Recommend me a photo editing program

[Warhorse]

The only photo software I have on my computer is Nikon ViewNX2 that came with my camera.

My computer is newer, runs windows 8, has 6 gig ram.

I have never used any photo software.

 

[ronlane]

I would highly recommend lightroom 5.

 

[Warhorse]

It will work, and run just fine without photoshop installed?

 

[The_Traveler]

It is a separate program

 

[DougGrigg]

Photoshop Cs6 Or lightroom 5!

 

[Warhorse]

Thanks guys I was leaning towards Adobe products myself, but was not sure if I had to first install Photoshop for the other programs to work right.

 

[KmH]

Adobe will not be releasing any further feature or compatibility updates for CS 6, because CS 6 has been replaced by Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud).

You can still buy CS 6. Actually you are buying a perpetual use license. Adobe still owns the software. CS 6 is $609.99
Adobe Photoshop CS6 [LEGACY VERSION]

You get Photoshop CC by subscription and the subscription costs you $19.99 a month.
An advantage of CC is it will always be the latest and greatest. Before, we had to wait 18 to 24 months for the next batch of upgrades to be released as a new version.
Now upgrades are available as soon as they are ready. I got an online upgrade just yesterday.

You can buy Lightroom 5 ($147.97) - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5

CC and Lightroom are professional grade Adobe products.
Lightroom's main purpose is image database management of a large catalog of photos a photographer wants to make money from.
Only 1 of Lightroom's 7 modules, the Develop module, is for image editing. The other 6 modules are use to manage and output your images.
Photoshop CC includes Camera Raw, which is the software Lightroom uses in it's Develop module, and Bridge which is an image browser.

Adobe makes a consumer grade version - Photoshop Elements 12 ($90.24) - Adobe Photoshop Elements 12
Elements has a consumer grade version of Camera Raw, and includes an image organizer.

There are also free, open source image editing applications you can download.

GIMP.org and Photoscape.org are both popular, and are both very similar to Photoshop Elements.

 

[texkam]

All of the above may be overkill for you. You haven't really told us what your wants/needs are. Picasa, Photofiltre, PicMonkey are just 3 examples of less complicated free choices that can handle many of the basic things.

 

[Tinderbox (UK)]

Add Gimp to that list.

John.

All of the above may be overkill for you. You haven't really told us what your wants/needs are. Picasa, Photofiltre, PicMonkey are just 3 examples of less complicated free choices that can handle many of the basic things.

 

[ronlane]

Add Gimp to that list.

John.

All of the above may be overkill for you. You haven't really told us what your wants/needs are. Picasa, Photofiltre, PicMonkey are just 3 examples of less complicated free choices that can handle many of the basic things.

Gimp is the last line of Keith's message.

 

[CMonnette]

Lightroom all the way. When I first started using it I hated it because I was so used to just using Photoshop but now I don't really use anything else.

 

[Warhorse]

All of the above may be overkill for you. You haven't really told us what your wants/needs are. Picasa, Photofiltre, PicMonkey are just 3 examples of less complicated free choices that can handle many of the basic things.

I want to be able to edit RAW files and convert them to jpeg. The usual changing or adjusting exposure, color tones, resizing, cropping, and whatever else needs to be done to help make my photographs "better".

 

[centauro74]

Newegg sometimes has lightroom for $99. I just bought a copy 2 weeks ago for that price.

 

[texkam]

XnView can handle raw. It's free and does the basics. Lightroom and PS are the industry standard.

 

[KmH]

Irfanview and Raw Therapee are both free online Raw converters often used with GIMP that you can download.

The Adobe Camera Raw that is in all the versions of Photoshop (PS 7, CS, CS 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, CC, all the versions of
Element, and all the versions of Lightroom) is a Raw converter.