Help me Get started with Post-processing

[psran]

I started with Photography as a 6 months back and have shot around 14000 pics with my Nikon D5100 & D7000, I feel I have improved my photography skills but am severely lacking in the processing part. I had been using View NX2 which came free with Camera but have been feeling it's very Inadequate beyond some organising stuff Now I am looking for a software which can be used for Processing the Images in more creative & quickly. I mostly shoot RAW and my most common Subject is my family pics both Indoors & outdoors. I am a total noob at this, so please advise me which way to go

P.S- Please keep in mind that I am just a Hobbyist photographer, so budget & time would be a constraint. Also it would be nice if you could give the reason for your recommendation

 

[paigew]

I use lightroom and photoshop. But Lightroom is where I do 95% of my edits.

 

[psran]

I use lightroom and photoshop. But Lightroom is where I do 95% of my edits.

Could you plz elaborate on the Reasons why Lightroom is good

 

[KmH]

From a budget standpoint and getting the biggest bang for your $$, I would recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 as the place to start rather than Lightroom.
Lightroom (LR) is a professional grade Raw image data file converter application intended to be a front and back end supplement to professional grade Adobe Photoshop CC.

The editing module in LR, the Camera Raw in Photoshop Elements and the Camera Raw in Photoshop CC all use the same Raw image data file converter application software - Adobe Camera Raw (ACR).
However Elements is consumer grade software and it's version of ACR lacks some of the advanced features that ACR in LR and CC have.
Elements then has a lot of the same tools, features, functions, and capabilities that Photoshop CC has that you won't get in LR.

The ACR features Elements does have, along with a lot of the same tools, features, functions, and capabilities that Photoshop CC has, should serve you well into the foreseeable future.

$63.43 - Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 [Download]
$107.92 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5

The Photoshop Elements 12 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

 

[AlanKlein]

I started with Photography as a 6 months back and have shot around 14000 pics with my Nikon D5100 & D7000, I feel I have improved my photography skills but am severely lacking in the processing part. I had been using View NX2 which came free with Camera but have been feeling it's very Inadequate beyond some organising stuff Now I am looking for a software which can be used for Processing the Images in more creative & quickly. I mostly shoot RAW and my most common Subject is my family pics both Indoors & outdoors. I am a total noob at this, so please advise me which way to go

P.S- Please keep in mind that I am just a Hobbyist photographer, so budget & time would be a constraint. Also it would be nice if you could give the reason for your recommendation

I haven't shot 14000 pictures in 50 years! As a start, I think you ought to cut down on the pictures you shoot. My guess is 95% of the pictures you took you can throw away. There's got to be huge duplicates and not so great shots. Slow down and compose pictures before you shoot. That will save an awful lot of time that you say you want to budget and you'll wind up with better results.

Next question is what do you want to do with the pictures you keep? You say these are family shots not photos for professional sales? If you're making slide shows, or for HDTV display or iphone display, or small photo prints for an album or frame picture for you dresser, you may find shooting jpegs are sufficient. A little cropping here and that may be all you need. Why do you want to waste time editing RAWs? Maybe an occassional one for a huge blowup (shoot in jpeg + RAW). You may be on the path for creating a monster for yourself. Re-think what you want the pictures for and what's really important. A simple editing program maybe all you need.

 

[KmH]

I haven't shot 14000 pictures in 50 years! As a start, I think you ought to cut down on the pictures you shoot. My guess is 95% of the pictures you took you can throw away. There's got to be huge duplicates and not so great shots. Slow down and compose pictures before you shoot. That will save an awful lot of time that you say you want to budget and you'll wind up with better results.

QFT.

 

[psran]

I haven't shot 14000 pictures in 50 years! As a start, I think you ought to cut down on the pictures you shoot. My guess is 95% of the pictures you took you can throw away. There's got to be huge duplicates and not so great shots. Slow down and compose pictures before you shoot.

That is pretty lame to think that 95% of my shots would be Junk without knowing me or my work, I know of many people who average this for years. Also, I have heard this advice over & over at this forum that best way to improve is practice as much as I can

 

[psran]

From a budget standpoint and getting the biggest bang for your $$, I would recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 as the place to start rather than Lightroom. Lightroom (LR) is a professional grade Raw image data file converter application intended to be a front and back end supplement to professional grade Adobe Photoshop CC. The editing module in LR, the Camera Raw in Photoshop Elements and the Camera Raw in Photoshop CC all use the same Raw image data file converter application software - Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). However Elements is consumer grade software and it's version of ACR lacks some of the advanced features that ACR in LR and CC have. Elements then has a lot of the same tools, features, functions, and capabilities that Photoshop CC has that you won't get in LR. The ACR features Elements does have, along with a lot of the same tools, features, functions, and capabilities that Photoshop CC has, should serve you well into the foreseeable future. $63.43 - Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 [Download] $107.92 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 The Photoshop Elements 12 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter) The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

I tried GIMP , a free software based on someone's recommendation. Downloaded it yesterday and found it pretty good but only sore point is NO RAW processing

Do you think JPEGs can be processed to get a Anything out of them ?

 

[Ysarex]

From a budget standpoint and getting the biggest bang for your $$, I would recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 as the place to start rather than Lightroom. Lightroom (LR) is a professional grade Raw image data file converter application intended to be a front and back end supplement to professional grade Adobe Photoshop CC. The editing module in LR, the Camera Raw in Photoshop Elements and the Camera Raw in Photoshop CC all use the same Raw image data file converter application software - Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). However Elements is consumer grade software and it's version of ACR lacks some of the advanced features that ACR in LR and CC have. Elements then has a lot of the same tools, features, functions, and capabilities that Photoshop CC has that you won't get in LR. The ACR features Elements does have, along with a lot of the same tools, features, functions, and capabilities that Photoshop CC has, should serve you well into the foreseeable future. $63.43 - Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 [Download] $107.92 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 The Photoshop Elements 12 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter) The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

I tried GIMP , a free software based on someone's recommendation. Downloaded it yesterday and found it pretty good but only sore point is NO RAW processing

If you're looking for free software to process raw files then download Raw Therapee and/or LightZone. You may need to convert your NEF files to DNG. Download Adobe's free DNG converter to accomplish that task. If you can afford it, the LightRoom recommendation you've already gotten is your best bet.

