Looking for good photo management / editing software

[britonk1]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help.

I am after a new piece of software to manage and edit my photos. I currently use ACDSee 14, I love the interface on ACDSee and how it manages my files but I don't think it's the best image editing software in the world in terms of post processing.

I've downloaded the trial of Adobe Lightroom 5 which has great editing features but what I don't like is how you have to import your files into a library and how the changes you make are saved within the database rather than a new copy of the file being made (as ACDSee does).

Can anyone recommend a good peice of software that is the best of both worlds? Ideally I am after ACDSee but with advanced editing features like presets and being able to add gradients etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[sonicbuffalo]

I use Photoshop Elements and am happy for what it does. Lots of people like Lightroom. I say try out both and see what you want. Unless you're a professional, I would stay away from the all too pricey Photoshop. Elements is just a shortened version of the big deal. For a lot less money.

 

[Light Guru]

I use Photoshop Elements and am happy for what it does.

Photoshop elements is NOT a photo management software, it is photo editing only.

I've downloaded the trial of Adobe Lightroom 5 which has great editing features but what I don't like is how you have to import your files into a library and how the changes you make are saved within the database rather than a new copy of the file being made (as ACDSee does).

If your on windows the only really good option is Lightroom, if you are a mac user your options are going to be Aperture and Lightroom.

Having things kept within in a library is really the best part of a photo management software it prevents your photos from being lost and saved in unknown locations.

If you are shooting and editing raw there is no need to save as a separate file. When editing raw your adjustments are basically saved as a list of changes and you can revert to the original at any time. If for some odd reason you absolutely need a different file you can easily duplicate the file and then edit the duplicate.

 

[brian_f2.8]

I completely agree with the previous post about using Aperture. You still have to import the files into the software, however its by far the best editing and mgt program out there. Im not familiar with your current software.

The best mgt program not editing out there is photomechanic, its very simple to hit a short cut to send the file to photoshop and do a quick edit and then save the file.

 

[jamesparker1250]

I'm just a noob but I like Corel PaintShop Pro X6 its work pretty good for me.

 

[britonk1]

Thanks for the replies. I am on PC so Aperture isn't an option. Elements or Paintshop might be an option if I continued to use ACDSee for management. Is elements easy to use?

The main thing that puts me off about how Lightroom works is what if you stop being able to use it, lets say a newer operating system doesn't support it? You have to buy a new version or loose all the changes to your photos. Not fun. Things like ACDSee keep everything at a filesystem level so you never need the original software to recover things.

 

[sonicbuffalo]

Thanks for the replies. I am on PC so Aperture isn't an option. Elements or Paintshop might be an option if I continued to use ACDSee for management. Is elements easy to use?

The main thing that puts me off about how Lightroom works is what if you stop being able to use it, lets say a newer operating system doesn't support it? You have to buy a new version or loose all the changes to your photos. Not fun. Things like ACDSee keep everything at a filesystem level so you never need the original software to recover things.

Elements is easy to use. It IS a management program also if you know how to use it. I wouldn't take his word for that one. I like Elements and haven't upgraded to the newest version because I didn't think it was necessary to spend another $80 for the latest when the version I'm using is fine. Photoshop Elements opens into one window for organizing files, and one for editing. nuff said. I am using version 11....and 12 just came out.

 

[britonk1]

Think I will see if Adobe will give me a trial of that. Thanks folks.

 

[Nevermore1]

The main thing that puts me off about how Lightroom works is what if you stop being able to use it, lets say a newer operating system doesn't support it? You have to buy a new version or loose all the changes to your photos. Not fun. Things like ACDSee keep everything at a filesystem level so you never need the original software to recover things.

