editing software suggestions

spudhead

spudhead

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Name
gary
Edit My Images
No
ok i am quite new on here and i recently posted up a few shots before understanding that lots of people who post on here edit there shots before braving the comments, anyway that aside i was wondering which products you guys use and why, i have read relevant posts on here and still cant make my mind up what to buy. thanks guys
 
Lightroom seems a good price/peformance ratio

Photoshop is the big daddy - expensive, you could start with Adobe Elements (13 ?) until you get the drift then its an easier upgrade to Photoshop if you feel the need

Gimp has a following and it's free

Faststone Image Viewer has a range of 'quick and dirty' tools - Free

There is a lot out there - Google is your friend.
 
Elements is a great place to start and good value.
 
Paint.Net or Pinta is a free, fast and lightweight editor with layers. Ideal for people who also have a heavyweight editor but need a quick starting tool for quick jobs.
 
Digikam is a comprehensive photo organiser with built-in editor that let's you plug in any tool like panorama or HDR programs. And it's free.
 
PaintShop Pro. Elements frustrates me because of what it won't do, and I've just never got on with it. The only way to find what suits, or doesn't suit, you is try the free trials of each option.
 
corel paint shop pro x7 ultimate ( come a long way from back when i used jasc version 6 ) and it can be got fro around £60-70 .

as with all the others mentioned above they all generally have for the paid ones free fully working 30 day trials you can download.
that would be your best option before you spend any money.
corel one here
http://www.paintshoppro.com/en/products/paintshop-pro/ultimate/
 
Just a suggestion... Download the latest PaintShop Pro trial and the manual too. Get your feet up, take your time and have a proper read.
:)
 
If you shoot raw, start with Lightroom; I think you can still buy it outright if you don't want to subscribe.
Add Elements when you find things you can't do with Lightroom, e.g. detailed cloning, masking and the like. The two play nicely together.
Add plugins when you want to play with effects, e.g. Nik Collection (Silver Efex + Color Efex)
Upgrade to full photoshop + LR when you feel the need to edit in 16bits.

If you don't shoot raw (why not??), start with Elements.

If you think you're going to be spending a lot of time editing then you may as well subscribe to CC now and get LR & PS.
 
spudhead said:
ok i am quite new on here and i recently posted up a few shots before understanding that lots of people who post on here edit there shots before braving the comments, anyway that aside i was wondering which products you guys use and why, i have read relevant posts on here and still cant make my mind up what to buy. thanks guys
Click to expand...

If you shoot raw, start with Lightroom; I think you can still buy it outright if you don't want to subscribe.
Add Elements when you find things you can't do with Lightroom, e.g. detailed cloning, masking and the like. The two play nicely together.
Add plugins when you want to play with effects, e.g. Nik Collection (Silver Efex + Color Efex)
Upgrade to full photoshop + LR when you feel the need to edit in 16bits.

If you don't shoot raw (why not??), start with Elements.

If you think you're going to be spending a lot of time editing then you may as well subscribe to CC now and get LR & PS.

As to why..
  1. The cataloguing tools
  2. Raw files needs some kind of tool making them usable
  3. To get the very best out of an image
  4. To create something which wouldn't have been possible without.
  5. To fix any small errors - exposure, removing unwanted objects, etc
 
Lightroom and Photoshop. Lightroom because it's a decent RAW processor with good metadata tools (Important for what I'm doing) and Photoshop because it's the industry standard and despite alternatives offering some of what it does, I know I can't live without it.

The LR and PS package on Adobe Creative Cloud is cheap enough to try for a few months to see how you get on, and I think you can use it for free for 30 days to boot.
 
Lightroom and DX Optics Pro are the 2 main processing packages I use for RAW files - each has strengths & weaknesses, but DXO is basic development ONLY while LR can manage more manipulation with gradients, masks, cloning etc, plus the catalogue is very intuitive and it's a faster package. I also use Perfect Effects suite for manipulation including cloning/removing objects, blending images, filter effects and mono conversion.
 
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