Thanks for the info. I'll give LR another shot (I tried it when it first came out and it was too sluggish for me).

As has already been said, LR does do WB differently, it doesn't have the colour wheel. At first I found the Adobe/LR way of doing WB challenging, now when I go back to DPP I hate it!

Not only does LR allow you to batch change the settings on several thumbnails, it does it better than DPP. Say you have 10 images that are all basically the same, but two of them are 1/2 stop darker than the rest. In LR you can lighten those two up to match the other 8, then select all 10 and lighten or darken, or whatever, from there. You can't do that in DPP.

The lastest version of LR has a pretty slick tool called the adjustment brush that eliminates a lot of my PS work.

As an aside. The actual closest programs to DPP are Breeze Browser and Photo Mechanic as they both use the Canon SDK. Results should be identical to DPP.

Stll prefer Lightroom though.

Gordon

Are you using Windows? Have you tried removing the following registry key?
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Canon\DPP]
and
[HKCU\SOFTWARE\Canon\DPP]
along with all of their sub-keys

Then reinstall DPP.

monochrome filter tool (very fast for creating good B/W versions)

I only recently tried this, and found it an amazingly nice tool, especially for one-step results because it also makes tonal, contrast, noise, and sharpness adjustments.

Just wanted to say that I've been trying Lightroom and it's pretty damn nice--it's improved a lot since when it first came out (when I first tried it).

The only thing that bugs me a bit about it is the importing feels a bit covoluted. I haven't figured out a way where I could just browse the folders without having "import" anything.

Lunatique wrote:
Just wanted to say that I've been trying Lightroom and it's pretty damn nice--it's improved a lot since when it first came out (when I first tried it).

The only thing that bugs me a bit about it is the importing feels a bit covoluted. I haven't figured out a way where I could just browse the folders without having "import" anything.

yep, it has gotten better but you still have to import since it uses some database backend.

If you're going to use Lightroom you can't avoid importing.

As you already discerned, software like DPP, Adobe Bridge, BreezeBrowser, etc. are "file browsers." Lightroom is a database; there's actually a SQLite database built in to the program. The purpose of the database is to track the location of your photos and to manage the edits/changes made to your photos.

When you "import" photos you are not physically moving them into the database; rather you're simply establishing a link to your photo so Lightroom knows where they are located.

The advantage of Lightroom is that the database allows you to track photos that are off-line. If you store photos on DVDs or external hard drives you can still search and locate them, view their previews, and even edit the photos although the storage device is not connected to your computer. File browsers are the exact opposite; they can only locate and display images that are physically present on a connected storage device.

Lunatique wrote:
Just wanted to say that I've been trying Lightroom and it's pretty damn nice--it's improved a lot since when it first came out (when I first tried it).

The only thing that bugs me a bit about it is the importing feels a bit covoluted. I haven't figured out a way where I could just browse the folders without having "import" anything.

Sorry if this is sidetracking.

So what happens in Lightroom if you use a "file browser" and move the photos to another folder? Do you need to reimport them into Lightroom? What about the RAW processing that you did on those images? Do you lose them because Lightroom sees them as new imports?

You do not need to reimport moved files; Lightroom will prompt you that it can't locate the files that have been moved.

This prompt will be either of two ways depending on if you moved individual files or entire folders.

If you moved files, the corresponding previews in Lightroom's Library Grid mode will have
a question mark (called a "badge" in Lightroom) in the upper-right corner indicating that it is unable to locate the file. If you attempt to open the file in Loupe view you will see a message saying "The file names "xxxxx.xx" is offline or missing.

Click the question mark and in the dialog box that appears, click on the "Locate" button and navigate to the new location of the file. If you moved multiple files to the same location you will also see an option to "Find nearby missing photos". Enable that option and Lightroom will set the new location of your files.

If folder(s) have been moved, their names will appear in red in the Folders Panel on the left side of your screen. Right-click on the folder name in red, select "Locate Missing Folder" and navigate to the new location.

If you moved multiple folders, click on the highest folder in the hierarchy, select Locate Missing Folder and Lightroom will find them.

Your edits will be preserved as long as Lightroom knows the new location of your files.


jchin wrote:
Sorry if this is sidetracking.

So what happens in Lightroom if you use a "file browser" and move the photos to another folder? Do you need to reimport them into Lightroom? What about the RAW processing that you did on those images? Do you lose them because Lightroom sees them as new imports?

Cool. Thanks for explaining it.

James_N wrote:
You do not need to reimport moved files; Lightroom will prompt you that it can't locate the files that have been moved.

This prompt will be either of two ways depending on if you moved individual files or entire folders.

If you moved files, the corresponding previews in Lightroom's Library Grid mode will have
a question mark (called a "badge" in Lightroom) in the upper-right corner indicating that it is unable to locate the file. If you attempt to open the file in Loupe view you will see a message saying "The file names "xxxxx.xx" is offline or missing.

Click the question mark and in the dialog box that appears, click on the "Locate" button and navigate to the new location of the file. If you moved multiple files to the same location you will also see an option to "Find nearby missing photos". Enable that option and Lightroom will set the new location of your files.

If folder(s) have been moved, their names will appear in red in the Folders Panel on the left side of your screen. Right-click on the folder name in red, select "Locate Missing Folder" and navigate to the new location.

If you moved multiple folders, click on the highest folder in the hierarchy, select Locate Missing Folder and Lightroom will find them.

Your edits will be preserved as long as Lightroom knows the new location of your files.


jchin wrote:
Sorry if this is sidetracking.

So what happens in Lightroom if you use a "file browser" and move the photos to another folder? Do you need to reimport them into Lightroom? What about the RAW processing that you did on those images? Do you lose them because Lightroom sees them as new imports?