Editing software

gazguildford1

gazguildford1

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81
Name
Gary
Edit My Images
Yes
sorry probably asked 1000s of times but what editing software would you suggest to a total novice I’ve been using the free version of lightroom on my phone I just don’t want to make the mistake of buying the wrong editing program

KR
Gary
 
gazguildford1 said:
sorry probably asked 1000s of times but what editing software would you suggest to a total novice I’ve been using the free version of lightroom on my phone I just don’t want to make the mistake of buying the wrong editing program

KR
Gary
Click to expand...
There's a very simple way to avoid the mistake of buying the wrong editing program: use free image editing software! There's plenty around. What kind of total novice are you? What camera are you taking photographs with? What kind of photographs do you take? What kinds of editing do you want to do? How did you find lightroom? Did it doe everything you wanted? Was it easy to use? Was it too complicated?
 
Unfortunately there is no one right answer. There are many programs out there that will do as little or as much as you need, including some newer ones which seem to be mainly recipe driven (i.e, you click on a recipe and it does a heap of work for you).

It also depends on how much editing you wish to do and if you are looking for some form of asset management (cataloguing).

I'd say or suspect the de-facto standard is LightRoom and Photoshop which is mainly available as a subscription approx £11 per month. LR is easy enough ti use, is feature rich and has an excellent cataloguing system, PS for detailed work. I'd guess that the bulk of photographers use this combo. LR also has a set or presets (or recipes).

Luminar looks interesting and is inexpensive, but appears to be recipe driven and no cataloguing.

Capture One is a powerful piece of software (I find it clunky, others love it ...) - not sure about its cataloguing though. I really don't like the way it demosaics either, I find if you are not careful with it, it gives muddy results.

DXO do good software too, again recipe driven, superb noise reduction though.

The good news here is that all of them have free, fully functional trial versions so you can try before you buy.

You could of course try the free software that is out there, some will swear by them, some at them ;) I've tried many and not really been taken by any (most if not all have glitches etc and the only support is via yet another forum somewhere) so I pay my money each month.
 
I gave up my PS CC subscription. I've recently bought Serif's Affinity Photo. I really like it and haven't yet found anything I need it to do that it can't do. It's very reasonably priced
 
As Paul says there really is no right answer, it will all depend on what you wish to achieve and maybe how you shoot. The obvious question is whether you shoot in the raw format or not. Also what platform (you mention LR on your phone)

There are a lot of alternatives, some are looking very interesting, particularly if using raw files, Luminar has already been mentioned, I should perhaps point out that a catalogue component is due some time soon and that it is only 'recipe' driven if you choose it to be. On1 Photo Raw looks very promising at the moment, particularly as a one stop solution, I have been using those two more and more in my workflow. Then you have free software such as Raw Therapee (I haven't tried it yet but seems to be mentioned in favourable terms) and Darktable.

On the pixel editing front you again have Luminar and On1 Photo Raw (On1 has a very effective Layers and masking component) plus there is Affinity Photo which is a very effective replacement for Photoshop at a very good price, again there are free alternatives such as Gimp...

Lightroom and Photoshop are of course the industry standards and really are reasonable value on the subscription, you need to decide if the subscription is going to be worth it for your needs.

It is quite exciting at the moment as new kids on the block emerge, but I think we need a bit more information from you before any real answers can be given (otherwise you will end up with a lot of posts like mine ;)
 
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Thanks guys I will be mainly photographing motorcycles action shots ie sports bikes and motocross focusing mainly on the riders eyes.


It will mainly be used for highlighting and dulling down colours if that’s the right term I’d like to be able to correct or remove an item I didn’t want in the shot... I’m very new to this I am on entry level gear Nikon D3400 etc

I am able to take fairly good shots with my Sony alpha a5000 but have never had anything other than 16-50mm lens, the Nikon will be delivered soon with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and a 70-300mm f/4-5.6

It’ll be a while before I can get new lenses so will have to make do for a while lol
 
Ps I’d like to shoot raw for editing capabilities but I need to research what the difference is first
 
There are freebies out there like gimp which is a powerful tool but you will need to add a RAW editor to it. Photoshop elements is a good place to start or Affinity. You can down load trails of each. See which you like
 
As others have suggested it might be worth cutting your teeth on some free software before spanding a lot o money on something that you may later find you do not like.

