personally I mainly use iphoto for small jobs like general tweaking, but if I want to do something a bit more drastic I use Gimp, which is very similar to photoshop, except it's free :)
I was wondering what you guys use, or if you can recommend anything?
Hi Alecia, im new to editing, don't even have software yet let alone know how to use any software packages so I realy appreciate your discussion.
Please tell me that Gimp is available for downloading? what else do you know of that is free and readily available on the internet for downloading aside from the free 30day trials? I have however heard wonderful things about Adobe Lightroom and would love to get that in future as well.
@ Marti, what's ACDSee like. Do you think it is better than using Gimp?
@Lameez, Yep, you can download the gimp here: http://www.gimp.org/
Personally I find it really great and easy to use, but i think that may have been because I was taught how to use Photoshop in my photographic and digital media classes. Even so, give it a shot, its easy to find tutorials for over the internet, and they are usually really good and easy to use.
If you want to start easy I would recommend using something like picnik ( http://www.picnik.com/) or just an internet based program.
But you could also try using picasa, it's free and a lot of my friends use it. its pretty simple i think. :)
Hey, I'm not sure if you can use it for JPEGs because I've stopped shooting in that format for my better photography, but it's free so give it a try. I'd be surprised if you can't. I think you can edit in Picasa (by Google), which is also free, so that might be worth a go. But if you want to take it a bit more seriously I'd buy Photoshop Elements, which isn't too expensive.
I get overwhelmed by Photoshop. It's so technical and since I'm not familiar with some of the lingo, it's not easy to find what I want because I don't know what to look for. I use Microsoft Digital Imaging Suite. It's a tad older but it really works well for what I want to do and at my abilities.
I do little tweaks in Picasa, and more artsy stuff in Picnic (just the free version on Flickr.com). I'm not a huge edit-er, but I like to brighten when possible and obviously crop, straighten, and clean things up some.
i use cs4. but then my editing skills are really limited, so i end up using picnik more often. yesterday, i moved on to cs5 - its features are magic!!!! i cannot wait to explore it =)
I use Lightroom and I LOVE it. Every now and then I take something into Photoshop Elements to do a little more processing, but I've found pretty much everything I want to do is easily accessible in Lightroom.
I have been using Picnik and am enjoying learning my way around it. It isn't complicated, which suits me fine because I am a novice. Now that I have a little experience with the different tools and what they can do, I think I may now want to try something more technical. (I did upgrade in Picnik for $24.95, but the basic version is free.)
All I ever do is crop and then tweak the colors & brightness and I do that in MS Office Picture Manager. I will have to venture into other programs and try experimenting more. Thanks for all the suggestions.
For really basic editing like cropping, tweaking colours, contrast and some really basic effects I find Picasa3 (a free download from google) is best. I joined Picnik to trial their effects and editing which look great but the quality of the photo once it has been run through picnik is very disappointing.
For more involved editing using layers and other effects ive always used Paint Shop Pro. Ive recently started using Photoshop Elements as well but both programs taken some learning. You can do online tutorials that will teach you as well as fidnign forums for help.
Once you get to know these programs you will wonder how you ever did without them.
I use Paint Shop Pro. (PSP) I have used it for years and still have version 9 which was the best. I now use X2 for some of it's advantages. PSP is not that expensive for a powerful program.
I use PhotoFiltre which I downloaded for free. It is very straightforward but has more bells and whistles than something like Picasa. I get overwhelmed in Photoshop - it is just too professional and I am not! I LOVE my PhotoFiltre!
A lot of you don't seem to like photoshop, or find it too difficult or overwhelming. I say you give it another shot, you can do so much! just experiment a little, and if you dont know how to find things, google a tutorial on it. Heaps of people use photoshop, I guarantee you'll be able to find an easy way to do whatever you want to do with it (:
(that goes for gimp as well.)
I think I'm going to give adobe lightroom a shot, seems to be quite popular with you guys.
picnik is pretty good.... the many things are free.. or you could pay $25 for a year to use some extra stuff on their site... but honestly i never need it!
I use ACDSee for cropping mainly - it came free with my old camera. Then I use Gimp for other things, like selective colouring or anything involving layers.
Plus, I have a piece of software from ArcSoft for making panoramas, but I don't think you always need that, depending on how your camera deals with them. Nikon's don't make panoramas, they just have a panorama assist mode, then you stitch them later.
I also use the Microsoft Office Picture Manager, but I don't edit with it. I just like the fact that it lets you rename several photos at once sequentially, which saves a heck of a lot of time.
I used to be very Photoshop minded, but I'm back to using very basic tools like Picasa and often some online editing in Picnik. Together they get pretty much everything done :-)
Oh, and for some shots where I have too much noise to my liking, I use NoiseNinja to clean them up. Also a tip I got from the 365 forum, thanks for that!
Adobe Photoshop CS4, I absolutely love it. I initially used Adobe Photoshop Elements and really got used to the layout and tools. CS4 is pretty similar but with better options for raw files (which is what I shoot in most often) and more options.
