Canon® EOS Digital Photography Photo Workshop

9.5. CANON'S DIGITAL PHOTO PROFESSIONAL

Canon EOS digital cameras ship with Digital Photo Professional, which is an image-processing and-management utility especially optimized for RAW image processing and, of course, Canon equipment. As of this writing, the software is in version 3.2.4, has matured over the past few years, and features support for new camera models as they have become available.

While Digital Photo Professional offers a variety of capabilities for managing and editing images, its primary intended application is to process and optimize RAW files, preparing them for use in other applications. While you can accomplish basic tasks in Digital Photo Professional, even moderately advanced editing tasks aren't achievable in the program. It is not intended to replace other image-editing or digital asset management applications, although it certainly features a selection of tools you'll find in those programs.

Because it's relatively simple, easy to learn and use, and very stable, Digital Photo Professional is a program that you may find convenient for getting images processed quickly and efficiently before you start working on them in more depth. On the other hand, you may find applications that provide A-to-Z functionality better to streamline your workflow. Virtually all the features available in Digital Photo Professional are supported by Photoshop, Lightroom, ACDSee Pro, and others.

This application can be a useful (if optional) part of your workflow. The following ...