The problem with all photo editors it that it is a fairly steep learning curve. Your newly acquired Nikon should come with some failry decent photo editing software - it appears to come with ViewNX-i, and includes instructions for you to be able to download and install the latest version to your computer. Once you have got used to this you might want to go on to something more complicated and more able to produce the results that you want.

If you want to shoot RAW then there editor/converter will be necessary. There are some good free ones around, eg Rawtherapee. If you are not shooting RAW then there is a lot of free software around that can do things to very different levels. A sounf phot viewer with some basic editing is Faststone Image Viewer, which can be set up to open the chosen image in another program for editing. As a viewer and basic editor it is very capable. For more complex editing you might want to start with something like Picasa, which I must admit I have never tried but many seem to like. At the other end of the scale is GIMP, which is a highly complex and very professional free photo editing suite. All it lacks is the capability of dealing with RAW image, which is where something like Rawtherapee come in - it can process the RAW image and export it in another format for further editing.

You are starting out on anew venture with what you are trying to do - having bought your camera, start with what comes with it for editing might be a sensible way to go, and then progress slowly on to other methods as you gain cofidence.

Just have fun and enjoy what you do!
 
gazguildford1 said:
Ps I’d like to shoot raw for editing capabilities but I need to research what the difference is first
Click to expand...
I always shoot RAW + JPEG. I look at the jpegs first to get a quick idea of what the photograph is like and what kind of processing it might need. About 90% of the time a bit of tweaking of the jpeg is all the editing needed. The other 10% need the extra processing latitude of RAW, some because the image is pretty bad but I want to make the best I can of it, and some because it's very good and deserves the best quality processing to produce a top quality image.
 
gazguildford1 said:
Thanks guys I will be mainly photographing motorcycles action shots ie sports bikes and motocross focusing mainly on the riders eyes.


It will mainly be used for highlighting and dulling down colours if that’s the right term I’d like to be able to correct or remove an item I didn’t want in the shot... I’m very new to this I am on entry level gear Nikon D3400 etc

I am able to take fairly good shots with my Sony alpha a5000 but have never had anything other than 16-50mm lens, the Nikon will be delivered soon with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and a 70-300mm f/4-5.6

It’ll be a while before I can get new lenses so will have to make do for a while lol
Click to expand...
the sensor in the D3400 is a very highly rated crop sensor even if the body is more basic,you can take very very good photos with that.
Affinity photo is very easy to use to make objects disapear just pick the tool colur the object press enter and presto,it has some excellent pixel editing capabilities but they take a bit more working on.
It can convert Raws but only one at a time I believe,it has not catologue ability as of today whereas lightroom has.might be worth trying the free trial,infact try all the free trials is what I would do and see what attracts you.
PS if you can get the AFP version of your lenses they work better with the d3400,faster focussing and good IQ, get the IS versions if you can,
 
What I’m looking for is to be able to keep vibrant colours on my subject but dull down background colours if required.
I downloaded light room free trial and can’t seem to do that
 
gazguildford1 said:
What I’m looking for is to be able to keep vibrant colours on my subject but dull down background colours if required.
I downloaded light room free trial and can’t seem to do that
Click to expand...
That’s where photoshop and affinity photo come in.try the AP demo ,go to their website and check out some of the tuition videos on what it can do,you may like it,can be addictive lol
 
gazguildford1 said:
Thanks guys I will be mainly photographing motorcycles action shots ie sports bikes and motocross focusing mainly on the riders eyes.


It will mainly be used for highlighting and dulling down colours if that’s the right term I’d like to be able to correct or remove an item I didn’t want in the shot... I’m very new to this I am on entry level gear Nikon D3400 etc

I am able to take fairly good shots with my Sony alpha a5000 but have never had anything other than 16-50mm lens, the Nikon will be delivered soon with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and a 70-300mm f/4-5.6

It’ll be a while before I can get new lenses so will have to make do for a while lol
Click to expand...

