good editing programs

[AlishaMichelle1990]

I know that a lot of photographers edit their photos and they turn out to be amazing. What are some good photo editing programs that are either cheap or free? Please and thank you.

 

[ac12]

I use an old version of Picasa.
Good enough for quick edits like leveling the image, cropping and limited exposure adjustments.
Anything more requires going to Adobe Elements.

 

[chuasam]

Adobe Photoshop.
only $10/month
might as well learn on the right program and you can take classes on Photoshop too

 

[john.margetts]

$10 per month for life is neither cheap nor free.

Free: Gimp is excellent but no Raw converter. RawTherapee is also free, excellent and has a Raw converter.

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[weepete]

$10 per month for life is neither cheap nor free.

Depends on your perspective. It's pretty cheap in my book: I'd rather pay it that way than $1100 every 3 or 4 years.

Lightroom and Photoshop are pretty much industry standardard though there is a cost accociated with them. I used Faststone Image Viewer for a while it's free and ok to use but other good suggestions are above.

 

[john.margetts]

$10 per month for life is neither cheap nor free.

Depends on your perspective. It's pretty cheap in my book: I'd rather pay it that way than $1100 every 3 or 4 years.
.

I was looking the perspective of someone who had specified cheap or free. That suggests that a lot of money is not available. Having procured the software it is not essential to upgrade every time an upgrade is produced. My total spend on photographic software over the 14 years I have had a digital camera is about £200.



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[BananaRepublic]

Affinity is 50 Euros whatever that is in Trump dollars i dont know.

Affinity photo: A photoshop clone with modern take although there is no library capability

 

[john.margetts]

Affinity Photo is excellent. I use it for the editing that Lightroom won't do. For an amateur after cheap editing, I wouldn't think the lack of database facilities will matter at all.

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[smoke665]

Most camera manufactures have a simple editing software that either comes with the camera or is available as a download for free. Gimp was mentioned above, but I have no knowledge of how it works

I'm always slightly amused on the pay side they're always referred to as Adobe or Photoshop "clones". Sometimes you get what you pay for. Adobe subscription plan @ $10/month is affordable for most people and does all. Lightroom is available as a purchase for just over $100, Adobe elements is around $70, and Affinity and Corell Paintshop are about $50. No experience with Affinity but I've used Paintshop, and there are a lot of similarities to Photoshop. I might have kept using it if they'd fixed the bug that kept causing it to crash.

 

[KmH]

Note that Adobe's photography subscription includes 2 professional grade applications - Lightroom (Classic and mobile versions) & Photoshop CC 2018.
With Ps CC 2018 you can also edit video.
Lr and Ps are industry standards.

 

[BananaRepublic]

Most camera manufactures have a simple editing software that either comes with the camera or is available as a download for free. Gimp was mentioned above, but I have no knowledge of how it works

I'm always slightly amused on the pay side they're always referred to as Adobe or Photoshop "clones". Sometimes you get what you pay for. Adobe subscription plan @ $10/month is affordable for most people and does all. Lightroom is available as a purchase for just over $100, Adobe elements is around $70, and Affinity and Corell Paintshop are about $50. No experience with Affinity but I've used Paintshop, and there are a lot of similarities to Photoshop. I might have kept using it if they'd fixed the bug that kept causing it to crash.

If want to pay $10 every month for the rest of you're life for an ancient application which every now a then is coated with a can of cynical paint and lathered with absolutely awful customer service then go with adobe.

 

[smoke665]

If want to pay $10 every month for the rest of you're life for an ancient application which every now a then is coated with a can of cynical paint and lathered with absolutely awful customer service then go with adobe.

It's more of a choice for me, as I know that over the course of several years, I will pay one way or the other. In business and personal I've spent well over $200k on software during my lifetime. I can't tell you how many times I've paid for software, only to find it didn't work right, plus I got tired of the constant need to update every time something new came out, either software or operating systems. I've had no problems with Adobe that weren't resolved quickly, professionally and successfully.

As to the "ancient application" then a question? Why do others keep aspiring to be a "clone" of Adobe products. Even you in a previous comment referred to Affinity as a "Photoshop clone". If it's so antiquated then why so many imitations?

Now that I'm retired it's not that much of an expense for me on the monthly plan, I even switched my MS Office over to the subscription. It is the way of the future as more and more switch to the subscription model. Going through it now on our personal accounting software. They just announced that effective January 2019 it will be a subscription only service.

Paying monthly for software, is the same to me as paying monthly for my alarm service, or my garbage pickup, or phone bill, it's just another monthly service expense. May not be for all, but for me it works.

 

[john.margetts]

As to the "ancient application" then a question? Why do others keep aspiring to be a "clone" of Adobe products. Even you in a previous comment referred to Affinity as a "Photoshop clone". If it's so antiquated then why so many imitations?

So many imitations (or claimed imitations) of Photoshop because forums such as this continually promote Photoshop as the sine qua non of photographic editing. Photoshop is certainly the market leader but that does not mean it is the best and most certainly does not mean it is the most appropriate software, particularly for amateurs with limited needs for editing.

 

[smoke665]

that does not mean it is the best and most certainly does not mean it is the most appropriate software, particularly for amateurs with limited needs for editing

Never claimed it to be, I said it was the best option for me. Frankly others may be able to get by on the free software that comes with the camera. As to better or not opinions are like noses, but I will say that one of the other issues I had with Correl was the lack of educational videos by users. If you search the internet there are literally thousands of videos on Lightroom & Photoshop.

 

[Breezy85]

I started with Photoshop and progressed to Lightroom. Unfortunately not cheap or free, but with a monthly Adobe subscription I can download any program.

For just starting out, I don't have any other recommendations since I started in Photoshop because I was already familiar with it.