Photo editing software

[chunk]

So what photo editing software is everyone using, I have been using Photo Shop 5 for a while now but feel that may be getting a bit long in the tooth. So I'm now looking for a change, is there any good free software available or do I just take a second mortgage on the house a buy the latest and greatest. I'm not a pro or serious photo editor but I do like to have a play. I know just like the Cannon / Nikon debate everyone has an opinion on the pro's and con's but your opinions are what I'm after.

PS. it's Nikon all the way. ;)

[p38arover]

Photoshop Elements 8 isn't that expensive. You can download a free trial from Adobe.

[dullbird]

Lightroom is good if your running a PC and Torrents :angel:

[p38arover]

I was wondering about Lightroom. I haven't looked into it.

[NCF 110]

Stick with P/S 8 , Lightroom does not let you edit photos (like remove marks caused by a dirty sensor ):o

Stew

[WhiteD3]

I'm using PSE7 which I find excellent, although the browser and its associated database is a pain.

If you have a kid in school, uni, tafe, etc you can buy the educational version for <$200.00 online.

[dullbird]

Stick with P/S 8 , Lightroom does not let you edit photos (like remove marks caused by a dirty sensor ):o

Stew

it lets you remove dust spots I have CS3 and lightroom and I can tell you I rarely use CS3;)

But I guess its what you want out of a program...you see I'm not into cloning out stuff etc etc because I do my best to keep crap out of the photo in the first place, yes I know it can be unavoidable in some circumstances but there are others where it just makes you lazy.

If your just looking for a program where you can play with colours, organise easily in a library, exposure, crop/magnify fix dust spots, use filters play with whiteblaance and have it all exported straight to photobucket, flicker twitter facebook and all those kinds of things than lightroom is a good program. The other good thing about lightroom is it is an EASY program and an EASY workflow to get your head around if you find it hard to work your way around programs such as PS......
I can do stuff on PS it took me a long time as I'm self taught...I learnt how to use Lightroom in about 3hours

[austastar]

Irfanview is a capable program, and free.
Very good for bulk resizing, renaming etc.
cheers

[vnx205]

As DB says, it depends what you want to do.

A lot of people don't need anything more than Paint.NET

Paint.NET - Free Software for Digital Photo Editing (http://www.getpaint.net/)

It has the advantage of being free and open source. You do need to download a few of the good plugins that people have written to make it really useful.

It costs you nothing to have a look at it and there are plenty of good tutorials that will give you an idea of its capabilities.

[JLo]

To throw another one into the mix, Google Picasa is free and capable.


Cheers

[OrangeZXr10R]

Or you can use GIMP which is free.

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program (http://www.gimp.org/)

The site has loads of tutorials and filters if you get stuck.

Just as good as Photoshop

[C0L0N3L]

I don't do all that much PP but if I do I'll use photoshop CS4 otherwise ViewNX works fine general stuff.

[dmdigital]

www.photoshop.com

It's free to sign up and use and you don't get nagging e-mails.
Uses the Adobe Photoshop algorithms. Lets you crop, straighten and adjust the photo in the basics offered by elements.

You upload and download the photo to either you PC or you online photo library (works with Flickr, Photobucket etc, etc).

This is a really good simple tool to use and I would place it above a lot of the others for this reason. Doesn't do a lot, but what it doe is good - and its FREE!

[p38arover]

I'm using PSE7 which I find excellent, although the browser and its associated database is a pain.

If you have a kid in school, uni, tafe, etc you can buy the educational version for <$200.00 online.

I went to Hardly Normal the other day and PSE 8 was about $157 retail - without student discount. With discount (on-line) it was, I think, $115.

[JDNSW]

I use The Gimp - does nearly all that Photoshop does (but different to use!) and is free. It is very capable, but probably quite a bit of learning, and may be a bit of overkill for a lot of users. Available for most operating systems.

John

[Taz]

I have CS4 and use it for the funky stuff, however I mostly use ACDsee Pro 3 which I find much quicker for the "heavy lifting" aspects. ACDsee pro 3 is both an editing and photo management package with full 16bit processing support, so it does similiar things to Photoshop and Bridge (I dont think much of Bridge).

[Chucaro]

Because i use a Nikon camera and like how the camera capture the colors and store the data I use Nikon Capture NX2 to open the nef files, do the basic adjustments and then save the images in TIFF format.
After that I use PSCS3.
Adobe Camera Raw discard the original camera data and for that reason it is not my software to open the Nef files.

[Disco]

Nikon Capture NX 2.2 / Control / Transfer
Adobe PhotoShop CS4
Adobe Lightbridge 2
Phase One Capture One.
Bibble Pro

CS4 is far faster than CS3 and has better batch mode support, it's well worth the money if you are either image editing for a living or a professional photographer. Well heeled amateurs will like it to as it's the industry standard package. Not an easy tool to learn to use well but well worth the struggle.

NX 2.2 - Functional software from Nikon. Great if you own a 10.5mm DX Fisheye as the defish control is perfect for making ultra wide angle shots with corrected rectilinear mapping. This feature has been included since the original Nikon Capture days. Not as comprehensive as PhotoShop but the NEF file support is a lot easier to deal with than using the Adobe Camera Raw plugin.

Lightbridge - useful tool if a bit basic, however it's a professional standard tool.

Phase One Capture One. Brilliant front end tool for professional photography if using medium format one shot backs like the H25 or for scanning backs in Large Format. Not for general amateur use and images still need to go through PhotoShop.

Bibble Pro - A RAW/NEF processor similar to Adobe Camera Raw.

[Chucaro]

For the Nikon owners that would like to learn to use Capture NX HERE (http://www.dphotojournal.com/nikon-capture-nx-tips-and-tricks/) are heaps of tutorials that can be downloaded ;)

[chunk]

I have had a look at the NX 2 software and found it quite easy to use, so I think I might use that plus Color Efex pro 3 for the filters.