Standard Editing Software

[bender16v]

What software do you use? I have been using Gimp for quite a while for Photoshop contests so when I started photography this summer I just kept using that. I don’t know that it is the best tool out there though and instead of downloading thousands of programs I thought I would see what other people are using. I do have UFRaw as well, but any time it adjusts exposure it really adds a lot of noise so I don’t use it much.

I have stayed away from all Adobe products possible since I feel that their prices are ridiculous for private use. Also are there products that do a better job at different tasks?

I know as a beginning photographer I should really try to learn to get the best possible images directly from my camera, but at the same time I still need to touch things up sometimes. Thanks in advance.

[linguine]

I use gimp and ufraw. I run linux so I don’t have the photoshop/lightroom option. I keep meaning to give bibble labs a try sometime, but I’ve gotten quite good at putting that off.

[CauseISaidSo]

I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional to tweak my RAW images and export to JPG. Sometimes (rarely) the resulting JPG is still too large even at the lowest quality setting and in that case, I export to TIFF and then use Paint.NET to save to JPG.

[ennuipoet]

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 is usually enough for me, though I have a slew of presets that I use. I also have Photoshop CS2 for heavy duty editing, but I rarely use if for Photography. LR is expensive, but worth the money….or, there are ways that one might use LR if they don’t mind some moral ambiguity.

[Kestrana]

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements but I want to upgrade to Lightroom. I have the beta version (which I can make work but it screws up other things on my computer to do so) and it’s awesome. If you know anyone who is a college student, some big campus bookstores carry a discounted version of Adobe Photoshop but you need a student ID to purchase it. David got his copy when he was at Penn State.

For HDR, I use Photomatix.

[Farktographer]

I use the software that came with my Nikon (ViewNX2) for 95% of my stuff. I only really have to dive into photoshop if I have dust spots that need tending.

[Pope_Larry_II]

I use IrfanView for minor colour corrections and cropping. I have GIMP for more heavy duty work, but I rarely use it.

IrfanView is free, so it fits in with my cheapness.

[chupathingie]

Gimp, here. Krita for any high-bit color tweaks, and enfuse for bracketed composition. RAW handling usually is done via command line with ufraw-batch.

I do miss me some Irfanview, however.

Is there anyone on the gimp team I can bribe into getting a release with GEGL fully operational? LOL

[SilverStag]

I pretty much use CS5 for everything. Even brewing my morning coffee.

[Choc-Ful-A]

“What chupathingie said…” I use GIMP for all editing and ufraw from the command line (scripted on Linux) to convert NEF files to PNG before editing them.

Also, I prefer shooting in raw mode doing as little as possible in the camera. I don’t even look at the images, even to delete complete goofs, until I upload them onto the computer.

[Yugoboy]

Mostly CS3, but I’m fully capable of using GIMP if the copyright police catch me.

[ravnostic]

I use the Canon DPP program to start. Occasionally I’ll take it over to Elements if I’m not getting what I want from DPP (I haven’t learned Elements well enough yet, I’ll grant). Backups situationally involve Irfanview (which is great freeware), Serif PHotoplus 9.0 (more or less replaced with Elements), and if I’m not getting the sharpness I want, I’ll throw it through Photozoom Classic, which does a great job at sharpening/noise reduction.

[nobigdeal]

I’ve tried gimp and ufraw and found them woefully inadequate after using CS5 or even Elements for that matter.

[bender16v]

Thanks for all the replies. It sounds like Lightroom/PS might be worth checking out. I just want to make sure that I am not inadvertently handicapping myself by only using Gimp.

[chupathingie]

I’ve used both PS and GIMP, and really the only basic thing lacking in GIMP is high bit-depth color operations. Some of the tools operate differently, and some functions that one can automate in PS must be done manually in gimp. PS is pretty slick, but that pricetag (and especially DRM issues) make it a no-go for me. I have issues with Adobe installing software on my machine designed to snoop at the contents of my drive. Of course, if I felt like dropping some coin on PS, I’d simply never open the box and fileshare me a non-drm’d copy anyway…

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