Photo Editing

[Rob one]

Afternoon everyone.
After lots of advice on this forum, I'm starting to get better with the manual settings, many thanks.
I'm now after some advice about photo editing, what's the best photo editing software for RAW images.
Many thanks.

 

[Ysarex]

Afternoon everyone.
After lots of advice on this forum, I'm starting to get better with the manual settings, many thanks.
I'm now after some advice about photo editing, what's the best photo editing software for RAW images.
Many thanks.

Lightroom is most popular and certainly one of the best. The two "best" LR alternatives are Capture One and DXO PL-8 (both +$$$ than LR).

Dropping to the next tier and -$$$ are ON1, ACDSee, Luminar.

Odd but worth noting is SilkyPix and then there's free open source = DarkTable, RawTherapee.

Make sure and check out what your camera maker offers, eg. Canon's DPP, Nikon's NXStudio, etc.

 

[smoke665]

Depends....what do you want to do, what level are you willing to learn and what's your budget? There's everything from free (including from your camera manufacturer) to purchased options, and subscription options. What may be right for one might not be the best choice for another.

 

[Rob one]

Lightroom is most popular and certainly one of the best. The two "best" LR alternatives are Capture One and DXO PL-8 (both +$$$ than LR).

Dropping to the next tier and -$$$ are ON1, ACDSee, Luminar.

Odd but worth noting is SilkyPix and then there's free open source = DarkTable, RawTherapee.

Make sure and check out what your camera maker offers, eg. Canon's DPP, Nikon's NXStudio, etc.

I'll give them a try, many thanks

 

[smoke665]

@Rob one the reason i asked you, simple questions without context it's like saying "I'm going on a trip..what should I buy?" Not only are there different requirements for editing (simple task to advanced), but the computing power to run them varies. I've used Adobe for years (Bridge, LR, PS), but I'm an advanced user. For the past 2-3 years Adobe has leveraged the computing power of the graphics card to process images. Now with all the AI features being rolled out having a fast GPU with onboard VRAM is a given. If you're only doing simple tweaking you can download LR mobile for free. A little more input on your end would help others direct you.

 

[Rob one]

Depends....what do you want to do, what level are you willing to learn and what's your budget? There's everything from free (including from your camera manufacturer) to purchased options, and subscription options. What may be right for one might not be the best choice for another.

I'm just a keen amateur, wildlife photography, I'm not a professional so I don't want to pay too much.
Many thanks

 

[KJ_North]

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements its a lesser version of Photoshop and does everything I need to do.

 

[smoke665]

@Rob one If you want to try your hand at simple editing, LR mobile is a free app that runs on IOS or Android (apple store or Google play store). I have it on my Samsung tablet for quick edits, able to handle most simple tasks. One thing to remember when choosing an editing software is it isn't easy to change later.

 

[Rob one]

@Rob one the reason i asked you simple questions is without any context it's like saying "I'm going on a trip..what should I buy?" Not only are there different requirements for editing (simple task to advanced), but the computing power to run them varies. I've used Adobe for years (Bridge, LR, PS), but I'm an advanced user. For the past 2-3 years Adobe has leveraged the computing power of the graphics card to process images. Now with all the AI features being rolled out having a fast GPU with onboard VRAM is a given. If you're only doing simple tweaking you can download LR mobile for free. A little more input on your end would help others direct you.

Hi, I'm just a keen amateur, I like taking wildlife photos, I just want to make the photos as good as I can.
I'm not a professional, so I don't want to pay a fortune, something not very expensive, easy to use, something to just make my RAW photos as good as they can.

Many thanks.

 

[Rob one]

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements its a lesser version of Photoshop and does everything I need to do.

I'll have a look, many thanks.

 

[Rob one]

@Rob one If you want to try your hand at simple editing, LR mobile is a free app that runs on IOS or Android (apple store or Google play store). I have it on my Samsung tablet for quick edits, able to handle most simple tasks. One thing to remember when choosing an editing software is it isn't easy to change later.

Many thanks

 

[Jeff15]

I have used various versions of Photoshop Elements for many years ...

 

[cgw]

Another vote for PS Elements to learn the ropes. Tons of online tutorials covering all actions.

 

[PhotoHobbyist]

Starting out, you probably want to dabble with free RAW editors. Almost all cost money.
For free there is DarkTable and RawTherapee. Both require 64bit windows, but RawTherapee has an old version that works on 32bit windows. I have only tried an old 32bit RawThereapee version and it works well, but has a tendency to crash if you try to many things, so best to save your work frequently.

There is also free GIMP software, but it only works with JPG pics. It has great "clone" and "heal" features to erase things from photos. GIMP does a lot more, but that's what I mainly use it for.

 

[denum]

I use the Camera Raw filter in Photoshop. It does most of my basic editing then if I want to do more complex editing I switch over to photoshop. I use Lightroom Classic for panoramas and timelapses.