Best free photo processing packages

draiman

draiman

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894
Name
John
Edit My Images
Yes
I'm currently back into photography after a wee break away. The problem being that I've never really used a great deal of photo processing outside the basics. This time I'm looking to get back into things and also take a bit more time processing images as I feel my photography skills are reasonably good at this stage.

My question is - wihtout breaking the bank (preferably free), what are the best programmes to use?

All replies very much appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Lightzone is pretty good, free, open source and works on windows, linux and mac (beta for mac atm tho)
Black Silk if you fancy black and white conversions, again nice and free.
 
Hi, There was a post on here advising of FREE DxO Optics Pro 6 being offered on a magazine disc but the search engine seems to have problems and I cannot find it but sure someone will direct you to it or the magazine if still available.
Russ
 
FastStone all the way.It's so good it should not be free.Start out with FastStone and don't waste your time with Adobe(talked about by most) as it is big and low and costs.

FastStone is a LOT more than an image viewer.It has:

RAW conversion,
USM sharpen,
batch filing ,
tagging,
colour correction,
Curves,
Cloning,
Batch re- name files(fantastic facility),
show exif date(just move cursor to side of page),
straighten,
Red eye,
Watermark,
Slideshow (multifunction),
resize and the list goes on.

All really EASY to do and in a quarter of the time it takes to do in adobe products. Unless you want layers or extreme editing just use FastStone. It's difficult to see why it's free. But it is.
 
GIMP with UFraw to handle the conversion

if you run it on a Linux system it will run very fast on even an old computer
 
i would say gimp and ufraw very powerful and theres good posts on youtube to help you
 
kestral said:
FastStone all the way.It's so good it should not be free.Start out with FastStone and don't waste your time with Adobe(talked about by most) as it is big and low and costs.

FastStone is a LOT more than an image viewer.It has:

RAW conversion,
USM sharpen,
batch filing ,
tagging,
colour correction,
Curves,
Cloning,
Batch re- name files(fantastic facility),
show exif date(just move cursor to side of page),
straighten,
Red eye,
Watermark,
Slideshow (multifunction),
resize and the list goes on.

All really EASY to do and in a quarter of the time it takes to do in adobe products. Unless you want layers or extreme editing just use FastStone. It's difficult to see why it's free. But it is.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%. Sadly I am now unable to use it on my Mac.:'(
 
Guys. Thanks for all the replies. I have GIMP on my Mac but never used it much. I'll have a look into Faststone for my laptop and give that a try. Hopefully it'll fulfil my basic needs with room for expansion. Looks like I've got quite a few things to download over the upcoming weeks.
 
Er, a couple of points about FastStone.

From the license agreement:
FastStone Image Viewer is free for personal and educational (including non-profit organization) use. In these cases, you are granted the right to use and to make an unlimited number of copies of this software.

For commercial use, it is required to register. Visit http://www.faststone.org/order.htm to find out how to obtain license for commercial use.
Click to expand...

kestral said:
FastStone is a LOT more than an image viewer.It has:

RAW conversion,

All really EASY to do and in a quarter of the time it takes to do in adobe products. Unless you want layers or extreme editing just use FastStone. It's difficult to see why it's free. But it is.
Click to expand...

I'll bet huge sums of money that FastStone is not 4x faster than Lightroom for raw processing. Indeed, I'd bet that it's not even 1/4 the speed of LR. Faststone takes around 15 seconds just to open a raw image on my computer.
 
hollis_f said:
Er, a couple of points about FastStone.

From the license agreement:




I'll bet huge sums of money that FastStone is not 4x faster than Lightroom for raw processing. Indeed, I'd bet that it's not even 1/4 the speed of LR. Faststone takes around 15 seconds just to open a raw image on my computer.
Click to expand...
Don't bet huge sums of money darling it's not necessary. If you are happy with light room and all it does I am happy for you.I am happy with FastStone and have given the OP my silly stupid opinion that carries no weight and if it went to a bet I would jolly well lose.Take care.:wave:
 
kestral said:
FastStone all the way.It's so good it should not be free.Start out with FastStone and don't waste your time with Adobe(talked about by most) as it is big and low and costs.

FastStone is a LOT more than an image viewer.It has:

RAW conversion,
USM sharpen,
batch filing ,
tagging,
colour correction,
Curves,
Cloning,
Batch re- name files(fantastic facility),
show exif date(just move cursor to side of page),
straighten,
Red eye,
Watermark,
Slideshow (multifunction),
resize and the list goes on.

All really EASY to do and in a quarter of the time it takes to do in adobe products. Unless you want layers or extreme editing just use FastStone. It's difficult to see why it's free. But it is.
Click to expand...

I also prefer this one, you can try mate!
 
John,

If you do try FastStone for processing raw files then please ensure that you're actually editing the raw data. By default FastStone displays, and processes, the small jpeg embedded within the raw file. This is normally fine for general viewing, but it's not full-quality.

If you load a raw file into FastStone and display it full-screen then press the 'A' key the program will process the raw data and display it - eventually. It is amazingly slow.
 
Is CS2 still free?

Rhodese.
 
hollis_f said:
John,

If you do try FastStone for processing raw files then please ensure that you're actually editing the raw data. By default FastStone displays, and processes, the small jpeg embedded within the raw file. This is normally fine for general viewing, but it's not full-quality.

If you load a raw file into FastStone and display it full-screen then press the 'A' key the program will process the raw data and display it - eventually. It is amazingly slow.
Click to expand...
Thanks I will try that.I have just downloaded the latest version of FastStone and it has noise reduction tool now! and it is quite good.It still strips out some of the IPTC data in particular the contact details which is a big problem as my photos have to have that in for payment.
 
I just did the test opened a Raw File in FastStone Hit the A key and it took 5.07sec to load a 13.7mb(when I put the cursor over) image.
 
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