Picasa, Paint Shop Pro, and Picnik. Anecdote: I met one of the three key developers at Picnik at a BBQ here in Seattle. I was crazy excited and went on and on about how great I thought the product was. I think he thought I was a Software Developer Groupie or something. Then - he asked me for my feedback and suggestions for additional features. If you see TTV and Hipstamatic applications added to their features anytime soon - I'm taking credit. :-)
I use Photoshop CS4 and know some pretty basic stuff. I understand layers and blending and all that and it helps. I would LIKE to have Aperture 3.0, but I sadly do not have a Macbook so that's a no go, but I heard it's just like Photoshop but in simplistic terms. I would recommend Aperture on that note.
Photo Shop CS4 for me. I shoot in Raw, open them up in the raw plugin and get tweaking. Since I've had my 5D I haven't had to do a lot of editing so it;s just a contrast tweak here and there.
I did use iPhoto too, mainly for viewing and storage, but I found since my files have got way bigger it crumbles under the pressure so I use Adobe Bridge now.
I've used photoshop, but I have photoshop 7.. so it's been awhile since i've upgraded. lol
If all I want to do is crop, I use irfanview.
But when I want to edit, I use picnik.com . I did pay for the premium, not because you normally need the extra features, but because I like the program a lot and want to help support it.. Same reason I have an ace membership on here. :)
I use Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3. It is supposed to have many of the same capabilities of Photoshop but is supposed to be more user friendly. I also occasionally use Picasa for collages.
I use iphoto and Picasa. If it is a more difficult one, I take it into Photoshop cs. I would LOVE to upgrade my Photoshop, though. If I had a newer version, I would probably use it a lot more.
I use Photoshop CS3. I've been using photoshop for roughly 3 years (although I started with 7 and have worked up to CS3) and now, for some reason, things like picnick seem oddly more complex and confusing to me xD.
Currently, I'm using Photoshop Elements...I am not at the stage where I need anything more sophisticated. I'm going to look into some of these other programs suggested though, especially the Adobe lightroom. I would like to find a program that can batch and do the minor adjustments to RAW files.
It is a good question, and it appears there is a lot out there.
I use mainly Picasa3 which was a free download. I tried to download Gimp, but for some reason some other bad stuff came through on my computer, so I nixed it. Also, a good web-based one is befunky, but I think that one wipes out your Exif information. Picasa keeps it. I'm really new to all of this, but for what I need, Picasa works fine for me.
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Please tell me that Gimp is available for downloading? what else do you know of that is free and readily available on the internet for downloading aside from the free 30day trials? I have however heard wonderful things about Adobe Lightroom and would love to get that in future as well.
@Lameez, Yep, you can download the gimp here: http://www.gimp.org/
Personally I find it really great and easy to use, but i think that may have been because I was taught how to use Photoshop in my photographic and digital media classes. Even so, give it a shot, its easy to find tutorials for over the internet, and they are usually really good and easy to use.
If you want to start easy I would recommend using something like picnik ( http://www.picnik.com/) or just an internet based program.
But you could also try using picasa, it's free and a lot of my friends use it. its pretty simple i think. :)
For more involved editing using layers and other effects ive always used Paint Shop Pro. Ive recently started using Photoshop Elements as well but both programs taken some learning. You can do online tutorials that will teach you as well as fidnign forums for help.
Once you get to know these programs you will wonder how you ever did without them.
A lot of you don't seem to like photoshop, or find it too difficult or overwhelming. I say you give it another shot, you can do so much! just experiment a little, and if you dont know how to find things, google a tutorial on it. Heaps of people use photoshop, I guarantee you'll be able to find an easy way to do whatever you want to do with it (:
(that goes for gimp as well.)
I think I'm going to give adobe lightroom a shot, seems to be quite popular with you guys.
There are alot of free options. You can google those too on a day when you feel like experimenting.
mind you, i mainly just resize photos, and sometimes crop.
Plus, I have a piece of software from ArcSoft for making panoramas, but I don't think you always need that, depending on how your camera deals with them. Nikon's don't make panoramas, they just have a panorama assist mode, then you stitch them later.
I also use the Microsoft Office Picture Manager, but I don't edit with it. I just like the fact that it lets you rename several photos at once sequentially, which saves a heck of a lot of time.
Oh, and for some shots where I have too much noise to my liking, I use NoiseNinja to clean them up. Also a tip I got from the 365 forum, thanks for that!
I did use iPhoto too, mainly for viewing and storage, but I found since my files have got way bigger it crumbles under the pressure so I use Adobe Bridge now.
:)
C:
If all I want to do is crop, I use irfanview.
But when I want to edit, I use picnik.com . I did pay for the premium, not because you normally need the extra features, but because I like the program a lot and want to help support it.. Same reason I have an ace membership on here. :)
It is a good question, and it appears there is a lot out there.