What software do you use and for what?

[DanInNewEngland]

I am interested in Lightroom now and I will have to check into it for what it can do. As for the cost of Adobe Products... I am going to sign up for a college class and then order Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection $799 http://www.adobe.com/products/creati...ction.edu.html with the educational discount for students and teachers

[Maritimer1]

I have Adobe CS5 Photoshop. As a teacher, I was able to purchase it at a discounted price. I use Adobe Bridge when downloading and sorting, ACR to adjust my RAW files and Photoshop for cropping and saving as Jpegs (plus any changes that require layers.)

[Sonic4Spuds]

When I am finished editing the article I will post it, or a link to it in this sub forum. I wrote the article origionally for the newsletter of the photography club I am part of.

Dan I have tried both of the suggested pieces of software, but prefer GIMP to them. I am going to be building GIMP 2.9 soon so I will have 32bit imaging available.

-Sonic

[DanInNewEngland]

Maritimer1 how can you beat an 80% discount on Adobe products???? Unbelievable and I would like to use legal software with support. I'm using the 30 day trial at the moment to evaluate it and hands down nothing compares to it... I think there is a setting to even do my dishes This forum has been very helpful in making me aware what seems to be useful for most and some software I'm looking into that I wasn't aware of. Thanks to everyone who is sharing!

[Tringa]

I use GIMP if I need to do a lot. If it a photo needs just a little tweaking then I use Photoscape (also free and very easy to use). For panoramas I have used Hugin, but recently have found Microsoft ICE (free) which works very well most of the time. For HDR work I use Photmatix.

Dave

[DanInNewEngland]

Hi Dave I always loved GIMP and there are so many things you can do with it including layers. I have tried using Hugin and ICE but still learning how to use them.. results were not so good. Last night I was looking at Photomatrix which has a trial download and it looks pretty nice. Photomatrix Essentials is $39 and Photomatrix Pro was $99. I'm going to download Photoscape right now to check out... thanks for sharing! (lol I just remembered when I downloaded it that I used Photoscape when it first came out... nice program but had Photoshop to use at the time)

[Maritimer1]

Dan, it's almost scary... the more we learn, the more we realize how little we know... I'd pick one processing program that you really like and concentrate just on it for awhile. If you can get the Photoshop (the other parts of the suite are not included in the package I purchased) for the educator's discount, it would be hard to go wrong. The nice thing about it is that there are TONS of video tutorials. Adobe has a great selection, for all their products, on their Adobe TV channel. Very sweet cat in your profile photo, btw.

Myra

[DanInNewEngland]

Thank you Myra I always love to try out new software it is just a geeky thing I do. I used to love Paint Shop now Pro and used it for everything with a small program called ThumbsPlus for finding every photo on my drive and having the best resizer options I have seen. SPEED was key to me as well as not having bloated do everything under the sun software that was too memory intensive for most computers (Photoshop). This forum and similar others are nice because I learn things like HDR and what it is etc. and what programs people use to get the best photo with. I also enjoy video editing so I would like the package I mentioned which includes Premiere. Buying individually you get nickel and dimed to death. My little ones (kittens) keep me sane/insane depending on your view and time of day lol. They are great for making photos with. Always been a large dog person but landlord doesn't allow them. I have a few shots in some albums online here I created if you're bored. TY again.

[tbob]

Who needs to work on his camera-holding stance a lot!

And here I thought I cast an absolutely dashing silhouette!

I am scrunched up and kneeling to project the minimal shadow possible. The late fall, early morning sun is so low on the horizon at my latitude that, short of using a telephoto, I always seem to be in the image unless I lay flat on the ground. Which presents it's own problems with foreground. I love the light, just hate the always present shadow. By mid December it becomes almost an impossibility to shoot with the sun behind me as the shadow stretches almost to the horizon. I usually use a tripod so the shadow removal is held to a minimum, however this was a matter of having to shoot quickly while the sun peeked out through a small hole in the clouds. I had already been waiting in a windy, minus 5C open field for about twenty minutes until the sun broke free and then had to move rapidly to get a series with different angles and lens sizes. No time for set ups with tripods.

[Brocken]

I use Helicon Focus image stacking and Helicon Filter processing software for everything. I came to it via photomicrography - where Helicon Focus is widely used - and now use it for everything. Helicon Focus 64-bit is heavily threaded, so multi-core processors make quick work of big RAW stacks. I don't have anything else to compare it to, but it has served me well, and I am more than satisfied with my investment.

