I mostly use iPhoto and Picnik and have used Picasa once or twice. I also have a few editing apps on my iPhone and my iPad that I have used occasionally.
Photoshop, mostly. I've tried picnik but can't figure out how to save the file anywhere other than 365 and that's a show-stopper for me as I like to keep my own copy of all the pics I post.
I use Picasa and sometimes Picnik for frames. I own Photoshop Elements 9 but can't seem to find the time to learn it. I try to do as little editing as possible so I'm not real motivated to learn Elements either.
Photoshop elements for All editing needs no other program can give me the right colour sepia except Photoshop, In the create section the backgrounds and temples are fantastic for design of Photobooks, Cd covers and DVD Covers
Ms digital image pro - for Red eye and effects / frames
Jasc - for certain frames and fantastic image temples if you are doing some design work.
Photo impact - stunning Effects with bubbles, stars, fairy lights, Blurs
I use Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 for pretty much every single photo (that is, other than the ones taken on my iPhone).
Lightroom and Photoshop plugins (and actions) I use include:
Portraiture
Noiseware
Perfect Resize (was called Genuine Fractals)
Realgrain
Dirty Pictures (textures)
TRA1 + TRA2 (actions)
Totally Rad! Lightroom presets
Mask Pro
PhotoFrame Pro (Kevin Kubota)
Marcus Bell (actions)
Picasa, Picnik, Pixlr-o-matic (my new fave) and Foto Flexer (only very rarely) - all free-bies online.
At this stage I'm happy just using the free online editing tools. One day I'll learn Photoshop - at least that's what I keep telling myself!
Mostly Picasa, sometimes Picnik. I have Gimp but never learnt how to use it! I've been tempted to get a book to work through, but to be honest I'm not sure how much benefit I'd have from it. Although I've edited a few photos heavily recently, I've only really done so because of this website. I wouldn't really want them in my own personal album. Is rather try and improve my photography and use Picasa to enhance than concentrating too much on "allowing the camera to lie"!
Paint Shop Pro 8. I've been using Paint Shop Pro since my father discovered it way back at Paint Shop Pro 1. I mostly use it to turn my pictures back into what I saw and to crop. For the pictures I'm not going to print, I resize them.
I use PSE, but I own Aperture. I haven't figured out how to use the editing tools in it yet. I always wonder which of the programs out there is best, but I think most of us haven't tried enough different programs to provide an unbiased answer.
Picnik and Picasa used together make a versatile pair; very easy to switch between them during processing and use the best of both. I have also used BeFunky for occasional speech bubbles and other extras, OK if used sparingly, or Microsoft Paint if I the picture only needs quick and easy resizing. ( I wish the old original Corel Photo Paint - part of the Corel Draw suite - would work on Windows 7 because that was a truly professional hands-on experience!)
I just recently purchased CS5 and Lightroom, but for a long time I've used Picnik. it's great. I also use Picasa for little changes. and of course, to store my photos.
Photoshop Elements, and Photomatix for my HDR! I used to use GIMP but it got too complicated and I didn't like the help function (it didn't "help" much at all!)
Picnik. If you buy the premium membership, it gives you plenty of tools to work with and it's a lot less complicated than other programs. Someday I want to learn how to use GIMP or Photoshop, because I've seen some amazing pics that came from those, but right now I just don't have that kind of time. Picnik is basically just upload and click :)
Aperture, gimp if I don't have access to my own computer and can download it :) I keep meaning to move on to photoshop though because there's so much more you can do.
Lightroom and love it.. I am now playing with photoshop CS5 by using the free trial. I have used photoshop for work related stuff for years, but trying to decide if I want to buy my own copy for personal use and maybe someday side jobs.
