Best editing software...easy to use

[Dave Humphries]

@ Dave Humphries: I presume that the images that you have put up are for PS Elements??

Yes, they are Michelle.

I believe you can also get Elements or CS6 on 30 day trial too, or indeed the "pay for" Nikon software (Capture NX2) - in fact I think that was 60 days, when I tried it before I got Elements. I didn't find Capture NX2 intuitive, but those that 'get' it, like it and if you watch videos of it in skilled hands it looks good.

[pthoutex]

I just went through all of my files (Canon 30D and 5DII); typical RAW file sizes are in the order of 8,000 KB and 23,000 KB respectively.

Every last one of the XMP files are either 5 KB or 7 KB (respectively), and some of them contain extensive editing data (Adjustment Brush).

The XMP are very small in comparison to the RAW files, and for practical purposes negligible. A quick bit of math reveals that for the 23,000 odd RAW files I have, the total of the XMP files is about equal to five RAW files from the 5DII.

Lightroom is very efficient in this respect.

Glenn

Can't agree with you more. I agree that hard drive is very inexpensive now, but try processing D800 files and saving each 1 of them as a PSD file - my 43MB file became 165MB, without adding any layers!
I never worried about using up too much space on my hard drive - my D200 files took up about 380GB of space in 5 years of shooting. Then I went on 2 photo shoots last year in October and November, using my D800. Those 2 shoots took up 88GB of space - all just RAW files, without any PSD or TIFF files! I may have to start thinking about getting a 3 or 4TB drives (currently using a 2TB drive)!

[Tringa]

I suggest you Google for ' Free photo editors' before spending any money at all.

The two I use are Photoscape. This does not have many features but I often find it does all I need and is VERY easy to use.

If you want something that does just about everything, try GIMP which, like Photoscape, is also free.

If you not like either of these (or indeed any of the other free ones) then you have lost nothing.

Dave

[escoville]

The easiest freeware to use is PhotoFiltre, and it's pretty comprehensive. Picasa has two useful features: a grid based horizon straightener, and a variable sky darkener. PS Elements which I got free with my Canon scanner I use mainly for its automatic optimization facility (which is the only one in the bunch that's remotely intelligent) and a feature whose name I forget which I use for sweeping up dust on scanned-in old slides. For new photos, PhotoFiltre is mostly enough.

[Glenn NK]

Can't agree with you more. I agree that hard drive is very inexpensive now, but try processing D800 files and saving each 1 of them as a PSD file - my 43MB file became 165MB, without adding any layers!
I never worried about using up too much space on my hard drive - my D200 files took up about 380GB of space in 5 years of shooting. Then I went on 2 photo shoots last year in October and November, using my D800. Those 2 shoots took up 88GB of space - all just RAW files, without any PSD or TIFF files! I may have to start thinking about getting a 3 or 4TB drives (currently using a 2TB drive)!

43 MB RAW files become 165 MB PSFs? That's brutal - I'm upset when 25MB RAWs are converted to 16 bit TIFFS for stacking.

Although HDD are cheaper than they were (and prices will come down more as the SS drives gain traction), there is also the consideration of backups - which essentially doubles the requirements for disk space.

I've resorted to a new 2 TB drive, but it's more than half full; and lately I've been mercilessly culling images taken the past five years that don't "cut it". I have saved very few non-RAW images (favourites that may be printed are saved as high-res JPEGS and some old PSD and DNG file from when I used PSE).

And I just discovered another (unrelated) thing; DNG and PSD files cannot be previewed/displayed by Windows 7 - must double click on them and they come up in PSE (which haven't used for well over a year). With a list of TIFF or JPEG files, I can easily view a folder full of images by scrolling down the list - with PSD or DNG I can't - seems as though one must have either CS or PSE to view these files, but I could be wrong.

Glenn

[MrB]

The Adobe DNG Codec (free download) enables thumbnails of dng files to be viewed in Windows Explorer:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...95&fileID=5491

Philip

[Colin Southern]

Well that is only because all of your edit information is stored in the Lightroom database

And I might add that if that database ever gets lost/damaged due to disk failure / memory corruption / any-one-of-a-number-of-reasons and it's not backed up (and very few people back up properly in my opinion) then you've just lost every edit for every photo that you've ever done

[pthoutex]

I backup the simple way - I clone my hard drive every few days using Casper 7.0. And, in case something happened to my main HDD, I just unplug the SATA cable from that drive, and it will boot up from my cloned drive. So far, knock on wood, I have never lost any data.

[pthoutex]

And I just discovered another (unrelated) thing; DNG and PSD files cannot be previewed/displayed by Windows 7 - must double click on them and they come up in PSE (which haven't used for well over a year). With a list of TIFF or JPEG files, I can easily view a folder full of images by scrolling down the list - with PSD or DNG I can't - seems as though one must have either CS or PSE to view these files, but I could be wrong.

Glenn:
Download Faststone, a free image viewer, I just verified that it even reads PSD files. I was using it to view my NEF files on my 10" netbook that I carry on my photo trips as my back up drive. I am not sure about DNG, because I don't use the file format, so I don't have anything to test it on.

Glenn[/QUOTE]

[nimitzbenedicto]

Perhaps you can test Helicon Filter 5. It's easy to use and can open any raw format. Its like LR.

check this link:
http://www.heliconsoft.com/helicon_filter.html

http://download.cnet.com/Helicon-Fil...-10421298.html

[Didace]

And I just discovered another (unrelated) thing; DNG and PSD files cannot be previewed/displayed by Windows 7 - must double click on them and they come up in PSE (which haven't used for well over a year).

I don't believe this is true because of

The Adobe DNG Codec (free download) enables thumbnails of dng files to be viewed in Windows Explorer:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...95&fileID=5491

Philip

It's almost no work at all and well worth it to install.

[Glenn NK]

1) If one loses the data base in LR, the original RAW files are still intact. It's really no chore to redo the edits in LR (I'm presently going over all my images from the past six years, and redoing the editing because the latest version of LR gets so much more out of them than previous editions). The most complex editing utilizes the Adjustment Brush - an image typically takes about ten minutes, and very few of them get this treatment. Losing the data base is simply not an issue.

2) I haven't the need for the Adobe DNG Codec - for the most part my files are RAW, and the few others are TIFF or JPEG converted for printing or web viewing. I don't save the ones used for printing as it's so easy to redo them (noted above). Today I deleted a folder containing the only PSD and DNG files I had (because they were edited in an old version of PSE and have been redone in LR4.3).

3) And if (heaven forbid) Canon came up with a useful and user friendly DPP, a DNG file wouldn't be the best place to start editing - the Canon RAW file would.

G

[revi]

1) If one loses the data base in LR, the original RAW files are still intact. It's really no chore to redo the edits in LR (I'm presently going over all my images from the past six years, and redoing the editing because the latest version of LR gets so much more out of them than previous editions). The most complex editing utilizes the Adjustment Brush - an image typically takes about ten minutes, and very few of them get this treatment. Losing the data base is simply not an issue.

Doesn't Lightroom also function as a image manager, where you add tags, comments and such, which are not written to the RAW files? That can be information that's a lot harder (or impossible) to recover if ever the database disappears.
Also, you are redoing the edits by choice. Being forced to do that is another matter.

2) I haven't the need for the Adobe DNG Codec - for the most part my files are RAW, and the few others are TIFF or JPEG converted for printing or web viewing. I don't save the ones used for printing as it's so easy to redo them (noted above). Today I deleted a folder containing the only PSD and DNG files I had (because they were edited in an old version of PSE and have been redone in LR4.3).

You perhaps not, the mention of the DNG codec was in response to another remark made...

3) And if (heaven forbid) Canon came up with a useful and user friendly DPP, a DNG file wouldn't be the best place to start editing - the Canon RAW file would.

Only if you are a Canon user. A lot of us aren't.

[MrB]

I haven't the need for the Adobe DNG Codec - for the most part my files are RAW

Just to clarify, particularly for non-Canon users, DNG files are Raw files. DNG is the open Raw format, i.e. a standard image data file format, developed by Adobe but open to free use by any manufacture and any software developer. CR2 is Canon's proprietary Raw file format, i.e. used only by Canon cameras. Presumably Glenn's image data files are CR2 Raw files.

Philip

[Colin Southern]

I backup the simple way - I clone my hard drive every few days using Casper 7.0. And, in case something happened to my main HDD, I just unplug the SATA cable from that drive, and it will boot up from my cloned drive. So far, knock on wood, I have never lost any data.

Soooooo ... lets suppose that your LR catalog gets corrupted and results in loss of edits for all images shot between 3 years ago and 1 year ago. Because you're busy with current stuff, a few months (or longer) go by before by chance you try to look at some work you did 18 months ago -- and find that "it doesn't look right". And by that stage you've diligently done many backups that have over-written ALL you backup sets with the corrupt database.

Bzzzzzzt. Game over. You lose.

[Colin Southern]

Losing the data base is simply not an issue.

Glenn,

Surely you jest with us. For many users the edits contained in the database would represent hundreds or even thousands of hours of work.

[Glenn NK]

Glenn,

Surely you jest with us. For many users the edits contained in the database would represent hundreds or even thousands of hours of work.

Read my post again - I'm currently (almost finished) redoing all my images from six years of digital.

If was taking hundreds or thousands of hours, I'd be questioning my own sanity.

In many workplaces, a full year is considered to be 1,950 hours. Would it really take a few years?

Have a nice day or so.

[jcuknz]

Sorry to disagree with the Lightroom mob (well maybe not very sorry) but as much as I like and use Lightroom I think anyone seriously taking up digital photography needs to go through the pain of learning about layers, layer masks and adjustment layers. There are plenty of instructional resources available on the internet but do not get so bogged down that you have insufficient time to use your camera and learn as much as you can about actually taking photographs. There are many times when I have gone back to an old photograph and re-edited it with new skills or software but at least I had found the time to take it in the first place

Most of the programmes that people seem to use these days I simply do n ot classify as editors and to another poster I would say that going to a class will have the unfortunate result in being indocrinated in the Adobe Photoshop/Elements way when there are at least two other very competant and complete programmes ... one costs a little bit Paint Shop Pro and the other is freeware and I always forget its name, SORRY To further save money for somebody starting it is not really needed to buy the latest version, going back one or two versions gives you equally useful for starters. Amazon can be a good place to look, more so in the States than the UK version.

[jcuknz]

One photographer I frequently read wrote that he never saved his edits on the basis that in the future he would know more and be better practiced so prefered to work again from the camera originals. Storage was more expensive in those days of course though he apparently had three computers in tandem to ensure he had back-ups of those camera originals.

[ Note for english [ its it's] experts ... can you have three in tandem or is tandem just two ]

[pnodrog]

Two free editors that handle layers are Pixbuilder Studio and Photo Pos Pro. I have briefly tried both and they seem to meet all the basic requirements.