and the site receives a small commission
Best photo editing software for beginner.
- Thread starter Bosscat
- Start date
picasa is a free one that offers basic alterations .....
photoshops, illustrators, pagemakers, corel stuff is fab gear but can be costly...
or if you wanna get fairly technical for free try 'gimp' which is a mimic of photoshop....
photoshops, illustrators, pagemakers, corel stuff is fab gear but can be costly...
or if you wanna get fairly technical for free try 'gimp' which is a mimic of photoshop....
- Messages
- 9,823
- Name
- Andrew
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Considering the majority of tutorials online are based upon Photoshop, then Photoshop Elements will do most things and can be bought for a fairly modest price.
Google's Picasa is free and offers some basic editing, but its best used as a cataloging service.
Alternatively Adobe Lightroom / Apple Aperture offer great cataloguing and quite a lot of adjustments but less of the traditional paint box style of tools.
Google's Picasa is free and offers some basic editing, but its best used as a cataloging service.
Alternatively Adobe Lightroom / Apple Aperture offer great cataloguing and quite a lot of adjustments but less of the traditional paint box style of tools.
- Messages
- 1,149
- Name
- Peter
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Depends what you want to do. I find Lightroom does pretty much everything I need it to do and very simply - it's completely non-destructive so you can always roll back to a previous point. It's a great catalogue system and very good for batch application of adjustments, has great abilities for presets and publishing/printing.
The main thing that Lightroom doesn't do is pixel-level editing, and at least as far as LR3 is concerned, masks or layers (I've got a memory that they brought something of this in for LR4?)
Gimp and Picassa are both free options - Gimp allows more traditional editing (a la Photoshop) while Picassa is fairly simple/basic but is a good catalogue and integrates into Google's online storage very well.
Photoshop Elements is a cutdown version of the mammoth system that is Photoshop - it's come on massively since it was launched and contains most of what you'll ever need for fairly detailed editing and image creation. With it you can hack images about to your heart's content and create all sorts of things that never existed in real life - got a perfect sky image? Stick it into your holiday snaps and make it look like it was sunny! Hell, why stop there when you could just put yourself into a shot of the beach! ;-)
I've (slightly) exaggerated the Photoshop thing but in all seriousness if you want to make your photos look as good as they can be but staying within the realm of reality then Lightroom is excellent. If you can see a situation where you might want to edit out a stray power cable from a landscape shot, or maybe cut out a product shot to float it on a white background (even if you didn't shoot it on one if the first place) then Photoshop Elements is ideal.
The main thing that Lightroom doesn't do is pixel-level editing, and at least as far as LR3 is concerned, masks or layers (I've got a memory that they brought something of this in for LR4?)
Gimp and Picassa are both free options - Gimp allows more traditional editing (a la Photoshop) while Picassa is fairly simple/basic but is a good catalogue and integrates into Google's online storage very well.
Photoshop Elements is a cutdown version of the mammoth system that is Photoshop - it's come on massively since it was launched and contains most of what you'll ever need for fairly detailed editing and image creation. With it you can hack images about to your heart's content and create all sorts of things that never existed in real life - got a perfect sky image? Stick it into your holiday snaps and make it look like it was sunny! Hell, why stop there when you could just put yourself into a shot of the beach! ;-)
I've (slightly) exaggerated the Photoshop thing but in all seriousness if you want to make your photos look as good as they can be but staying within the realm of reality then Lightroom is excellent. If you can see a situation where you might want to edit out a stray power cable from a landscape shot, or maybe cut out a product shot to float it on a white background (even if you didn't shoot it on one if the first place) then Photoshop Elements is ideal.
- Messages
- 1,211
- Name
- Charlie
- Edit My Images
- No
As mentioned previously it depends on the level of editing you want to do, but I find Faststone Image Viewer good for basic editing. It doesn't have layers, but does have levels, curves, sharpening, cloning, etc.
- Messages
- 1,157
- Edit My Images
- No
As a beginner I'd say LR4 will tick every box for you.
As said above, its non destructive editing so you can go as mad as you like and then just hit reset. The UI is so simple and straightforward yet has enough depth to make it a seriously badass piece of software. It'll help you learn the fundamentals about editing and give you transferable skills that you can use in other progs.
For me, its the only bit of software that is open enough to amateurs and beginners yet powerful enough for pros. Added bonuses are that a) it's cheap b) you can download a free trial and c)its so commonly used that there's thousands of useful free and paid tutorials out there.
As said above, its non destructive editing so you can go as mad as you like and then just hit reset. The UI is so simple and straightforward yet has enough depth to make it a seriously badass piece of software. It'll help you learn the fundamentals about editing and give you transferable skills that you can use in other progs.
For me, its the only bit of software that is open enough to amateurs and beginners yet powerful enough for pros. Added bonuses are that a) it's cheap b) you can download a free trial and c)its so commonly used that there's thousands of useful free and paid tutorials out there.
My recommendation for a beginner would be to use Snapseed desktop.
It uses 'U-Point' technology that is both intuitive and extremely easy to get to grips with. It allows for selective editing without the need for layers - which may seem daunting for a novice.
