Photo editing software advice

[Jeff Duda]

I've searched through posts on this forum but haven't found a topic like this. Much like Wes did with the [thread=26129]video editing software[/thread] thread, I am looking for some advice on photo editing software.

I have a Nikon D40 and I would like to get some software to edit images. I do shoot in RAW on occasion so the software should handle that. However, I don't need anything spectacular.

I have looked around and found a few already but was wondering if anyone has any great or horrible things to say about any of them:

• Nikon Capture Nx2

• Shortcut Software PhotoStudio 9

• Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3

• Adobe Photoshop (I know little about this but have heard it's rather pricey for what you get)

Due to money issues, the cheaper, the better. Thanks for anyone's advice.

 

[Jason Boggs]

I currently use Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 and it fits my needs quite well. Like you, I wasn't looking for the latest and greatest, so this fit perfect. I think its about 55-70 dollars depending on where you go.

 

[Skip Talbot]

I use Paint Shop Pro. Its very easy to use and intuitive software, and has about 95% of the features of Photoshop, minus the ass backwards controls and user interface and aggravating Adobe nuances.

 

[Dave Rennie]

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 (started out with version 6), mostly for organizing. For editing I use Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3. I've used PaintShop since version 5, when it was owned by Jasc. Both Elements and PSP fill my needs fine.

I also use a program called Photomatix Pro for creating HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos, which provide detail in both shadow and highlight areas of a photo. HDR photos are created using Photomatix by combining multiple exposure shots of a single subject into one photo. Here's an example, with a standard photo on the left and the HDR processed version on the right:

 

[Jeff Duda]

I currently use Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 and it fits my needs quite well. Like you, I wasn't looking for the latest and greatest, so this fit perfect. I think its about 55-70 dollars depending on where you go.

I use Paint Shop Pro. Its very easy to use and intuitive software, and has about 95% of the features of Photoshop, minus the ass backwards controls and user interface and aggravating Adobe nuances.

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 (started out with version 6), mostly for organizing. For editing I use Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3. I've used PaintShop since version 5, when it was owned by Jasc. Both Elements and PSP fill my needs fine.

I also use a program called Photomatix Pro for creating HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos, which provide detail in both shadow and highlight areas of a photo. HDR photos are created using Photomatix by combining multiple exposure shots of a single subject into one photo. Here's an example, with a standard photo on the left and the HDR processed version on the right:

Can these programs make composite images like Dave has shown? I.E., can I take multiple separate photos and superimpose them together into one image (I believe called "stacking")?

 

[Wes Carter]

I use Adobe Photoshop CS4 and absolutely love it. I also have Corel Photo-Paint X4 which does almost anything Photoshop does and a few things it doesn't. But it has a tendency to lock up when I'm working on files. If it weren't for that, I think it might give Adobe a run for the money.

Have you tried GIMP? It's an open source piece of software that has been constantly improved upon and is now a pretty stable and feature rich photo editor. And best of all, it's absolutely free. You can get it here. I don't know if it supports RAW format however.

Edit: There is an open source plugin for GIMP that adds RAW functionality. It's called UFRaw and you can get it here.

And there are literally hundreds of available plugins for GIMP here.

I'm downloading it to try out again.

 

[John Wetter]

I use Adobe Lightroom for photo organization and optimization. If you really get in to it, you can round-trip it through Adobe Creative Suite for the 'extra' stuff. I find that 99% of everything I want to do with photos can be done in Lightroom from the RAW files.

 

[Dave Rennie]

Can these programs make composite images like Dave has shown? I.E., can I take multiple separate photos and superimpose them together into one image (I believe called "stacking")?

PaintShop Pro Photo X3 has an "HDR Photo Merge" function, which should do the same thing. I have used Photomatix Pro simply because of the number of options available in it.

I use Adobe Photoshop CS4 and absolutely love it. I also have Corel Photo-Paint X4 which does almost anything Photoshop does and a few things it doesn't. But it has a tendency to lock up when I'm working on files. If it weren't for that, I think it might give Adobe a run for the money.

