Beginner Can you recommend me beginners image editing software?

München

München

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Name
Jon
Edit My Images
Yes
I'm in advanced negotiations in the buying of a second hand Nikon DSLR that is so cheap I feel a bit guilty. Problem is it doesn't come with the original packaging or software. I quite fancied having the Nikon software and keep everything in house and brand loyal and that.

So, can anyone recommend an inexpensive (if not free) piece of software for touching up my hamfisted attempts to take pictures? I assume I'll be shooting in RAW because it's a step up from jpeg and I feel manly when I say it.

Thanks all. And might I add this forum is a chuffing mine of useful information.
 
Adobe Lightroom.
 
Another vote for Gimp. It has a lot of features and takes quite a while to learn (but then most complicated packages take a while to learn), but there is a lot of online support. If you want a very easy (jpeg only) editor have a look at Photoscape. Both are free.

Dave
 
Another vote for Adobe Lightroom. Its very powerful and yet beginner friendly, has plenty of "make your picture look better" 3 minute long video guides on youtube and you'll be getting used to the tool that you'll be using for a long-long time straight away. Cheap/free editors are fine, but you end up wasting a lot of time trying to learn how to do something in them, only to keep ditching them in hope for better things. Just get Lightroom and be done with it :)
 
Tringa said:
Another vote for Gimp. It has a lot of features and takes quite a while to learn (but then most complicated packages take a while to learn), but there is a lot of online support. If you want a very easy (jpeg only) editor have a look at Photoscape. Both are free.

Dave
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For RAW processing with Gimp, there is the excellent RAW converter plug-in called UFRaw. It works (as does Gimp) on Windows, Apple computers and Linux. It is 16bit.
 
Good point John. I had forgotten that Gimp, at least some time ago, could not handle RAW files. I'm not sure if the latest version downloads with the UFRaw plug-in.

Dave
 
There a plenty of used/ s/h copies of photoshop elements about or I think you might be able to get CS2 free still from adobe as a giveaway they did with keys a while back :)
 
Phiggys said:
There a plenty of used/ s/h copies of photoshop elements about or I think you might be able to get CS2 free still from adobe as a giveaway they did with keys a while back :)
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CS2 isn't free. Adobe decided to release a version without the phone home functionality due to the failure of the licencing servers.
 
LC2 said:
CS2 isn't free. Adobe decided to release a version without the phone home functionality due to the failure of the licencing servers.
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Oh right cheers I was under the impression you could install and use the activate codes they had released ?
Cheers for info
 
Phiggys said:
Oh right cheers I was under the impression you could install and use the activate codes they had released ?
Cheers for info
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I'm not saying that you can't or that people haven't, but I am saying that Adobe haven't made it available as freeware.
Not that it wouldn't be a bad idea as a lead in to buying the CC subscription, but there you have it...
 
LC2 said:
I'm not saying that you can't or that people haven't, but I am saying that Adobe haven't made it available as freeware.
Not that it wouldn't be a bad idea as a lead in to buying the CC subscription, but there you have it...
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If Adobe haven't released it as freeware, why do they offer it as a free download with no restrictions on use?
 
john.margetts said:
If Adobe haven't released it as freeware, why do they offer it as a free download with no restrictions on use?
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But the do, have you read the download information?
Specifically:
"Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. Only customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products may use the serial numbers provided during the download."

I don't think you can get to the download page (https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/cs2-product-downloads.html#) without signing in with your Adobe account so here is a screenshot:
Adobe.jpg
 
I'd opt for the Adobe Creative Cloud photography option. For under £10 a month you get the latest versions of full spec Lightroom & Photoshop. It's great value. I've been using it since it came out & some of the new features they bring out are well worth the money imo.
 
There are several options out there but I would go for Photoshop elements version 9 or above as you then gave layers to work with. You may also need dgn tool depends what camera you are getting and if it's supported by camera raw. This is probably the easiest option to start with and smallest out lay
 
Hi all, thanks for all the useful advice. Would all of the above mentioned software be able to produce HDR images? If not, which would? Thanks
 
Another vote for Picasa. Useful for quick editing of a photo and brilliant as a photo repository. If you get 'into' photography keep a look out on Giveaway of the Day for free versions of photo editing software to try out.

I also use Photoshop Elements 12,13 & 14 on different computers and it can be bought for as low as £35 with Premiere Elements if you keep a look out on Amazon.
 
You didn't sasy if you're Mac or PC ? If Mac, then Pixelmator http://www.pixelmator.com/mac/ is a pretty amazing value for less than £30. Obviously you can't compare it with the full Photoshop, but it certainly matches Elements for less than half the price.

By the way, whoever said Elements 9 or higher gives layers, is quite wrong. I use Elements 6, and it has layer processing. I think Elements always did?
 
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LC2 said:
CS2 isn't free. Adobe decided to release a version without the phone home functionality due to the failure of the licencing servers.
Click to expand...

IIRC, they shut down the servers because it wasn't worth maintaining them with so few people licensing CS2 by then. The 'free' downloads were introduced when they received complaints that anyone still using the software would be left high and dry if they ever had to reinstall it.

