John's Open Directly plug-in is very useful to me. I use Lightroom to catalog all images and do most post-processing there with occasional roundtrips to Photoshop. However, when I'm not entirely happy with my current Lightroom version of the photo, Open Directly lets me quickly send the original raw to see how another raw processor would handle it without creating the intermediate Tiff.
For example, I can quickly check (in a particular problematical image) if CaptureNX really does a better job (as many Nikon folk swear), if Optics Pro handles the geometric corrections better, if Capture One (a trial version for me) truly produces the "best" skin rendering, of if newcomer Photo Ninja will better serve.
Most of the time I end up keeping the Lightroom version, but not always. Some of the alternate RAW programs will automatically save back to the original directory; some take more effort. If I choose to keep one of the alternate raw conversions, only a Lightroom synch is necessary...no deleting of hand- off, unwanted Tiff files
I know how to create and use the Lightroom export presets, but for the situations above, they are not as handy to me.
I'm open to workflow advice. I'm always looking for best practices.
Tom