Beginner

Bazz

Bazz

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Name
Barry
Edit My Images
Yes
A little bit of advice on what photo editing software to start with as a beginner. Loads out there it seems and I guess people will have own opinions but advice always welcome
 
Bazz said:
A little bit of advice on what photo editing software to start with as a beginner. Loads out there it seems and I guess people will have own opinions but advice always welcome
Click to expand...

OK, to find out the best route to take we should ask, where do you want to get to?

Are you looking for software to process .jpg pictures straight out of camera, with no more than a little brightening, minor tweaks to colour & a quick crop? Irfanview (fast & free) will do that.

Are you looking to (maybe eventually) process faw files, manipulating them non-destructively, tagging them with keywords to search through later (maybe years later) and perhaps printing or displaying them in some other way?

I use a variety of software, including Irfanview when I want a quick resize etc. Although you're a beginner now, I'd recommend choosing something you can work with later as you progress, rather than having to re-learn yet another software package. Worth bearing in mind that all the software makers offer free trial periods to evaluate their stuff. Having used both free and paid software over the years, I'd now choose paid for features, reliability, continued compatibility with my equipment. Free can be extremely good, but can also be clunky, awkward, deficient in some way that's important *to you*.

So what do you want from your software & where do you want to be with it in 5 years time.
 
ancient_mariner said:
OK, to find out the best route to take we should ask, where do you want to get to?

Are you looking for software to process .jpg pictures straight out of camera, with no more than a little brightening, minor tweaks to colour & a quick crop? Irfanview (fast & free) will do that.

Are you looking to (maybe eventually) process faw files, manipulating them non-destructively, tagging them with keywords to search through later (maybe years later) and perhaps printing or displaying them in some other way?

I use a variety of software, including Irfanview when I want a quick resize etc. Although you're a beginner now, I'd recommend choosing something you can work with later as you progress, rather than having to re-learn yet another software package. Worth bearing in mind that all the software makers offer free trial periods to evaluate their stuff. Having used both free and paid software over the years, I'd now choose paid for features, reliability, continued compatibility with my equipment. Free can be extremely good, but can also be clunky, awkward, deficient in some way that's important *to you*.

So what do you want from your software & where do you want to be with it in 5 years time.
Click to expand...
It's a good question, if there is an answer.

When I started pho to editing (1999), I didn't know where I wanted to go. I had a specific task I needed to do. (I had used CorelDraw for work since about 1991, so some of the concepts I was familiar with)

After that it "progressed" from one task to another, but never in a planned fashion, just in response to what I wanted to do at the time.

Even now, I learn what I need to for whatever it is I am trying to do, I don't worry about what I don't need.
 
My first editing was crudely processing scans of my prints in the late 90s, doing a headswap in GIMP, then later doing my first proper processing of digital pictures with digikam. On acquiring a Sony DSLR in 2013 I really needed proper raw image processing and keywording, and after false starts, bought lightroom. In retrospect this would have been an enormously better tool than digikam for my needs, but experience is what you get after you need it.

Present software is Lightroom 6 as main processing and content management package, On1 photoraw for deeper editing, Nik SilverEfex for mono conversion and GIMP for occasional Photoshop type tasks and image conversion. I also have affinity, which is clunky and I don't use, plus irfanview for quick-fixes. FastRawViewer is good for quick culling on a slower machine and there's a couple of older versions of DXO that are also redundant.

If I were starting again now I'd probably go for On1 Photoraw because it's a good raw processor with a great additional toolset and does keywording/DRM, and doesn't require a subscription. If Adobe would drop the subscription then I'd recommend Lightroom instead.
 
Most cameras come with software that allows basic editing. I'd suggest starting with that until you hit it's limitations by which time you will know a bit more about what you really want.
 
Adobe often take a bit of abuse but for the £6/£8 a month or whatever it is you do get something that works, mostly, and updates for good or bad.

Mine is at the mo creating a separate text file every time I process a raw and it's annoying. Other people have reported this and at the mo Adobe have no fix. It's annoying but maybe not a deal breaker for me, I just delete the file.

I do most of my processing in Adobe camera raw. I used CS3 then CS5 for years and now have CS5 and PS2022 which is the one you pay for.
 
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Nikon NX Studio should do everything that you want for a while.
 
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