Do you think JPEGs can be processed to get a Anything out of them ?

You don't have to use GIMP to process JPEGs. You can output a TIFF file from View NX and GIMP will process that however GIMP is still 8 bit limited. Processing JPEGs is not a good idea.

Joe

 

[a3dtot]

Photoshop is the best for post processing, luckily I didn't have to pay for it my company purchased for me at the office, although it is an older version. I mostly shoot jpeg for family shots and pretty much everything. It took awhile but I get great shots using jpeg only, even though many may disagree that it is possible to do so, if there are some adjustments needed I can do them in Photoshop. I have to admit that I am beginning to use RAW a little more now on the shots that I spend more time on to give me that added control of the image. I have found lightroom to work very well but I am still learning. My advice would be that if you are going to be very serious with your photography then purchase the full Photoshop, it is expensive but it is worth it. Take a course or find tutorials on line to learn to use it, it is a very powerful program. I have been using it for many years and highly recommend it.

 

[psran]

You don't have to use GIMP to process JPEGs. You can output a TIFF file from View NX and GIMP will process that however GIMP is still 8 bit limited. Processing JPEGs is not a good idea. Joe

That seems to be a very Good advice, I will use a TIFF file instead of JPEG from view Nx2, should provide some more room for processing

The Primary reason I am using RAW is for White Balance adjustments and sometimes Exposure Compensation. Can I do these 2 things with TIFF files

Also I am having a older version Photoshop CS2 , is it any good ?

 

[psran]

Photoshop is the best for post processing, luckily I didn't have to pay for it my company purchased for me at the office, although it is an older version. I mostly shoot jpeg for family shots and pretty much everything. It took awhile but I get great shots using jpeg only, even though many may disagree that it is possible to do so, if there are some adjustments needed I can do them in Photoshop. I have to admit that I am beginning to use RAW a little more now on the shots that I spend more time on to give me that added control of the image. I have found lightroom to work very well but I am still learning. My advice would be that if you are going to be very serious with your photography then purchase the full Photoshop, it is expensive but it is worth it. Take a course or find tutorials on line to learn to use it, it is a very powerful program. I have been using it for many years and highly recommend it.

I am thinking of going in for Lightroom but want to be sure if I would spend so much time on PP to justify a paid Software

 

[Ysarex]

You don't have to use GIMP to process JPEGs. You can output a TIFF file from View NX and GIMP will process that however GIMP is still 8 bit limited. Processing JPEGs is not a good idea. Joe

That seems to be a very Good advice, I will use a TIFF file instead of JPEG from view Nx2, should provide some more room for processing

The Primary reason I am using RAW is for White Balance adjustments and sometimes Exposure Compensation. Can I do these 2 things with TIFF files

Also I am having a older version Photoshop CS2 , is it any good ?

The older CS2 version of Photoshop is fine -- better than GIMP since it will handle 16 bit RGB files. The version of ACR with CS2 won't open your NEF files, but again you could convert them to DNG with Adobe DNG converter.

Either way if you output 16 bit TIFF files from View NX or do the NEF to DNG conversion you'll be able to do excellent post processing work in CS2.

Joe

 

[GlennT]

I absolutely love Lightroom. For cataloging and processing mass amounts of photos, it has been very much worth the investment. For post processing, I use Lightroom. I don't go anywhere near Gimp or Photoshop unless I want to get into photo manipulation.

Here's a quick run down of what I do.
- Import: The photos stay where I put them, generally organized by date with a descriptive name. Keyword tag all photos with the year and descriptive subject. I used to try moving them into descriptive folders (e.g. Holidays, Vacations, Automotive, Landscape, etc...) but I eventually learned that is futile. Some span genres and this can be accomplished via keyword tagging.
- 1st Pass: Flag potential keepers with 1 star. This is the fastest pass, done mostly at a glance. i.e. Are they sharp and composition good (or salvageable.)
- 2nd Pass: Filter by one star. Looking more closely, further narrow down keepers and flag them with 2 stars. I start using the comparison tool to chose between similar shots, but might keep 2 out of 5. I will also make minor tweaks and color adjustments, then copy those settings to similar shots.
- 3rd Pass: Usually the final pass. When you learn the keyboard shortcuts, you can breeze through 100 photos in no time. Make final adjustments; if it's a keeper, flag with 3 stars.
- Tagging: I heavily keyword tag. Camping, fishing, hiking, car, train, zoo, lake, lighthouse, etc... whatever. This is extremely powerful for me, since a lot of my shots are snapshots from kids sports, Cub Scouts, etc... I can quickly create a Smart Collection that includes "Cub Scout" and "Joe" and give all Cub Scout shots of Joe to his parents. We needed some camp promo shots for Cub Scouts; no problem.

From there, I might create a collection that filters 3+ stars out for general viewing. I might create collection to export to disk, another for Facebook, another for SmugMug, Flickr, etc... FWIW, I'm more discerning with those photos seen by the general public (perhaps not as much as I should be) and create filters that only include the best and mostly leave out those with friends and family, particularly snapshots.

 

[Braineack]

Could you plz elaborate on the Reasons why Lightroom is good

I would suggest one look at Paige's flickr to find the answer to that question.