Photo Editing Software for Beginner

[clintd]

Hi all, total beginner here.

What would be a good photo editing software to use?

I will be shooting through a Canon EOS Rebel 2000 35mm film camera, and having the film developed to a digital cd.

My budget for software would be no more than maybe $20-30. Any ideas? Also, any ideas on a free software to use? I've heard of "The Gimp." Anyone know if this is any good?

 

[vtf]

there are alot of free editing softwear that does good jobs such as gimp. google "free software". Some websites offer it too i.e. photobucket, great for beginners. I actually used picasa for a time that was pretty good and free.

 

[Breaux]

GIMP can do probably more than you will need. As far as adjusting things like brightness, contrast, levels, colors, cleaning up noise, sharpening, etc. it's basically as good as Photoshop. If you want to do very intricate manipulation, like weird effects or composite images, I don't know if GIMP is as good for that stuff.

Here's the GIMP download site I used: GIMP - Windows installers

 

[photonewbie86]

I use photoscape and it's pretty easy to get onto its free heres the link for the download:
Photoscape : Free Photo Editing Software (Photo Editor) Download

 

[Ryan L]

I use, picassa to organize, and I occasionally still use paint.net and Gimp for editing. They are both free and have quite a few features. They are open source (at least gimp is, PAint.net used to be) so it constantly evolving. They are quite feature packed really for a free program.

 

[clintd]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate it! I can't wait to start posting some pics here for C&C (although I'm a little scared....j/k).

 

[Jolin]

I Love Picnik...and Picassa.. simple and easy.

For simple editing tasks use:
PhotoFiltre (Graphisme et utilitaires)

Here is a free alternative to Photoshop :
Gimp (GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program)
There are portable editions (no need to install anything) of Gimp & other image processing software here: (Portable App Directory | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB, portable and cloud drives)

Be aware that the "User Interface" of Gimp may not be as friendly as Photoshop, but it is free! So you cannot complain about the user interface. It does the job and that counts!

http://www.clip-mask.com/Masking.html] Masking [/url],
[URL]http://www.clip-mask.com/Photo-Editing.html[/U]] Photo Editing[/url]

 

[Caspar]

If just for beginners. I think Photo Toolbox is enough. It's very easy used

 

[valvestem]

I'll toss in a plug for "IrfanView". Free & does a quite a bit for free. IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide

 

[clanthar]

Use GIMP and ignore all the others -- in fact avoid the others as harmful to your photos except IrfanView. To use IrfanView you need to install a plugin for color management support.

Your digital files will be RGB images. For an RGB photo to be valid it must contain an ICC profile that specifies the reference color space. The scanner that digitizes your film should embed this profile in the scan. For editing software to NOT be harmful it must correctly process the ICC profile. Most of the free stuff out there ignores and/or worse, strips out the ICC profile which effectively damages your photo. GIMP is good.

Joe

 

[ghache]

Lighroom is pretty easy to use. its a bunch of sliders.

 

[vtf]

Thread is over a year old. We really need to check dates.:shock:

 

[RebeccaAPhotography]

GIMP its free and I hear its pretty decent of a program for free

 

[Sonoma]

I use a web based company called for all of my photo editing.

Looks like SPAM; two posts and both for the same service!!

 

[DiskoJoe]

Photoshop. Just spend the money and grow with it.