Editing software

[ashley_escobar]

Hi,

 

I'm newish to photography and wanting to get editing software. Considering aperture but would like opinions. I'm also wanting to include a

signature on my photos that I'll be posting online. I'd this something that can be done in aperture?

 

Any tips / advice greatly appreciated.

 

Ashley

[dan_south]

<p>Do you mean a water mark? I'm guessing that Aperture can do that. Lightroom can do it easily when you export a photo to, for instance, JPEG format. </p>

[sam_clay]

<p>I use photoshop elements and its fab. </p>

[keith reeder]

<p>Ashley, Aperture isn't really "editing" software - it's a fully-featured Raw converter with capabilities which overlap with those of image editing software like Photoshop, Photosohp Elements, PaintShop Pro, Photoline, Paint.Net etc.</p>

<p>Could you be a bit more specific about your aims and preferred budget? I guess from your stated interest in Aperture you're a Mac user, but could you confirm that, please?</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>It's really hard to beat a program designed from the start as an imaging-editing program. What started out as cataloging/organizing software has had editing capabilities added in (e.g., Aperture and Lightroom), to be sure.</p>

<p>If you start with Photoshop Elements, you will be learning skills that will easily transfer to the full-powered versions of Photoshop when and if you get to that point. In the meantime, Photoshop Elements will give you a very powerful set of tools to use.</p>

<p>There is another path, however. Since, unlike some of us "oldtimers", you are not already imprinted on Photoshop, you might want to take a look at a program called GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It has some considerable powers, if a steep learning curve, but also has the inestimable virtue of being FREE:<br>

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ </p>

[jordan2240]

<p>Also a user of Photoshop Elements and don't see a reason for something else. I believe there is also a software called Photoline that is purported to be quite good, and it's way cheaper than Photoshop and perhaps even Elements.</p>

[keith reeder]

<p>I refer to Photoline in my earlier post, Bill. It isn't quite as capable as Photoshop (for me it's lack of dedicated highlight recovery is a bit of a black mark), but it's a tenth of the price of Photoshop, and a provides a goodly part of its functionality. The features are well implemented, too.</p>

<p>It's fast and responsive, and works in 16 bit to a far greater extent than Elements (it has 16 bit layers, for example - I want that).</p>

<p>Hard not to like, really. The website is <a href="http://www.pl32.com">www.pl32.com</a>.</p>

<p>All that said, I'd probably still pick PaintShop Pro X6 if I wanted a non-Adobe alternative to Photohop CS5.</p>

<p> </p>

[dave_redmann]

<p>I really depends on what you want to do (just basic stuff like lighten / darken and crop, plus adding the signature, or what?), what is your budget, and whether you intend to work from raw files or JPEG's. And if you want to work from raw files, have you tried the software that came with your camera, and if so, to what extent and why are you happy or unhappy with it?</p>

<p>For more basic tasks, would Picasa suffice? GIMP is a lot more powerful (I use it), but it is not the most user-friendly program out there, and it does not handle raw files (and UFRaw is no longer maintained as a GIMP plug-in, not that I was ever a huge fan of UFRaw). If money isn't much of an issue <em>and</em> you want or need really advanced capabilities <em>and</em> you can put up with Adobe's impending moves to the cloud, $650 will still get you the full Photoshop CS6.</p>

 

[robbi_cooler]

<p>My suggestion might be to buy Lightroom (it's worth every penny!) Buy a good reference book such as that by Scott Kelby. You will have 90% of your editing needs. To advance to pixel editing for cloning and other manipulations try the freeware GIMP (or PAINTNET if you have Windows PC). When a bit more advanced buy Photoshop Elements.</p>

[keith reeder]

<blockquote>

<p>My suggestion might be to buy Lightroom</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Again - like Aperture - not really an "image editor".</p>

<p>Really, until Ashley comes back and answers the clarification questions we've asked, there's not much point in making specific recommendations.</p>

[sgust]

<p>I use GIMP and am very happy with it. It's free and has enough features for most people. It works fine on Windows. But some people don't like it's interface and there are less tutorials and help out there for than the Adobe offerings. I'd say try it for a few weeks and see if you get the hang of it. And as far as a Raw converter to go with it, I found LightZone to be a great free program that I prefer over the converter that came with the camera.<br>

For GIMP I found the easiest way to do watermarking, or as the OP put it adding a signature, is to create a custom brush and use that. That way you can control size, opacity, positioning, aspect ratio, etc. with no effort at all. It takes a little effort to create, but once it's done your set till you want to change it.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<blockquote>

<p>"Again - like Aperture - not really an "image editor"."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>It might be helpful if you would define what an image editor is, so we all have a common point of reference.</p>

[keith reeder]

<p>Yep, I'll do that if/when Ashley lets us know what she's aiming to achieve, Lex (although FWIW I think I've provided a pretty strong hint in my first post, where I've listed a handful of examples of what I consider to be imaging editing programmes).</p>

[jordan2240]

<p>Keith,<br>

Thanks for the comments on Photoline. Sounds like software worth looking into.</p>

[keith reeder]

<p>I'd still recommend checking out PaintShop Pro, Bill - even though I've got Photoshop CS5, I've just bought PSP X6 (which lacks for very little in terms of its feature set) and because I upgraded from X4, it cost me the princely sum of £22/$32.</p>

<p>It's only <a href="http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod5100069&cid=catalog20038&segid=10300004">$40</a> even if you're not upgrading from an earlier version - a lot of software for the money.</p>

[jordan2240]

<p>Ok thanks Keith. I'll do that.</p>

[joe_willmore]

<p>I have a slightly different take. You said you're "newish" to photography. The tendency for many people starting out is to try and buy the best camera they can afford. It's often a similar approach to software. Why not start out with something that is much more basic or free. Play around with something like Snapseed. You'll get a feel for editing and what it is you want to really do with your photos. You may discover that all you want to do is saturate and sharpen, maybe play with some curves. In which case there are a host of programs for free or less than $10 that will do all that for you. Or you may decide you want to add raindrops or fire to a photo, use a green screen, change skin texture, and play with layers. In which case you'll want a serious program with a major learning curve (and unless it's GIMP, probably a decent price). No offense, but right now you probably don't know enough about editing (and photography) to know what exactly what it is you want to do. Give yourself some editing challenges/assignments with the programs you have access to now (or can download for free). After a couple of months, you'll have a much better idea of how much money but especially time you want to invest in a program. </p>

[keith reeder]

<p>All good stuff Joe - but still speculative until Ashley does us the kindness of getting back to us about her aspirations...</p>

[studio460]

<p>Pixelmator 3.0 FX for OS X is gorgeous. It has one of the prettiest UIs on the Mac platform. It's also the closest thing to Photoshop I've found. If you know how to use Photoshop, then Pixelmator won't be that much of a stretch. It does layers. It has decent type control, including custom tracking (but no kerning). It's also an incredible value at only $29.99 (available from the AppStore).</p>

[joe_willmore]

<p>This is a nice example of the value of these forums. Ralph--I read your post, checked out Pixelmator and then just downloaded a copy yesterday. I'm looking forward to putting it through its' paces.</p>

[mick_hortan]

<p>Back in the day i used Jasc Paintshop Pro but then everyone went to Adobe PS. Heard good things about GIMP but couldnt do it myself.<br />There is this <a href="http://www.photoshop.com/tools">www.photoshop.com/tools</a> online PS you could try if need.<br />I might have to give lightroom a go though</p>