Beginner What software?

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Edit My Images
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Hi,

Another beginner question if that's OK.....

What software is best for processing? I don't want professional stuff, just a nice cheap (if not free) easy to use package - I don't want much do I

Oh and windows based on a laptop.

Many thanks
 
Take a look at the threads where people have posted all the different programs. See below.

You can get great results from some of the free programs. It will be worth trying some out without committing yourself to any particular paid programme until you have more of a feel for what you need. And even then you might decide to stay with the free ones.

(FWIW I use Gimp, Paint.Net/Pinta, Raw Therapee and Digikam to manage the pictures)
 
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Best free photo software is probably GIMP, it's very powerful but it has a considerable learning curve. Some prefer it to Photoshop.

PaintShop Pro is also very good, powerful and about £60.

FWIW I use Photoshop Elements for image editing (been using version 11 for the last few years, recently updated to version 15). Costs about £65 for the current version and is powerful, but also has beginner and intermediate modes as well as expert (which is a lot like Photoshop). Again there is a learning curve to get the best out of it, I'm still finding new features and techniques.

For adjusting images (exposure, applying filters and basic editing) I use Lightroom 5.

Good luck.
 
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There is often Black Friday deals on Photoshop Elements which before discounts is a relatively affordable pixel level editing program. Otherwise, an older copy of Lightroom.

Your camera may have come with some free editing tools. Otherwise GIMP is comprehensive, if somewhat unintuitive, Picasa can do some basic stuff too, also free.
 
Thanks, I'll have a look at some of those options now.

I'll also keep my eyes open for elements deals.
 
Serif have a new programme comming out called AFFINITY it is a photoshop clone and will retail at £39.99...

But the Beta Is on line now and is free!!! go here " biSPAM/affinity411"
 
What software is best for processing? I don't want professional stuff
This is a contradictory statement. :)
just a nice cheap (if not free) easy to use package
There is an abundance of free and/or cheap which have already been suggested, but I doubt if you'll find them easy to use, as cheap usually means of limited ability.
In the long run you'd be better getting some version of Lightroom. Hope this is of some belated help to you.
 
I use Photoshop Elements (PSE) I'm using version 11 - I got is fairly cheaply when PSE 13 was released.

The cut down version of Adobe Camera Raw that comes with PSE does most of what I need, but equally useful is the organiser part of PSE. You don't need many photos before some form of classification is needed oR you'll use track of where things are. The PSE Organiser allows muliple tagging and sub tagging of photos which makes finding shots easy.

I also use GIMP - I find some features in GIMP better than in PSE and if I want to do something very simple and quickly with a JPEG file, I'll use Photoscape.

Dave
 
Question begs questions..... What do you want the software to do? Ad probably as importantly, WHY?
I shoot digital for 'convenience', if I want to 'faff' I'd shoot film! Which was were the 'Digtal Darkroom' was a major breakthrough; doesn't do much that wasn't possible with chemicals, but it IS rather a lot less smelly! However.. Mantra was, and still is,'"Get it Clean in Camera".. get it as 'right' as possible before you press the shutter button, and less you need to 'put right' in post process,
Ironic phenomenon of widgetal, then is that all the 'convenience' it offers shooting direct to data, results in around five times the number of pictures, WHICH, if you didn't apply that CinC discipline to start with, beg ever 'more' post-process 'correction', and by a law of diminishing returns, the entire process rapidly becomes ever less 'convenient'.

'Best' employments of Post-Process, really are in the 'irregular' processes; things like 'Key-Stoning', correcting converging verticals, which following CinC you would need a tilt-shift perspective control lens for, you probably don't have, because they are expensive, fiddly and not needed 'that' often. Panorama Stitching; which similarly mimicks an UWA lens you probably don't have in the bag; or in exposure stacking, where contrast range of scene is just wider than you can capture with available dynamic range; These sort of things aren't so much error-corrections, used to put right stuff you got 'wrong' trying for CinC, but equipment 'patches', over-driving your 'gear' into the margins where it's really just not the right gear for the gig; to wit the suggestion is that Post-Process is probably not the 'best' solution, and if you are having to use 'post' to effect these patches regularly, it's saying 'really' you don't have the gear to do what you want to... Beyond that, you get into the 'creative' potential of the Digital Dark-room; multiple image montages, curious image manipulations like bass relief, solarisation, or 'cross-processing'. Here in lies a world beyond what you can do in camera, BUT, where, like using it for equipment-patches, best results start at the inception before you press the shutter button, shooting expressly to post process, and capture the elements you need to make the image you imagine.

