What's your favorite digital photo editing software?

NSX_Dreamer

NSX_Dreamer

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I haven't played with many digital photo editing software, and wanted to get your feedback on what's good and what's junk (excluding high end software like Adobe Photoshop and the like).

How do you rank the software that came with your digital camera? I was also looking at the free software that comes with the HP printers at Target like ArcSoft Panorama Maker and ArcSoft Photo Impression - are those software junk?

Appreciate your feedback.
 
Sorry, I can't help you there. I use Photoshop, but I don't pay for it. That's cuz it's provided by work. :D

My digital camera (a Sony) didn't come with any software.

-Randy
 
I have the ArcSoft Photo Impression 4 software that came with my canon s30 (I've had it about a year). I use it for very minimal things (removing red eye, cleaning up spots on a photograph, etc.). I certainly do not use it for the kind of things I've seen done on this board (changing colors, adding people to existing photographs, etc.). With the caveats I've mentioned, I've been very happy with it. Its always been able to do the things I've wanted so I haven't purchased a higher end package. If you have specific questions about the software let me know and I'll try to answer.
 
There are only serious two applications:

<LI> Adobe <A HREF="http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html">Photoshop 7</A> : the Daddy of Image Editing.
<LI> Jasc <A HREF="http://www.jasc.com/">Paint Shop Pro</A> : Considerably cheaper, has some better filters/effects than Photoshop, great for web graphics.


Also being an IT consultant in schools, i've seen a lot of the cheaper competing products like ACDSee, PhotoShow Deluxe, and products by uLead ... all okay, but users aren't happy unless they have PShop or PSP.
 
If you're looking for software just for lining up photos, printing or the like then arc soft is fine. HP photo impression came with my cheapie HP dig camera and works fine for viewing/printing.

When you have to go in and touch up photos etc, adobe photoshop is hard to beat.
 
Adobe Photoshop 7 is the god, however with that being said I use Macromedia Fireworks most of the time. It really can't be considered an "editing" program, it is really used for web graphic munipulation. Since that is mostly what I do I have become really good with that application. For true "photo editing" you really can't beat PS7.
 
There are photo-editing software apps other than Photoshop? I did not know that! :D
 
Actually, Adobe has released Photoshop CS (which is really v8.0).

The most visible new feature is the new "ABOUT" screen when it's loading. Wow... :D I'll save the $$$ and stick with v7.
 
Corel Photopaint is one of the easiest and most powerful out there. But much like Ferrari is considered the "best", there are a lot of NSX like programs compared to the Ferrari Photoshop.
 
<B>ncdogdoc</B> : What are you saying? that Photopaint is the 'NSX of imaging'? :D Maybe...it's as big as photoshop, and as rare an NSX. ;)

Photopaint has one VERY useful feature that photoshop doesn't have -- you can open a .AVI file and edit each frame. Great for touchups.
 
Actually, I use Corel Painter (formerly Metacreations Painter and Fractal Design Painter before that) for a lot of things...but I only manipulate photos within Photoshop.

I haven't yet, but there are big reasons I'd upgrade tor Photoshop CS: digital camera RAW support, expanded support for working within 16bit per channel colorspace, match colors between shots, shadow/highlight correction....
 
Bringing back a dead thread...

I have JASC Paint Shop Photo Album... anyone know anything about it? It seems I can alter photos a bit but can't do graphics. (ie thread: can you photochop my silver wheels gold?) No, I can't do that. Do I need to get another program? I just bought this one because I thought it was all I need. Curse Dell and their "29.99 offer"

If I need another program, anyone willing to mail me their disks for install and I'll mail them back :) :) :) (no, really) :)
 
Yes Paint Shop Pro is my favourite. Very easy to use.
NeoNSX said:
There are only serious two applications:

<LI> Adobe <A HREF="http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html">Photoshop 7</A> : the Daddy of Image Editing.
<LI> Jasc <A HREF="http://www.jasc.com/">Paint Shop Pro</A> : Considerably cheaper, has some better filters/effects than Photoshop, great for web graphics.


Also being an IT consultant in schools, i've seen a lot of the cheaper competing products like ACDSee, PhotoShow Deluxe, and products by uLead ... all okay, but users aren't happy unless they have PShop or PSP.
Click to expand...
 
Personally, I'm a photoshop fan (which is now up to CS2). Mac users may also want to consider the new high end photo editing app from Apple -- Aperture. We have it at work but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet. Requires minimum 1 GB RAM.
 
You could also try the 'Elements' version of PhotoShop. It is considerable cheaper(less than $100) and has most of the functionality that an average user needs.
 
I toss all the software that came with the camera and use Photoshop 7. I have not used of the other versions, but might look at elements depending on what you want to do with it.

GIMP is also supposed to be good (and free), but it only runs on Linux.
 
There's also a modified GIMP version with Photoshop-like menu, called GimpShop. Looks promising .. and free ... also has a windows version. This page has some screenshots of GimpShop and Photoshop menu comparison.

P.S. Gimp does not run on Linux only, there is a Gimp port on windows as well.
 
Wow...somebody resurrected an old thread.

I guess I should mention that I did upgrade to Photoshop CS to gain RAW support...and going RAW completely changed the way I process digital photos.
 
What are the major differences between an OLD copy of photoshop that I have from ~7-9 years ago, versus say.... CS3? I can get CS3 at the student discount but I'm trying to hold back.

Are the tools basically the same? I'd just install and compare but I'm not too sure where it even is anymore or if I even have it still.
 
It really depends what your trying to do. If you are only working on a handfull of pictures or are you working with an entire photo shoot with hundreds of pictures. Are you looking to do basic edits or very advance work.

Photoshop Lightroom or Apple Aperature for speeding up your workflow and basic photo editing.

These software will let you do almost 90% of the things you need to do for photography work and makes your workflow much faster.

For more advance work, move up to Photoshop.
 
Unless you plan on doing a lot of work volume-wise, I would highly recommend getting Adobe PhotoShop Elements. It does 90-95% of CS versions, skipping stuff that most people would not use anyway, but is more user-friendly and costs less than $100. It also includes an organizer section that can keep all your photos sorted by age, location, etc. It features a very good help section for those not used to the tools or nomenclature.

PhotoShop Elements might be the best (new) software deal out there. The current version is 7. Office Depot, Staples, Wal-Mart all carry it for $80-$100, depending on if there's a rebate involved.

Bryan
 

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