[Dave Humphries]

To answer the question in the thread title, at the moment I use;

Nikon View NX2 for download from memory card and preview cull of soft or otherwise defunct images.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 (and ACR 6.5) for RAW editing and 99% of PP

I use the Neat Image plug in from within CS5, or PS Elements 8, for noise reduction on jpg captures (usually not needed on RAW unless from S100)
I have the Focus Magic plug in for emergencies (but I haven't even got through all my 10 free uses yet)

In future this may change of course;
if/when I try focus stacking I'll probably stick within CS5, unless I am unhappy with it
one day I might even use Bridge (with CS5)

Cheers,

[Markvetnz]

I'm a Photoshop guy. Yes, it is expensive for the first full copy - but after that it's only about a $1 a day for upgrades.

Have you upgraded to cs6 yet??

[orlcam88]

I have both LR4 and CS5 but I use LR4 90% of the time. I try to get the picture right the first time so I don't spend a lot of time post-editing. What I love about LR4 (and I believe Aperture does the same) is that it works on RAW files and doesn't change anything on the RAW file itself. So basically, as I get more experience with post processing, I could go back to an image and either start from scratch or continue were I left off. Also, if I decide to jump ship with another software, I know my RAW files are as I shot them. The only reason I bought CS5 is for the rare occasion that I need to remove an item, enhance them in a way that can not be done easily in CS5. It was probably a waste of money just for this but I was student and I got a student discount. Also I didn't know how well LR is. which brings up my one great thing:

The one great thing about LR (I'm not a salesman! I think Aperture does this also), is that if I end up shooting a set of photo's that, for example, has an incorrect WB, I can change the whole set in just a few buttons. This could be done with a number of things such as saturation, noise, sharpening etc. I had CS2 previously and doing this on CS2 for a set of photo's was soooooo time consuming. Now it's a snap. Which is why I hardly use CS5 now.

[DanInNewEngland]

Thanks for your feedback orlcam88 I haven't tried Lightroom but that is a strong recommendation. Excellent choice to use the 80% off student discount as well. I am just getting comfortable shooting raw images instead of jpeg and I'm learning to use bracketing then learning to use Photomatix (demo version for now) to edit the raw images. I'm amazed at how much detailed manipulation Photomatix allows you. I tried using Luminance but it crashes when I select align photos! So much for free. Photomatix is also very FAST.

[Chris]

I use Lightroom 4.1 and occasionally go into Silver efex 2 and Viveza. Mind I am not sure if using Nik for sharpening is worth leaving Lightroom for.

[Sonic4Spuds]

Luminance has always worked for me, but I saw they had a major bug in recient windows versions.

-Sonic

[dawson54]

The one great thing about LR (I'm not a salesman! I think Aperture does this also), is that if I end up shooting a set of photo's that, for example, has an incorrect WB, I can change the whole set in just a few buttons. This could be done with a number of things such as saturation, noise, sharpening etc.

Yes, indeed, Aperture will do this with its "Lift and Stamp" tool.

[gpzt]

I have been using Gimp for more than 5 years now.Its latest version 2.8 has some improvements, compared to 2.6.12, but brings some minor problems which should be solved in a very near future. In theory, Photoshop is probably slightly better for the time being but 16 bits is due to appear in Gimp 3.0. My philosophy is to encourage all forms of open source software, especially when it's free: I just can't afford Photoshop and it's against my ethics to use an illegal copy of Photoshop (although I have had more than one opportunity to do it: there are statistics on the circulation of those "copies"). Faststone picture Viewer for filing my pics. Although I am not an "aficionado" of extreme HDR, I like the challenge of using Luminance (now 2.3), Enfuse,
Picturenaut and Gimp's Picture Blend. Hugin is best, according to me, for pano. My only regret: I tend to spend too much time in front of my PC ans should devote more time to taking pictures of the beautiful landscapes of southern France!

[gpzt]

....And I forgot to mention DPP for RAW !

[Sonic4Spuds]

I have been using Gimp for more than 5 years now.Its latest version 2.8 has some improvements, compared to 2.6.12, but brings some minor problems which should be solved in a very near future. In theory, Photoshop is probably slightly better for the time being but 16 bits is due to appear in Gimp 3.0.
cut...

The next version of GIMP will be 2.10 not 3.0, and I am not aware of any major regressions(not to say there aren't any).

-Sonic