Editing Software help

[juzan42]

Hi Everyone, 

Would you be so kindly to list what software you use to edit images and a brief description as to why you like it?

  I understand that shooting RAW is the best suggested method as you get to keep most of the data within each file. 

I have heard of :

Adobe lightroom

Photoshop

any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[ebiggs1]

Is cost a factor?

In order of cost:

Photoshop Elements 12

Lightroom 5

Photoshop CS6 or subscription.

Why?  These are the best there is.  Ask any pro as 95% of all professional photos go through one of these.  Reason enough?

[RobertTheFat]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

Is cost a factor?

In order of cost:

Photoshop Elements 12

Lightroom 5

Photoshop CS6 or subscription.

Why?  These are the best there is.  Ask any pro as 95% of all professional photos go through one of these.  Reason enough?

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Sorry, no (unless, of course, you're a lemming).

If, as seems to be the case, the OP has never used an editor, all of those are overkill. Start with the very good Canon freebie Digital Photo Professional, or even one of the shareware editors, and then upgrade as your skills and/or requirements increase. For the type of photography I do (landscapes, events, some portraits), DPP has proven highly satisfactory, and I rarely have to use anything else. The added cost and complexity of high-end editors is a waste of time and money if you don't get a provable benefit in return. If that offends or infuriates 95% of professional photographers, so be it. 

[ebiggs1]

Bob in Boston,

"... all of those are overkill ..."  

You usually have pretty good advice until this farb.  Whom do you think PSE is aimed at?  The beginning novice, of course!

 It is not a pro level program or any more advanced than the average consumer desires.

[RobertTheFat]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

Bob in Boston,

"... all of those are overkill ..."  

You usually have pretty good advice until this farb.  Whom do you think PSE is aimed at?  The beginning novice, of course!

 It is not a pro level program or any more advanced than the average consumer desires.

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Then why pay for it until you're convinced that DPP won't do the job?

[ebiggs1]

Bob from Boston,

You really are not suggesting a comparison between DPP and PSE?  Because after the fact they are both called editing software there is none!

[RobertTheFat]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

Bob from Boston,

You really are not suggesting a comparison between DPP and PSE?  Because after the fact they are both called editing software there is none!

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You're starting to lose me, I think. How on earth does that statement square with your previous observation that "[PSE] is not a pro level program or any more advanced than the average consumer desires"? I don't suppose you mean to imply that DPP is more powerful than PSE.

I'll try to make my argument more clearly: There are a number of photo editors more powerful than DPP, but most of them aren't free. (Those that are don't seem to mesh very well with Canon's RAW formats.) So why would you pay for an editor, including Photoshop Elements, until you're sure that your requirements go beyond DPP's capability?

[ebiggs1]

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ebiggs1 wrote:

Bob from Boston,

You really are not suggesting a comparison between DPP and PSE?  Because after the fact they are both called editing software there is none!

---

You're starting to lose me, I think. How on earth does that statement square with your previous observation that "[PSE] is not a pro level program or any more advanced than the average consumer desires"? I don't suppose you mean to imply that DPP is more powerful than PSE.

I'll try to make my argument more clearly: There are a number of photo editors more powerful than DPP, but most of them aren't free. (Those that are don't seem to mesh very well with Canon's RAW formats.) So why would you pay for an editor, including Photoshop Elements, until you're sure that your requirements go beyond DPP's capability?

[Skirball]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

Bob from Boston,

You really are not suggesting a comparison between DPP and PSE?  Because after the fact they are both called editing software there is none!

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You have quite the ability to discuss things that nobody was discussing.

Bob's original point was that recommending a software simply because that's what pro's use is a poor recommendation.  I tend to agree.  His second point was: why not use the free software that came with your camera first and see if it does the job.  If not, then look at a third party program.  Also sound advice.  I don't see anywhere where he's comparing the ability of DPP and PSE.  But I find your sensitivity around PSE to always be amusing.

[hsbn]

For batch images editing: Lightroom, Capture One, DXO. These are top notch commerical software for RAW editing right now. But of course, you can use Canon DPP.

For image manipulation and composition: Photoshop, Gimp, Photoshop Element, Paint Shop Pro.

Raw Image editor is optimized to batch processing so that you can work with many images as efficient as possible. Also, most Raw Image Editor nowaday has some kind of catalog so you can manage your images (DAM). But keep in mind that since all RAW editors are parametric (non-destructive), so there is a limit (for now) of how much information you can change. All your original images are unalter when using parametric editor so you can always go back and make changes. One down side, all of these third party software cannot read Canon's proprietary information so almost all settings you changed on the camera will be ignored such as Hight Tone Priority, Noise Reduction, Picture Style, etc (Note: for RAW images only).

Other type of editor is pixel editing like Photoshop. This type of software works great for single image. And you can do anything with it. Replacing the background, adding in new elements, anything is possible.

I use Lightroom to catalog and simple edit all my images. Once in a while, there maybe an image that I need to work more on it then I'll bring it over to Photoshop.