editing software

[Greg]

Gooday all

Could someone please advise on the most commonly used editing software programs such as Lightroom etc

Thanks

[joele]

For processing RAW files the most common I think would be: Lightroom, Capture One, Bibble, Capture NX (for Nikon), SilkyPix

For photo processing: Photoshop, Photoshop elements, Paint Shop Pro

[ricktas]

commonly used, does not necessality mean best. There are literally piles of software out there to edit photos with. Most are available as free 30 day trials, so it is worth downloading a few, watching some youtube tutorials on them and having a play, to find out which one suits your needs and processing workflow.

[Kym]

Think about your workflow first.
I.e. are you going to print? Web publish? Both?
and are you shooting JPEG or raw?

See: Learning Centre: Workflow - Putting it all together (http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?t=53310)

Once your figure out what your doing with your images then select appropriate software.

Software choices?

What came with your camera
Free software
Commercial products

Until you have a better understanding of your needs stick with the free stuff.

The following programs are more than sufficient for 98% of PP that any photographer is likely to do.
a) The GIMP http://www.gimp.org/ (this has many plugins and has similar capabilities to Photoshop)
b) Picasa from google http://picasa.google.com/
c) Paint .net http://www.getpaint.net/ (Very lightweight, good for JPEGs and simple stuff)

A more comprehensive list is available here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_raster_graphics_editors#List).

And the missing 2% can be done using other programs (eg. Autostitch for panoramas (http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html))

Digital Asset Management (DAM) programs
In addition to Aperture (for Mac) and Adobe Lightroom (PC and Mac) there are some free DAM software:

http://www.irfanview.com/ IrfranView
http://www.xnview.com/ XnView
http://picasa.google.com/ Picassa from Google can be used as a DAM
This list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_image_viewers) shows many other alternates for DAM software

[Greg]

Joel

Thanks for the info

Greg

[Greg]

Rick

Thanks for the reply, can you suggest a few commonly used good ones.

Greg

[Greg]

Kym

Thanks heaps for this info, I have a lot to learn.

Greg

[JM Tran]

Rick

Thanks for the reply, can you suggest a few commonly used good ones.

Greg

Kym just did above