It also utilises the unique 'ambiance' algorithm, that can transform your photos in literally a few seconds.
Nik Software can do no wrong in my eyes. If when you feel comfortable enough, you could then move on to Photoshop and use Nik's excellent plugins such as Color Efex Pro 4, Viveza 2 and Dfine for your sharpening. Again, all dead simple to use with the same U-Point tech.
Good luck!
It uses 'U-Point' technology that is both intuitive and extremely easy to get to grips with. It allows for selective editing without the need for layers - which may seem daunting for a novice.
It also utilises the unique 'ambiance' algorithm, that can transform your photos in literally a few seconds.
Nik Software can do no wrong in my eyes. If when you feel comfortable enough, you could then move on to Photoshop and use Nik's excellent plugins such as Color Efex Pro 4, Viveza 2 and Dfine for your sharpening. Again, all dead simple to use with the same U-Point tech.
Good luck!
- Messages
- 1,157
- Edit My Images
- No
each to their own but i don't like nik software's selective adjust. Much prefer LR4's brush tool. Gives me more control - especially with a wacom.
I use a Wacom with NX2 and find U-Point allows for easier selective editing, especially for common instances where you want to boost contrast or saturation in, for example, the sky - where you don't want to affect surrounding areas and only want to affect the sky.
The brush tool is still there if you need it too.
The brush tool is still there if you need it too.
- Messages
- 11,086
- Name
- Garry
- Edit My Images
- No
In terms of the amount of learning involved and the amount of work needed to get a photo looking the way you want it, or at least, better than it came out of the camera, Elements is the hardest, then Lightroom, then Snapseed Desktop.
However, if you were to start with Lightroom and watch the training videos at Adobe TV to get a head start, you could then get Snapseed to use as a Lightroom Plugin as well as a standalone editor. And/or you could get other plugins that work with Lightroom that can give you one-click effects that are then adjustable. Notably good ones are Nik Color Efex, OnOne Perfect Effects, and Topaz Adjust.
I'm currently using Lightroom 4.3 with Elements 10, the entire Topaz bundle, Perfect Effects 4, and Snapseed Desktop, which all makes for fast and powerful photo editing. I use Lightroom for asset management (selecting, sorting, tagging, rating, etc), plus initial adjustments to tone and colour - which is sometimes all a photo needs. I use the rest as plugins to Lightroom which saves having to run a program, save the result, run another program, load the previous result, etc, etc.
So, all in all, I'd recommend Lightroom to start with as it will do most of what you'd want to do, then add in extra bits as you learn more.
However, if you were to start with Lightroom and watch the training videos at Adobe TV to get a head start, you could then get Snapseed to use as a Lightroom Plugin as well as a standalone editor. And/or you could get other plugins that work with Lightroom that can give you one-click effects that are then adjustable. Notably good ones are Nik Color Efex, OnOne Perfect Effects, and Topaz Adjust.
I'm currently using Lightroom 4.3 with Elements 10, the entire Topaz bundle, Perfect Effects 4, and Snapseed Desktop, which all makes for fast and powerful photo editing. I use Lightroom for asset management (selecting, sorting, tagging, rating, etc), plus initial adjustments to tone and colour - which is sometimes all a photo needs. I use the rest as plugins to Lightroom which saves having to run a program, save the result, run another program, load the previous result, etc, etc.
So, all in all, I'd recommend Lightroom to start with as it will do most of what you'd want to do, then add in extra bits as you learn more.
- Messages
- 11,086
- Name
- Garry
- Edit My Images
- No
I've just remembered that there is another free option. Recently, OnOne Software released . It has all of the features of Perfect Effects 4 but with only 70 or so preset effects as opposed to over 400.
However, as all of the functionality of the original software is there, you don't actually need all 400+ effects as you can create your own. All you need is to know how, and you can find out at [url=http://www.ononesoftware.com/university/video/category/perfect-effects-4/]OneOne University.
Although PE4 is used mostly as a plugin to programs like Lightroom and Photoshop, it also ships as a standalone program, available when you install PE4. It can open raw files as well as JPEGs and PSDs, though with new raw file formats you might need to convert the file first. It saves the result out as a layered PSD (Photoshop) file, a TIFF, a JPEG, or a PNG.
Oh, and did I say it's free?
However, as all of the functionality of the original software is there, you don't actually need all 400+ effects as you can create your own. All you need is to know how, and you can find out at [url=http://www.ononesoftware.com/university/video/category/perfect-effects-4/]OneOne University.
Although PE4 is used mostly as a plugin to programs like Lightroom and Photoshop, it also ships as a standalone program, available when you install PE4. It can open raw files as well as JPEGs and PSDs, though with new raw file formats you might need to convert the file first. It saves the result out as a layered PSD (Photoshop) file, a TIFF, a JPEG, or a PNG.
Oh, and did I say it's free?
I use, and would recommend, Reaconverter picture converter. It's simple to use - you can easily change hue and saturation in a few easy clicks and brightness/contrast just as easily. It also has a clone and airbrush tool. It does have more than that but that's all a beginner needs.
Last edited: