Digital Photography Software

[DCBluesman]

With so much interest on taking and displaying the best pictures of our creations, I'd like to know what software you use for your digital photographs and/or scans. Pros and cons are welcome in the thread, but please no flaming people or products.

 

[pen-turners]

I would seriously recommend to ANYONE to get Ulead Photoimpact XL. I have used Adobe products for over 12 years and recently switched. It is far easier to use and produces (I feel) alot better results and is not such a memory hog on your computer system.

Chris

 

[Darley]

Well this is a good topic has I got a lot of trouble with this, I'm probably dump with photo softwares when I resized the hpoto I shrink the photo to, so it will be good to see result of this topic

Thank you all

Serge

 

[jrc]

I use what came with my Dell, It's very easy to use.

 

[bud duffy]

I have Photoshop 7 my neice gave it to me for christmas a year agao but i still havnt mastered it yet. What i have been using is a program called Picture It Express (FREE) that came with a CD i had done at Wal Mart when i had some photos done and put on CD , it is real easy to use or at least it seems to be for me anyway. As far as the simpleest program to use for resizing is a program i got that was recomended on the SMC forum a year or so ago called Pixresizer as i recall, i lost it with the hard drive crash this past fall and havnt went back to SMC to research it again yet, cause the one in picture it express is pretty easy to use. Thats my story and i am sticking to it so there! Bud

 

[KKingery]

I use something called Arcsoft Photo Impression - I believe it came on this pc. I personally would not recommend it.

 

[C_Ludwigsen]

I've also used The GIMP. My head doesn't hold enough power to fully comprehend that application.

 

[dougle40]

While I checked off Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9 , I actually have #8 . There's so much on it ,I'm still finding things that I didn't even know existed there .

 

[DCBluesman]

No problem, Doug. I'm just hoping to find out the good, the bad and the ugly. Different versions still count!

 

[wpenm]

I use Adobe Photoshop 7 and find something new every time I use it. Bud, if you would like to more about this program go to HP Learning Center. They have free classes on the Adobe Photoshop 7. Both begining and advanced.

 

[dougle40]

Looking back over the choises , I've always thought that Adobe Elements was just an addition for Adobe Photoshop ?????
Is this true or ARE they totally different ????

 

[DCBluesman]

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a light version of Adobe Photoshop. It's also $100 instead of $649 (list prices--discounts are available).

 

[Gary]

I used to use Paint Shop Pro, but have recently been trying out Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.

 

[PenWorks]

MIcrosoft Photo Draw V2, Good program easy to use, no longer made.

 

[esheffield]

I've started using The GIMP. Very powerful, but a bit odd to get around in I think. I believe it can use many photoshop plugins as well. Another free option is from Serif Software. You can download older versions of their software and use, but you do have to call and register it (for free) beyond 30 days. http://www.serif.com You may have to dig around a bit, they'd rather you buy their current versions.

 

[cigarman]

I use Photosuite4. I can resize my pictures real easy but I have trouble making the pictures look as good as I see on this site. Probly part camera and part software and a big part me[:I]

 

[opfoto]

Lately I've been using picassa 2, free and easy, my 2 favorite words !!!

 

[leehljp]

Photoshop 7 for me. Been using it since it version 2 - well over 10 years ago. Had a great helper with it too - my youngest daughter [] !

 

[Rifleman1776]

I voted for Adobe PS3 but I really still use version 2. I used to review software and write a computer column. I have tried many programs and always keep coming back to Adobe. Not because I think it is really good, it is the least undesirable, in my opinion. And a number of other companies have gone out of business and/or merged making tech support problematic in many cases. I once spent hundreds of dollars on the full version of PhotoSuite by MGI, within months they had sold out to a Canadian company leaving no product support. Bummer.

 

[jdavis]

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. Only because that is what I ues to teach digital photo in computer applications class. There are many out there alot easier to use. Matter of preference. Good luck.

 

[wicook]

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, ACDSee 6, Picassa 2 (a freebie from Google), MS Digital Image Pro 7.0, and the HP software that came with my computer and Scanjet 4070 scanner. I find that each of them have their strengths and weaknesses...but each of them works somewhat differently...keeps my brain busy trying to remember which one does what best! []

 

[btboone]

Photoshop for me. The more I work with it, the more I learn how powerful it is.

 

[WoodChucker]

I have PhotoShop 6,7 & 8, but I still keep going back to PhotoImpact which I first started using when I got into computers years ago. It's much easier to learn then PS. I'm no pro, but so far I've not found anything in PS that PhotoImpact can't do and its much much cheaper. I keep up-grading both thinking someday I'll like PS better, because most of the pro's swear by it, but so far I don't see it. And I hate how long it takes PS to load. If your a pro or plan on being one, then I'd say PS is the way to go because most of the pro's use it. But for someone like me that just uses it for web page photos,family photos and the like, then I'd go for PhotoImpact or one of the many free photo softwares.

 

[Daniel]

This was a tough one to vote, I have used Microsoft Picture it publishing 2001, Microsoft Digital image pro 9, and now have Jasc paint shop Pro 9.1
there are a few more I have doodled with but these three are the ones I have stuck with. MS 2001 is real limited but will save files. MS 9 is easy to cut things from say the pen from the background etc but mine will not Save As anything so I can only save the original file. real pain. I edit a picture in 9. save it, open it in 2001 save it as anouther file. then undo everything in 9 and save it again to restore my original.
I have only had PS 9 for a week or so. the menues and function are real different. color matching is easy once you have it figured out. and I can fill paint backgrounds to match my web pages etc rather than cut them out. that is if the background is a nice even color. but tracing around an image is nearly impossible as far as i can figure it out. the other extras such as effects are unbeatable. I have spent the last two weeks making photos with things like 4 background colors and such real and actually the MS programs do a better job of retaining the quality of the original pen photo. JASC will destroy the detail in a hurry.

 

[esheffield]

Originally posted by Daniel
(snip)
<br />JASC will destroy the detail in a hurry.

Seems I remember with Paintshop 5 (most recent one I have) it would default to a pretty high compression for JPG images, so after a few saves it would really degrade from recompressing every time. Usually it's best to save your images in some lossless format (like TIFF, GIF, or most apps native formats - PSP in Paintshop) until you're done editing and only then save a copy as JPG. I normally save the original JPGs that come from a camera, and before doing anything else to it load it into the editing app and save it in a lossless format and edit that.

 

[timdaleiden]

Originally posted by esheffield
<br />

Originally posted by Daniel
(snip)
<br />JASC will destroy the detail in a hurry.

Seems I remember with Paintshop 5 (most recent one I have) it would default to a pretty high compression for JPG images, so after a few saves it would really degrade from recompressing every time.

By default, PSP will try to save images in a loss-less PSP format, which can't be read by other programs. It can also save in numerous other loss-less formats. JPG's are compressed, and quality is lost with each additional save to JPG.