There are three elements to processing images:
  1. Cataloguing
  2. 'Developing' a raw file - getting the base exposure & colours about right
  3. Processing - e.g. removing unwanted crud from the background, local adjustments, toning
Lightroom does 1 & 2 well. If you're having trouble then look up Julianne Kost's tutorials.
Photoshop does a much better job of 3 than Lightroom.

You can just use a single package but they work together as a suite.
AFAIK the other solutions all have a similar approach, e.g. Affinity, Darktable & Gimp, Photoshop Elements.

FWIW accurate selections of regions of an image is one of the often most difficult things to do well. Some subjects are easier than others but there are a multitude of techniques, all of which take practice.
 
At the time of writing there is a 30% discount on Affinity Photo, see:
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/desktop/

This may just help someone, as it makes it really affordable.

PS At the price on offer I've bought it to give it a long term tryout. Having installed it and tried it on a couple of images I like what I see - and it can tap into Photoshop plugins!
 
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anisah said:
At the time of writing there is a 30% discount on Affinity Photo, see:
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/desktop/

This may just help someone, as it makes it really affordable.

PS At the price on offer I've bought it to give it a long term tryout. Having installed it and tried it on a couple of images I like what I see - and it can tap into Photoshop plugins!
Click to expand...

I’ll doenloadvas many trials as possible and see how they go
 
Bear in mind that with your motorcycles there won't be much time to adjust the camera between shots as they will come thick and fast! Hence lots of shots will need post processing and using a different app for cataloging and processing will increase your workflow time by say 20%

This is what makes an integrated package like lightroom popular
 
Hi Gary @gazguildford1

You have had a few pointers to various editing programs, some like Lightroom that include cataloguing and management functions. In other words the choice is not just what editor is best, more to do with what do you want "it" to help you with???

IMO you should be wary of downloading lots to give them a go! Each one will have complexities and will take time to understand how it works and hence get the best out of it. If you install too many at one time you run the risk of the exercise becoming confusing.

Perhaps you should work out, based on the functions of what it/they can do, then trial the one or two and see whether it does what you want to achieve???
 
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Box Brownie said:
Hi Gary @gazguildford1

IMO you should be wary of downloading lots to give them a go! Each one will have complexities and will take time to understand how it works and hence get the best out of it. If you install too many at one time you run the risk of the exercise becoming confusing.

Perhaps you should work out, based on the functions of what it/they can do, then trial the one or two and see whether it does what you want to achieve???
Click to expand...

:agree:
 
I've just deleted LR,found I don't need it now feeling happier freeer and less hassled, so have to agree with Box,keep it to one at a time
 
I can’t speak for all software and what it can/can’t do but as a novice myself, one mistake I did make was going with basic, easy to learn software, then moved on to some free stuff, but you may or will find different software can or will have a slightly different work flow or certain little things to get to a end result.

This confused me or made the learning curve harder, as I got better I needed slightly more from the software, I’ve ended up in lightroom and wish I’d just gone with this from the start, as layout/buttons/menus are slightly different, it’s a little like moving from PC to MAC, they are both capable but it’s a challenge to learn the new route to get to the end result.

If I did it again I’d be tempted to get one of the high end softwares (free or paid) it’s a challenge but you’ll be learning as you go and it should grow with you. (Hope that makes sense ? )
 
All the programs mentioned require some learning and practice. We are all different. What suits one does not suit another. I would just try them out. Then chose your best option
 
I currently use Photodirector 9 (developed by Cyberlink), it does everything I currently need it to do and is pretty intuitive once you've got stuck in and had a 'play' with it - i'm really pleased with the results I am able to achieve. here is a review of it: http://lifeafterphotoshop.com/cyberlink-photodirector-9-review/
 
The thing to remember about Lightroom is that it isn't an editing program, it's much more than that, being a full workflow program, which includes editing, although for complex editing it's easily integrated with photoshop, but the majority of photos don't needs this.

There's also a huge amount of tutorials, such as: https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/lightroom/tutorials.html

Whichever package/program you choose, do use the tutorials as it's easy to get discouraged if you don't understand the workflow of the package
 
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