Picture Editor

[jazzman1]

I have Canon Photo Professional and also have Canon Picture Style Editor.  Are these programs meant to be used togather or is Canon giving one an option of which you want to use.  Alot of the features duplicate eachother.

[jrhoffman75]

Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP) is a photo editor. It will allow you to edit RAW or JPEG files for color balance, cropping, sharpening etc.
 
Picture Style Editor is a very specialized program. Its purpose is to modify the Canon provided Picture Styles to get the effects you want. Then you save the modified PS and load it in your camera and/or apply in DPP when diting images.
 
Picture Styles only matter if you are shooting JPEG in camera or processing RAW files in DPP.
 
Non-Canon software won't recognize Picture Styles in your RAW files.
 
http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/galleries/galleries/tutorials/pse_tutorials_gallery.shtml
 
http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/videos/tutorials/dpp/dpp_tour.shtml

[jazzman1]

thanks, i will stay with dpp for now.  i'm a newbie in DSLR's and i'm trying to get my feet wet in the art.  there's much that i've learned in a short while but still trying to wrap it all around my head.  I'm 68 yrs old and none of this stuff comes easy for me, not like it would when i was 20.  I'm trying to just grasp the basics at the moment and will keep struggling along till i get the hang of it all.. 

[cicopo]

The benefit of shooting in RAW & processing the files to create a jpg has one HUGE benefit in that you can re edit over & over creating an endless number of jpg's with minor changes because you never alter the original CR2. On the other side of the arguement someone who must shoot & share or submit images quickly like a sports photographer could very carefully create a personalized Picture Style to suit their idea as to just how they want a camera's jpg's to look. Each way has a place & fits different needs.

[jrhoffman75]

When I want to upload quickly I shoot RAW+JPEG. Takes more card space, but storage is cheap.

[cicopo]

I've been shooting RAW + Large fine jpg AND saving the RAW files for at least the last 8 years. My new strategy (I've been cleaning up several back up drives & am in the middle of updating to Win 8.1) is to keep the CR2's, keep low res versions of the jpg's as an index and creating 2 back up drives with anything family related to pass on when I'm gone. No one in my family will care about the events or underwater stuff but family photos need to be easy to find.

[jrhoffman75]

That's a good idea. I could free up a lot of space with that approach.

[cicopo]

It has emptied at least 4 large drives for me plus saved me buying one new one for this summer's events. When I cover an event I shoot a lot of photos that won't get into the album but may be wanted later for other reasons so I had been keeping both the full file jpg + the CR2. My new plan is at the end of the season I'll create a low res jpg file that displays nicely on my monitor & that might make a 4 X 6 print & the CR2's, delete the full file jpg's and move on.

[jazzman1]

you guys went right over my head

[jrhoffman75]

Sorry. I guess we did hijack the thread.

To your original question - use DPP.

Picture Style Editor is a very specialized program for someone who wants to tweak the Canon supplied Picture Styled and apply that look over many images.