What do most use for image editor?

[victor2]

Greetings,

Have been looking at different editors and for the most part appear they need to be hooked up to internet. 

Now I use Photoscape x  -  canon digitalphoto (came with camera) both stand alone programs. 

Just curious to see what is ¿popular? and get a better idea of options before purchasing. 

I am a recovering film & chemical dependent type  so this is new to me. Be gentle.

Thank you

[Ken Katz]

I got addicted to Lightroom when I started using both Canon and Olympus digital cameras.  Addicted because I now pay about $10 per month in order to not loose access to my Lightroom image settings on thousands of photos.  A very good program that continually gets improved, but too expensive for the casual user.

[digitaldog]

Actually Ken, IF you stop subscribing to Lightroom Classic, only the Develop module and the Maps module stop working. Your DAM (catalog) is still accessible and everything in the Library still works (Thank you Adobe). I'm not suggesting you stop subscribing! 

For the OP (Victor), you might look into Adobe Photoshop Elements. 

[paddler4]

IMHO, it depends on your goals. 

If you don't want to reach the point of doing complex editing, then something like Photoshop Elements is logical: inexpensive, doesn't require a subscription, reasonably complete. I started, many years ago, with JASC Paint Shop Pro, which became Corel Paint Shop Pro. I don't know how that and Elements compare. 

If you do want to become proficient at more complex editing, then it might make more sense to buy into one of the main contenders (Lightroom/ACR/Photoshop, OnOne, etc.) and just learn to use it gradually. That way, you won't have to re-learn things. The cost of doing this is that the professional-level editing programs are very powerful, complex, and flexible, and that means a steeper learning curve and having to be selective about what you try to learn.

[SCL]

I use the free programs GIMP and DARKTABLE. Learning cure is about on par with other programs. Not as full featured as Photoshop or Lightroom, but has worked well for me for about 10 years.

[mikemorrellNL]

Good question!

Unfortunately I have little experience in recovering film & chemical dependent photos. But I do have some experience in restoring damaged and color-distorted photos,  including through water damage.

IMHO photo-editing 'solutions' offer (to a greater or lesser extent}

- cataloging/reviewing/rating/selection functions for numerous photos

- editing one (for example in Photoshop) or more (for example in Lightroom) individual photos

I completely agree with @paddler4 that your choice of photo-editing software depends mainly on a) what you you want to do and b) your budget

Based on my (limited) experience on restoring digitized photos (exposure, levels, colors, spots, etc.), I suspect that your main priority will be to restore individual photos one at a time, including:

- adjusting exposure/contrast in different areas of photos

- correcting color balance and color casts in different areas of photos

- removing spots & scratches

Photoshop Elements is a relatively low-cost ($100) stand-alone program that provides both cataloging functions and most Photoshop functions (that amateur photographers would use). There are a number of good, cheaper programs than Photoshop Elements (at half the price) that provide pretty much the same functions. Gimp is a freeware program that is a good a good alternative for Photoshop. I tried it a couple of years ago but I found the user-interface a bit clunky. But it works.

Personally, I decided a couple of years ago that I would pay a $10 subscription per month to always have the latest versions of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

 

[AlanKlein]

If you get Photoshop Elements, consider buying the package that includes Premiere Elements used for videos.  Even if you don't shoot videos clips now (you might in the future), Premiere allows you to create slide show videos you can play on your smart TV, download to YouTube for others to see, show on your or others cellphones or monitors.  It allows you to add title, music, narration, credits, etc to your slide shows like this:  (these were scanned film shots):

 

 

Here's a shorter example where I combined some short video clips with still photos into the show.  Premiere gives a lot of flexibility to create shows for other in your family and friends can see in many different ways.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by AlanKlein

[digitaldog]

https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements/buying-guide.html

 

[httpwww.photo.netbarry]

Elements is a good  choice for the OP. It's fairly inexpensive and  does most all the things you need to do starting off on you digital "adventure". 

[mikemorrellNL]

One thing to be aware of in PS Elements is that it includes ever more 'fun' effects in the 'Quick Edit' and 'Guided Edit' options. Also the Elements blurb and video's on Adobe.com seem to promote all the 'fun' 'effects' that users can applyBut don't let these put you off. You'll find most of the editing tools you'll probably work with in the "Expert Edit" option which looks pretty much like the Photoshop workspace and has most of the Photoshop tools you'll ever need.

I wasn't too impressed by the 'tutorial videos' on the Adobe site so I Google 'Photoshop Elements' to find out whether there were better ones. I came across Steve Grisetti  who has a playlist of 8 short YouTube videos that IHMO give a better impression of PS Elements than Adobe does. Here's the first one.

 

[Sanford]

Still getting by with Elements 8, I think they are beyond Elements 13 by now.

[victor2]

Thank you all for the replies. I guess what I use is more than sufficient for my needs, not commercial nor great amounts of images to process. It is not an issue of cost, just does it do what I need to do, coming from the film era the effort is to get it right in the camera. So far PhotoScape x free version has done the job. Just wanted to know if I was missing something. I do want to try photo stacking for my photomacrography.

Again thank you for your insights on this subject.

[Sanford]

1 minute ago, victor2 said:

coming from the film era the effort is to get it right in the camera.

We (us?) old slide shooters had to get it mostly right in the camera.

[Gary Naka]

Since I shoot for the school, I have to go through hundreds of pics for each game.  I want KISS.
I use the discontinued Google Picasa.  It does about 80-90% of what I need, and it is easy, fast and fits into my workflow.  So have not had a need to upgrade.

I use my "old" Elements 9 once in a while, for editing that Picasa can't do.  But it isn't as fast as Picasa when working on LOTS of pics.  The old 80/20 rule, I used only 20% of the functionality.  I really should upgrade and explore the program more.

I use ON1 for the AI noise reduction feature for high ISO sports pictures.  The noise reduction is really neat stuff.  For general use, Picasa is easier and faster.

I use Huggin for making panoramas.

[Gary Naka]

On 12/5/2022 at 5:11 AM, Sanford said:

We (us?) old slide shooters had to get it mostly right in the camera.

The only thing I could do was to crop the slide using mylar tape.

[david_simon]

When I am travelling and taking photos I upload them (raw files)  each day them from my Nikon camera to my laptop , quickly go through them to eliminate the duds,  and then save them on my laptop and a portable hard drive.  I have an old Version of On One on my laptop but the last time I did this I had to have an internet connection  to use  it. I am going to remote areas in Ecuador where i won't have good internet.  So I would like a simple program that I can put on my laptop to use to just review the photos, delate the bad ones and save the good ones.  The editing will take place when I return home and put them all on my desktop.

I downloaded darktable but I couldn't figure out how to put multiple photos into it and then look at them one by one and delete them as needed.  I gave up and uninstalled it. I then downloaded GIMP. When I tried to put in my RAW files it said I needed a Raw driver from darktable. The darktable website only seems to have the full program, not a specific driver that you can download.

Can Photoshop Elements handle Raw files? If it can I think the best thing to do is to  download a free trial version just  before I  leave on my 2 week trip .  

Any suggestions? comments?

 

[digitaldog]

Elements has a rudimentary version of Adobe Camera Raw.