No matter what SW you use you run into the chance of this problem. You usually won't run into this issue unless you are using a program that is about 4 years old or older. I still have PSE8 running on one of my "newer" systems. I also have LR4 and recently signed up for the Adobe CC subscription that includes LR5, PS and Bridge and any future updates for a set price each each month. I haven't had a lot of time to mess with it yet but I believe Bridge is Adobes file management SW, someone please correct me if I am wrong. I am able to use Bridge to open files into PS for editing. If you aren't doing a ton of editing then LR should be good for you though I believe there are some things you can't do in it which are useful such as layers, if you can do layers I have yet to figure out how.

 

[The_Traveler]

Thanks for the replies. I am on PC so Aperture isn't an option. Elements or Paintshop might be an option if I continued to use ACDSee for management. Is elements easy to use?

The main thing that puts me off about how Lightroom works is what if you stop being able to use it, lets say a newer operating system doesn't support it? You have to buy a new version or loose all the changes to your photos. Not fun. Things like ACDSee keep everything at a filesystem level so you never need the original software to recover things.

No, you are fairly wrong about the way LR works

You do NOT have to change the location of your files at all.
They are NOT imported into a database, they can be left in place with pointers to them.
All the changes made in Lightroom are saved on a sidecar file that is read by any software that can open NEF files.
All the tags and keywords can be written to the files so any sorting and keywording files you do is saved.

 

[Trblmkr]

All the changes made in Lightroom are saved on a sidecar file that is read by any software that can open NEF files.
All the tags and keywords can be written to the files so any sorting and keywording files you do is saved.

Actually you can convert your .NEF files (RAW) and the .XMP (Sidecar) into a DNG so you not only save space, but you have all of the adjustments within the picture itself and not a sidecar. And the good thing about DNG's is there are other programs out their that can open them as well.

 

[MOREGONE]

I would take a harder look at Lightroom. I really is a very robust piece of of software. As someone mentioned previously you can convert to DNG and have all the edits saved in the file. Sounds like you're concerned about loosing your 'edits' more than the file itself which is understandable, but just export it to JPG and you have that copy for ever. Having the history in the catalog makes it wonderful for many reasons. I have standard exports built where I can export to web size or Full size and they are always saved relative to the file in a new folder.

 

[table1349]

All the changes made in Lightroom are saved on a sidecar file that is read by any software that can open NEF files.
All the tags and keywords can be written to the files so any sorting and keywording files you do is saved.

Actually you can convert your .NEF files (RAW) and the .XMP (Sidecar) into a DNG so you not only save space, but you have all of the adjustments within the picture itself and not a sidecar. And the good thing about DNG's is there are other programs out their that can open them as well.

Which means you no longer have an original untouched digital negative to go back and work with later on. Save your RAW files. Storage is cheap and memories can get real expensive to recreate, if it is even possible later on.

 

[MOREGONE]

All the changes made in Lightroom are saved on a sidecar file that is read by any software that can open NEF files.
All the tags and keywords can be written to the files so any sorting and keywording files you do is saved.

Actually you can convert your .NEF files (RAW) and the .XMP (Sidecar) into a DNG so you not only save space, but you have all of the adjustments within the picture itself and not a sidecar. And the good thing about DNG's is there are other programs out their that can open them as well.

Which means you no longer have an original untouched digital negative to go back and work with later on. Save your RAW files. Storage is cheap and memories can get real expensive to recreate, if it is even possible later on.

Except you can just go back in time and restore it to the original way it came out of the camera.

 

[Boney]

The program I have found extremely useful is ThumbsPlus from Cerious Software. It is great for managing your library. In addition it can do much phot editing. Convert many formats. Resizing is the easiest to use. You can choose the size of your thumbnails. You can print pages of thumbnails. Then the more standard things like gamma, brightness, contrast, hue, cropping, red eye, rotation, rotation to a line. It will due what ACDC does plus much more. It will create databases across a network, so you can view your library even if it is on another computer. Too much to describe here. I have turned on many people to this software and always received positive feed back. As I remember it sells for about $70. But they occasionally run $20 specials. Oh yes whatever this program can do in many cases it can do with batch processing. Not to mention slide shows with a variety of wipes.
You can try for free for 30 days.