Photo Editing Software

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BigShed

BigShed

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Feb 14, 2008
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Adelaide, SA, Australia.
Having bought a DSLR recently I find myself using photo editing software to a greater extent.

When using my "happy snapper" I was satisfied with using AcDSee, a basic photo editing program that also allowed quick and easy change of image size for uploading to the forum.

It does not however handle RAW (later versions might). I have played with Adobe Photoshop Elements (6) but my computer slows down to a crawl (512Mb RAM). Am in the process of ordering more RAM, but in the meantime I have played with Picasa 3, which does a good job, particularly with organising pictures. When downsizing photos in Picasa 3 to 800x600, it finishes up with image around the 200Kb mark, from the original 4.5Mb.

I have read good things about the open source (free) GIMPShop program.

Does anyone here use this, and how do you find it compared to the Photoshop type programs, either the full blown version or Elements?
 
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gketell

gketell

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gimp is more capable than elements and slightly less capable than full photoshop. certainly capable enough for any pen editing. but it too likes lots of memory so will be slow until your upgrade arrives. i hope you got at least 2GB, 4 would be better.

using my mac going to 800x600 with "medium" quality (level 8) jpg compression my photos come out at less than 100kb most of the time.

gk
 
MesquiteMan

MesquiteMan

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San Marcos, TX, USA.
You might look into Fotosizer. It is a free program that only does photo re-sizing. You can batch re-size a number of files at a time and it is very easy to use. I actually use it to re-size some of the photos that get put in the classifieds that are too big.
 
gerryr

gerryr

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Billings, MT, USA.
I had a "happy snapper" once for quite a long time. Best mower I ever had, but it really sucked at taking photos.:wink:
 
YORKGUM

YORKGUM

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Lakewood, WA
Not sure of your finances but you might consider upgrading to a newer computer so you can use the Adobe software or the myriads of other new software that takes up lots of resources. I use Photoshop CS4 and it's awesome although the learning curve is fairly high.:redface:
 
ldb2000

ldb2000

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Laurence Harbor, NJ, USA.
Fred , take a look at this program http://www.irfanview.net/ . It handles almost every file type known to man including RAW . It is almost as powerful as Photoshop CS , and is much easier to use . Best of all it's small (uses very little resources) and it's FREE . I have been using it for years now and have never had a complaint .
 
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BigShed

BigShed

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Feb 14, 2008
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Location
Adelaide, SA, Australia.
YORKGUM said:
Not sure of your finances but you might consider upgrading to a newer computer so you can use the Adobe software or the myriads of other new software that takes up lots of resources. I use Photoshop CS4 and it's awesome although the learning curve is fairly high.:redface:
Click to expand...

To be brutally frank neither am I (too sure of my finances):rolleyes:.

I am sure however that after buying a new computer AND CS4, they would be absolutely RS:eek:

Not only that, but I might find myself single again after 40 odd (stress the odd) years of wedded bliss!

All jokes aside, not all things in life are solved by throwing buckets of money at them, although it would do wonders for the economic stimulus.

Might I also say that if CS4 is as "intuitive" as Elements 6 (there are good reasons that whole forests have been denuded of trees to try and teach people Adobe Photoshop programs, there must be thousands!!!) then I would rather take my chances with a free program like GIMPShop.

The money I save I can spend on things like more memory for my (existing) computer, maybe even a nice fixed focal length macro lens.
 
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marcruby

marcruby

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Feb 22, 2008
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Warren, Michigan, USA.
I've been using one version of photshop or anoter for millenia. I currently use CS3 since I suspect CS$ would be too much for my old macbook pro. I have a copy of the latest photoshop elements and frankly, I don't like it. I do like CS3 though it has a very natural workflow from plugging in the camera to starting work on the image. And I'm used to how photoshop works on images. It also deals very well with RAW images. Since upgrading to new versions of photoshop only cost me $200 instead of the 400+ that new users pay, it makes good financial sense for me to continue using it.

I get a little leery of recommendations which go 'It's almost as good as photoshop.' It really depends on what you want to be doing. If you just use the software for corrective actions and resizing CS3 is massive overkill. On the other hand, if you see CS3 as an important part of your creative arsenal there's nothing that comes close. That being said, most penmakers are only incidentally creative photographers, so the natural decision would be something less expensive.

One thing. Make sure that whatever you get will work with RAW images from your camera. The advantage to starting with the RAW image is that changes made from RAW don't result in the image degradation if you were to perform the same operations on the JPEG. Unfortunately, every camera's RAW images seem to be different so you generally need a specific plug in for the camera.

Marc
 
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