Software

[Heggs]

Hi all I am rather new to photograpy and am looking at buying software for editing my digital images, can anyone offer me some advice on which software is good, easy to use, not to costly etc.

[abaddonxi]

Download Gimp
GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

Free.

Simon

[Chucaro]

If you have a Nikon then Nikon Capture NX is excellent
Gimp is very good.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 is very good and a good step to learn Photoshop CS3 or 4 if you get it in the future.
Cheers

[werdan]

For quickly fixing contrast, straightening, cropping, etc. as well as providing a method of tagging and cataloging images for retrieving, Picasa3 is pretty good and very easy to use. It's also free.

Picasa 3: Free download from Google

[vnx205]

Paint.net is free.
Paint.NET - Free Software for Digital Photo Editing
Most people find it much easier than GIMP.
In its basic form it is very easy to use.
Download a few of the numerous free plugins that people have written and you have a very powerful program.

[dmdigital]

I'd really recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements over any of the free software if you are starting out. Not because the free software isn't any good, some of it is excellent, but for the following reasons:
* It's based on the platform most pro's use - Photoshop
* There is a wealth of tutorial's, guides, books online information etc to assist you. Whilst some of the free software has a lot of help on-line there is not as much solid information available for someone starting out and learning the techniques and the terminology.

Basically when you find you can't do what you want in elements then you can go to the next step up.

Nikon Capture NX is an excellent product if you have Nikon and especially if you shoot RAW images. So is Apple's Aperture and Adobe Lightroom.

[Bushie]

Download Gimp
GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

Free.

Simon

And to complement the Gimp

GIMPguru.org: Image Editing Tutorials for Photographers


Martyn

[Heggs]

Thanks Guys, I have downloaded all the free stuff and having a play with them to see which one works for met the best for me, I have also booked in to do a photography course specilising in outback pictures so hopefully I can work this stuff out and get some decent photos

[300+]

If you, or someone in your house qualifies, Photoshop is fairly reasonable when you get the academic pricing.

Cheers, Steve

[flagg]

If your camera can shoot RAW, then you really need to have an manipulation program that supports it.

There are two main kinds of image programs: Image manipulation and digital darkroom.

Most of the programs suggested are image manipulation programs. They are designed to open a single image, work on it, close it. Photoshop etc are all like this - great, but become a pain when you are working on a large number of images - not really designed for photographers..

Digital darkroom programs are specifically designed for photographers and allow you to work on a larger number of images at a time, like a roll of film. You can scroll through a folder full of images and change them one by one, or in groups, etc. This is what the pro photographers use to turn their RAW images in to output quality. Coming from a film / darkroom photography background this software felt so natural to me to use.

Programs like Adobe Lightroom, Capture 1, Apple Aperture all fall in this category - but they are really expensive.

I highly recommend you have a look at Bibble (Bibble Labs - Professional Photo Workflow Software). It has the same functionality the guys above at much MUCH less cost. Shoot some RAW pics, grab the demo and have a play.

If you are keen on your photography then you will really notice the difference fast - Especially if you are going on a trip and will come back with 100's or 1000's of photos !

*if you have a SLR and get a grain of dirt on the sensor with 2 or 3 mouse clicks you can hide it in one image, and then apply that to all the other images with the spot on them. Pure Brilliance saving so many hours!