I use picasa as it is nice and easy then I've just learnt how to do frames with photoshop so at the moment that is all I use that for. Have been meaning to learn more abour photoshop but so far haven't found the time or anybody to teach me!! Also I don't do that much processing so don't really need it :)
@webfoot@webfoot
Hi Paul,
Just reading through the comments on best/which photo editing software ppl are using. I noticed you are using Elements 9. I'm using Elements 8 and have been considering upgrading (it's getting confusing depending who I talk to) but I was going to download the trial version of Elements 9..but someone warned me that even going for a trial will wipe out Elements 8. Of course I could re-install..but who needs the hassle. Second reason your response caught my eye is that I read numerous forum posts and hardly any spoke well of Elements 9. So I guess my question is, is Elements 9 really that much better than 8, and does it have good video/voice tutorials so I can teach myself as I have with Elements 8. Or, if you had a wishlist which software would you use...e.g full version Photoshop CSC?
@mcgrath
I really can't compare. I went from PhotoShop 5 to Elements 9, so that was a nice upgrade right there. I don't have any experience with Elements 8 to help you out. sorry.
After reading the threads above I notice that 2 seem to pop up most Lightroom and CS5. I'm using Elements 8..and have mostly managed to self teach myself. Dumb question alert!!! For those using both Lightroom and CS5 how well do they integrate in terms of functionality and ease of use. Looking at upgrading..the obvious is Elements 9...but haven't seen too many good reviews and really don't know anything about CS5 or Lightroom to make an informed choice on my own.
@mcgrath Lightroom was developed with PS integration as its backbone. I use both, on almost every image I produce for my clients. Certainly always Lightroom, and then almost always PS. In a nutshell, I do my corrections and basic global edits in Lightroom (image prep), then I hit ctrl-e (PC) / cmd-e (mac) and my selected photo opens up in PS. I do my retouching, local edits and conversions (b&w etc), flatten my image, then save with ctrl-s / cmd-s and my image that was a working DNG or raw file appears back in Lightroom, beside my original, as a TIF. I can then crop for printing, add a vignette, or whatever else I want to do to polish the final version and output as a JPG for printing or web.
@sparkle I was about to type the exact same thing when I saw your comment. I also use Photoshop Elements and Photomatix Pro. I downloaded GIMP and was totally confused, so I abandoned it until I have more free time to play.
Photoshop - no other options in my book. Allows you to isolate different regions of the photo and modify without makeing the change on the entire photo.
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Ms digital image pro - for Red eye and effects / frames
Jasc - for certain frames and fantastic image temples if you are doing some design work.
Photo impact - stunning Effects with bubbles, stars, fairy lights, Blurs
Lightroom and Photoshop plugins (and actions) I use include:
Portraiture
Noiseware
Perfect Resize (was called Genuine Fractals)
Realgrain
Dirty Pictures (textures)
TRA1 + TRA2 (actions)
Totally Rad! Lightroom presets
Mask Pro
PhotoFrame Pro (Kevin Kubota)
Marcus Bell (actions)
All sooc (iphone hipstamatic).
If editing is needed it's Photoshop I use.
At this stage I'm happy just using the free online editing tools. One day I'll learn Photoshop - at least that's what I keep telling myself!
I use DIgikam for basic adjustment and in case i need to do some more advance manipulations I'll use GiMP.
Haven't heard of picnik till today, It sounds fun I'll defiantly give it a try.
Hi Paul,
Just reading through the comments on best/which photo editing software ppl are using. I noticed you are using Elements 9. I'm using Elements 8 and have been considering upgrading (it's getting confusing depending who I talk to) but I was going to download the trial version of Elements 9..but someone warned me that even going for a trial will wipe out Elements 8. Of course I could re-install..but who needs the hassle. Second reason your response caught my eye is that I read numerous forum posts and hardly any spoke well of Elements 9. So I guess my question is, is Elements 9 really that much better than 8, and does it have good video/voice tutorials so I can teach myself as I have with Elements 8. Or, if you had a wishlist which software would you use...e.g full version Photoshop CSC?
I really can't compare. I went from PhotoShop 5 to Elements 9, so that was a nice upgrade right there. I don't have any experience with Elements 8 to help you out. sorry.