What is a good post processing software that isn't overly expensive?

[ilzho]

Hello:

I am starting to shoot my dslr in the 'raw' mode, but I do not have any post processing software.

I do not want to spend a lot on it as I am just a hobbyist, but don't really know what the options are out there?

I have heard of lightroom software and most people like it.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you,

David

[TTMartin]

Canon Digital Photo Professional that comes FREE with all Canon dSLRs is very good.

Adobe Lightroom is the most popular. You can buy a stand alone version for about $150, or Adobe has a subscription deal for photographers where you get Lightroom and Photoshop for $10 per month.

[kvbarkley]

Adobe PhotoShop Elements comes with Adobe Camera RAW for about $80.

[Waddizzle]

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@kvbarkley wrote:

Adobe PhotoShop Elements comes with Adobe Camera RAW for about $80.

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That's what I paid for Photoshop CS6.

[Waddizzle]

The least expensive route to go is free.  Use Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4, which is free to download with a camera serial number. In fact, Canon has a suite of applications that you can download from their support site.  When you shoot photos in RAW format, which is a digital equivalent of a film negative, you use DPP to generate JPEG files, almost just as you would use a darkroom to develop negatives into photo prints.  Adobe Lightroom serves the same purpose, and a bit more.

Instead of Photoshop Elements, look for the freeware application " paint dot net ", which is as nearly as sophisticated as PS Elements.  In addittion to being a  good introduction to image editing, as a whole, it has local help.  Adobe help is online, hard to find, and it constantly tries to sell you an upgrade, without providing you with simple answers to simple questions.  You can easily find info on how to use the latest Photoshop CC, but not so easy for Elements and older versions.

[diverhank]

All good advices so far.  There is another really good pp software that is designed to compete with Photoshop is a program called GIMP which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program.

This, strangely enough, is open-sourced and completely free with no strings attached.

https://www.gimp.org/

At least it used to be when I was using it. I don't anymore as I joined the "dark side" and bought photoshop.  My reason was not because GIMP wasn't good -- actually it's very good and looks and acts ALMOST like photoshop complete with layers and most everything else.  The problem was the lack of documentation...I couldn't train myself using it.

Lately, however, I read that there are all kinds of books and instructions on how to use it now.  I myself am contemplating coming back to using it once I can't use my CS6 photoshop any longer...

It's worth a look IF you can find instructions on how to use it.  If you already know how to use photoshop, training yourself on GIMP is not gonna be hard.

[kvbarkley]

Does GIMP do RAW processing? It didn't used to.

[diverhank]

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@kvbarkley wrote:

Does GIMP do RAW processing? It didn't used to.

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Yes it does now by installing a plugin.  I haven't used it for a while so I don't know how well that works or what camera it supports. I know that it supports NEF and CR2 formats (Nikon and Canon)

[RobertTheFat]

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@diverhank wrote:

All good advices so far.  There is another really good pp software that is designed to compete with Photoshop is a program called GIMP which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program.

This, strangely enough, is open-sourced and completely free with no strings attached.

https://www.gimp.org/

At least it used to be when I was using it. I don't anymore as I joined the "dark side" and bought photoshop.  My reason was not because GIMP wasn't good -- actually it's very good and looks and acts ALMOST like photoshop complete with layers and most everything else.  The problem was the lack of documentation...I couldn't train myself using it.

Lately, however, I read that there are all kinds of books and instructions on how to use it now.  I myself am contemplating coming back to using it once I can't use my CS6 photoshop any longer...

It's worth a look IF you can find instructions on how to use it.  If you already know how to use photoshop, training yourself on GIMP is not gonna be hard.

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The last time I compared them (which was quite a while ago), I liked Irfanview better than GIMP.

[Peter]

Canon Digital Photo Professional is a good start. I use mostly Darktable (Linux and OS X) together with GIMP.

Partha has made Darktable available for Windows. Don´t know how stable that release is.

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@diverhank wrote:

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@kvbarkley wrote:

Does GIMP do RAW processing? It didn't used to.

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Yes it does now by installing a plugin.  I haven't used it for a while so I don't know how well that works or what camera it supports. I know that it supports NEF and CR2 formats (Nikon and Canon)

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UFRaw