BUNDLED SOFTWARE

When I bought my Pentax K5 it was bundled with two lenses [18mm-55mm and 55mm-200mm] and the associated Silkypix conversion software. As I'd already made arrangements with some colleagues to buy Photoshop at trade price, and also get tutored by them on how to use it, I ignored the bundled software. I'm impressed with Photoshop [and should be at the price!] and I'm learning fairly quickly on how to use it.....with a long way to go yet before I'm even close to being competent with it.
However, as I had some spare time today I opened up Silkypix, had a little look around it and was surprised with the quality of the software. It has been designed with Pentax/Ricoh cameras in mind and I was pleasantly surprised how versatile it is.
I was a bit miffed over a shot I had taken of a beached boat on a shore where the Sun was on the other side of the boat and so the near side was in shadow. Silkypix was able to squeeze quite a lot of detail out of the shadows without it looking unnatural. It's not as complex as Photoshop but for touching up RAW files, effects, and bringing more punch and life to them it's very good. I do have one criticism though as I do like names beside controls and not symbols, [not all symbols have the same meaning or have a proper explanation of what it is], as that makes it much simpler ......and the simpler it is for my brain the better.
But if I hadn't wanted to push photography and my camera further with the use of Photoshop, and wanted to stay at an "interested" level then Silkypix would definitely do the business. Mmmm, I think I'll go back in there and have another look around

 

It's cs6, Robajobs. I've also noticed there are a few downloads for the Pentax firmware so I'll do that tomorrow night.

 

I got it at trade price, Robajobs, as I used to work at a Global Advertising Company and still have friends there, and it was an offer to good to miss. They're also being good enough to give me one to one tutorials two days a month until it sinks into this bone head of mine. Whether I'll be good enough to appreciate it all and use it to it's full potential only time will tell.