LC2 said:
But the do, have you read the download information?
Specifically:
"Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. Only customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products may use the serial numbers provided during the download."

I don't think you can get to the download page (https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/cs2-product-downloads.html#) without signing in with your Adobe account so here is a screenshot:
Click to expand...

I agree, but I don't think Adobe really care. They must have realised that people would treat it as freeware, and it's unlikely to impact their profitability.
 
MartynK said:
IIRC, they shut down the servers because it wasn't worth maintaining them with so few people licensing CS2 by then. The 'free' downloads were introduced when they received complaints that anyone still using the software would be left high and dry if they ever had to reinstall it.
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I thought it was a maintenance / failure issue, but yes the new version was released to support customers still using CS2.

MartynK said:
I agree, but I don't think Adobe really care. They must have realised that people would treat it as freeware, and it's unlikely to impact their profitability.
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I agree. If you read my other post you'll see that in my opinion adobe should treat it as an a lead into CC (other software houses give away outdated versions as a way to induce more sales).

However, when people say "Adobe are giving CS2 away for free", that is actually incorrect. What they should be saying is "Adobe have made a version available for download for existing customers but don't *appear* to be tracking if it is downloaded by people who don't have an existing licence".
 
Lightroom just buy it and learn it it's pretty easy, it's kinda what 80% of us use for PP and photoshop for the more extravagant processing.
I have the cloud subscription only 8 a month and you get both
 
Wow, This thread really did have legs! Thanks to everyone, I hope other beginners such as me have found it as useful as I have. I got the afformentioned DSLR for a steal and I've installed both Nikon's own software and Gimp and will try both out and see which one I click with. I'm going to shoot in both RAW and JPEG at the same time and from there see how things go.
 
I'd recommend Lightroom, via the Adobe photography deal described above. While there are other options available, the fact so many others are using it means support, help, & tutorials are much more common.
 
I use serif photoplus x8. It does most what Photoshop does, maybe minus a few bells and whistles. Handles raw well, hdr and has a simple user interface. It's been great as an intro to using layers and all for £ 20.
Serif are moving towards a whole new generation of software, so will be keen to shift existing stock. I'd give them a call and negotiate the price £20 got me the disc and handbook, not just a download.
 
München said:
I'm in advanced negotiations in the buying of a second hand Nikon DSLR that is so cheap I feel a bit guilty. Problem is it doesn't come with the original packaging or software. I quite fancied having the Nikon software and keep everything in house and brand loyal and that.

So, can anyone recommend an inexpensive (if not free) piece of software for touching up my hamfisted attempts to take pictures? I assume I'll be shooting in RAW because it's a step up from jpeg and I feel manly when I say it.

Thanks all. And might I add this forum is a chuffing mine of useful information.
Click to expand...

I use lightroom - for around £8 a month you get lightroom and photoshop cc - quite minimal cost and by learning that software you'll be keeping within the 'mainstream'

As for whether to use lightroom or photoshop, it depends on requirements, if your going to make heavy, digital enhancements then get familiar with photoshop - if just a bit of post processing then lightroom.

Personally I use lightroom for 95% of my photo's - it does what I want and is more user friendly.
 
To begin with I'd vote Lightroom as well through the Adobe monthly subscription.

I found light room fairly simple to use to begin with but then also has the more advanced features for when you start moving up.
Also there are so many great tutorials out there that it makes learning it very fun.
 
Congrats on your (impending?) purchase, Jon. When I started off, I went through what I call the classic stages of learning to shoot:

1. Take a photo and "chimp" (look at the LCD screen) and think, "hey that looks ok"
2. Import into computer as JPEG... "hmmm, that's not looking so good after all."
3. Learn/read that saving images as RAW gives you more flexibility, so do that an import the RAW files instead... "ouch - that looks even worse?!"
4. Download image editing software, import RAW files, play with sliders, setting most to +100 or -100, just like Serge Ramelli says on his videos
5. Friends say, "hey, cool photo!" Gather dozens of likes on Facebook (I don't have many friends)
6. Friend who is a pro photographer looks and explains how I could perhaps improve the composition, the lighting, the focus, the depth of field, the foreground interest and maybe drop all of the OTT processing

Which then leads to a perpetual quest over many years to get more right in camera and less messing around with processing in the computer.

But don't let that stop you, because image manipulation can be great fun and for me it was part of the learning process!
 
München said:
Now THAT is the sort of thing I like to know. I'm nothing if not a skinflint.:D
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Photoshop has the same free trial. If I were you I would download both and see which you prefer. I found Photoshop pretty intuitive but struggled to get my head around Lightroom.
 
I think Adobe CC with lightroom and photoshop is the way to go. There are offers about, I currently pay about £6.50 month, thats less than £80 for the year. You have to sign up for a year but I think its worth it, if you don't like it you can always cancel. AS someone said previously, its a very popular piece of software and there are loads of tutorials about to help you get into it.
 
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