What photo software do you guys recommend?

Question

Ok, I fell in love with photography, I just purchased my first SLR camera (Canon Digital Rebel Xsi). Im sure there's other equipment such as, lenses, lighting, mono/tripods,that I will have to soon purchase, but what type of software do you guys use? If you use any software. . .(Adobe Photoshop, LightRoom, etc)

Answer 1

I use an older version of Photoshop. (Elements 4)

I'll probably upgrade eventually, but in the mean time....



My recommendation is to try them all. See what you like best.

I'm pretty sure Adobe gives you anywhere between 14-30 day trial with all of their photo related software.

Play with it, see what you can create or simply adjust with each package, you'll know what you want or don't want at the end of each trial.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/family/



(btw, great choice of camera!)

Answer 2

I use Lightroom to process my raw files, and Adobe Photoshop CS3 for everything else.



Since you are starting out, I'd suggest Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 ( it's a stripped down version of photoshop)



I'd suggest your first gear purchase be a tripod, make sure it's a good one which will support the weight of the future lenses and gear you plan on buying.

Answer 3

What are you trying to accomplish? What operating system do you use. The following list is mainly for Windows and Linux, though some can be used on Mac.



For general editing, Photoshop is a must and should be the first software you should have. If you're on a budget, the The Gimp is free. The Gimp is slower than Photoshop and the user interface is horrid. It does produce good results.



Irfanview (free), Xnview (free), and ACDSee (payware) are rudimentary image editors. They are most useful for viewing thumbnails. Highly recommend one of them.

http://www.irfanview.com/

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enxnview.html

http://www.acdsee.com/



If you shoot in raw mode, then something to convert your proprietary raw images into 16-bit TIFF format. Canon may have a program to do this that may be in your software bundle, or you can use any number of raw conversion utilities out there. I like DCRAW (free).

http://www.cybercom.net/~dcoffin/dcraw/

Photoshop can do raw conversions also.



If you want to do panorama shots, Hugin is a very good image stitcher which is free. Takes a bit of time to learn, but produces better results than $300 programs. Read through the site and use Smartblend. Smartblend can make a lousy pano set into something quite passable.

http://hugin.sourceforge.net/



If you want to do HDRI (high dynamic range imaging) , Qtpfsgui (free) does a good job, but will take time to figure out.

http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/

There are many HDRI programs out there, so look around.



Exiftool (free) is invaluable for adding, changing and viewing EXIF and other headers. Take a vacation and forgot about the change in time zone? Exiftool can change time/date. Do a search for exiftool if you want a GUI for it.



Nconvert (free) is a invaluable program for doing batch conversions of images. I use this when I need to resize a bunch of images for web pages.

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/en_nconvert.html

Answer 4

adobe photoshop is a good one though there are also varrious others like microsoft picture manager, macromedia flash player, macromedia fireworks http://www.hipipo.com

Answer 5

it's better to use adobe photoshop

Answer 6

well i didn't get you ..... you want to copy effects or color ???? ... LOL