The habitual use of post-process, 'as a matter of course', often suggested if not forced by RAW, to play with sliders and adjust out-put curves, before creating a display Jpeg, is something of an anathema in that irony, throwing away a large chunk of that digital convenience at source, and loading up the work-load in post, to do so much 'more', which should be unnecessary, IF you put that little extra in up front to get it CinC...

Which doesn't help answer your question very much, but suggest you ask why you ask it, and whether the answer to that would suggest a different question....

Photo-Shop is the incumbent 'Standard', and if you don't know what you are doing the one you are most likely to find tutorials or articles to help you learn, and which offers most features and effects any software does. In that respect, Photo-Shop 'Rivals', which may be as or even more powerful, and likely 'cheaper' are also a mine field where if you don't know why you want them, and don't know what you are doing, you are at the bottom of an even steeper learning curve, without any-one at the top able to chuck a rope down to give you a leg up.

Cheaper 'consumer' software usually doesn't have the versatility of PS, and instead offers a lot of 'one-touch' automated process 'effect filters', which can give you quick and easy results, but as a 'standardized' manipulation, aren't particularly 'creative' or necessarily the most suitable for your subject, and don't give you the control or encourage you learn how to effect that control to perform more intricate manipulations that may be more appropriate or creative.

Which brings us back to Photo-Shop, and suggestion, it IS probably the 'best choice', and if you can't afford it? Well, back to the top and questioning your question, DO you really 'need' it?

Which suggests I'm something of a PS propagandist, but I assure you I am not. I have a very love-hate relationship with that particular software! My favored pixels pushing program is a rather ancient edition of one called MicrografX, which is little more than a suped up version of MS-Paint, in many ways, but designed for a conventional Dark-Room Jockey like me in the early days, offered a lot of dark-room diddling in a way that was intuitive to get to grips with.. pitty it doesn't 'work' on 64-bit operating systems, or have 'large file' handling so crashes given anything much bigger than 80Mb to handle! So I have it on a 'dedicated' XP system I run my film scanner on, for 'occasional' use when PS is PSing me off! I have various versions of PS, the earliest dating back to the last century, when I was rather underwhelmed by it; but it was 'cheap'.

Which MAY beg suggestion to your dilemma; I do not use PS-Clown,I refuse to subscribe to subscription software. I don't have subscription TV, I'll be damned if I'll have subscription packages on my PC. So I still run PS6, and on another computer PS5. Full licences versions of these are available pretty cheaply second hand, and even more are available even more cheaply from more questionable sources. To wt, you can have Photo-Shop, and not have to pay the subscription, or pay an awful lot of money for it, and it could be as or cheaper than 'rivals' if you go-retro.....

Which may be a slightly more helpful answer to your question, BUT, still begs you question why you asked it and what you hope to do 'in post', and whether you'd be better putting the extra time and effort i upfront to get t CinC or auditing your gadget bag, as first course.
 
Yes. Everyone has different needs. Some people hate working on the PC and for others it's all a fun part of their hobby.
Then it's a matter of discovering which software suits you best.
 
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I use Lightroom and Photoshop, on Adobe Creative Cloud. I pay approx £8 a month, which isn't too bad I don't think. Lightroom is great for most image processing in my own opinion

Same goes! Cheap outlay, brilliant return. Im still learning this myself
 
I use Lightroom and Photoshop, on Adobe Creative Cloud. I pay approx £8 a month, which isn't too bad I don't think. Lightroom is great for most image processing in my own opinion
I can second that... I think that the Creative Cloud package is excellent and a necessary annual expense.. All the new improvements to both programs are instantly available and when the renewal comes round I usually find a good deal with a prepaid card for the years subs on eBay and save a few quid that way too..
 
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