You might check the amount of memory (RAM) your system has. I used to dread editing photos with any of my programs because of lockups or "Not Responding" hangs. Then I noticed my system (Toshiba laptop) was only running 1 gig of RAM! After upgrading it to 4 gigs, things couldn't be better! My system had started out as a Vista machine, but I had upgraded it to Windows 7 Pro and never even thought about checking the memory!

 

[Michael Thompson]

I have Photoshop Elements 9 and and old Photoshop CS. I find elements has some great features, but find myself going back to CS very often

 

[Wes Carter]

You might check the amount of memory (RAM) your system has. I used to dread editing photos with any of my programs because of lockups or "Not Responding" hangs. Then I noticed my system (Toshiba laptop) was only running 1 meg of RAM! After upgrading it to 4 megs, things couldn't be better! My system had started out as a Vista machine, but I had upgraded it to Windows 7 Pro and never even thought about checking the memory!

I have the same problem on two machines, one has 4gig memory and a pretty fast processor. I did some searches on the problem and it seemed quite a few others had the same problem. It's a shame really, because that's pretty much all that keeps me from using it more than I do.

 

[czenzel]

I say go with Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements is great for photography. Photoshop offers some extras, but if your just looking to edit photographs you can go with Photoshop Elements with no problems.

One thing I recommend is that if you are also editing video (such as from a video camera) that it is cheaper to go with the bundle Photoshop and Premiere Elements. Some places such as Amazon or Best Buy bundle it into one package and it is a little more, but you get both photo and video editing. Just make sure if you get the bundle you are getting the latest versions.

 

[Chris Gullikson]

I have CS5 and really like the bundled Canon RAW editor. My photoshop skills are rather basic...I mostly use plug-ins such as Topaz Adjust and several from NIK

I also have Photomatix and find it a very easy tool for HDR and tone mapping. You can even get excellent results with just one photo.

Love the Billings Montana shot, I remember watching that on radar as we sat in eastern Wyoming wishing we could be up there and thinking what a beautiful site that must be as the sun set.

 

[Dave Rennie]

I misspoke earlier, stating megs of RAM when I actually meant gigs. For those in the same boat, I found that additional memory isn't all that expensive. My laptop was populated with two 512 meg memory cards. I replace them with two 2 gig memories for about $79 each.

Love the Billings Montana shot, I remember watching that on radar as we sat in eastern Wyoming wishing we could be up there and thinking what a beautiful site that must be as the sun set.

That was one of those Catch-22 moments. If I had gotten a bit earlier start and headed north to intercept that storm I would have missed out on the shot that I got, but the storm prompted a tornado warning about 20 minutes after I took my photo so who knows how it would have turned out!

 

[Lanny Dean]

Jeff,
understanding that price is an issue, I still would recommend Photoshop. It is THE KING OF ALL EDITING PROGRAMS. And while there may be a slight curve even when first using elements, It can not be beaten period.

I have CS5 premium edition and while it was expensive it was certainly worth it. I also have the older versions: CS4, CS3, PS7, PS and Elemnts 8 and 1.
Obviously I have been using it for many years and I really love it. Some of the new tools such as Content Aware leave me speachless to say the least. These tools you will simply not find in any other program that I know of. And IMO, saying that Paint Shop Pro does 95% of what PS will do is is grossly inaccurate. I would go so far as to say that Paint Shop Pro can't even do some of the things that Elements 8 will do.

Currently I believe they have PS elements8 on sale for somewhere around $139.
This includes Photoshop elements and and Premier elements 8 bundled together. This is a great package and once you learn it, it would be very easy to upgrade to CS versions should you want to.

Good luck and hope this has helped.

 

[James Wilson]

I also have a D40 and I use Lightroom with RAW files. It's a nice cheap way to get good results. I do however want to move on to Photoshop soon.