I know this has been addressed many, many times, and I did look through the archives but wondered if there was updated thoughts on editing software. It seems like a lot of people use LR, PS and Topaz. For the majority of you, are these still the most used? I need something very easy to use. I am willing to learn but don’t want to get frustrated right off the bat. I am not looking to make major changes, only slight improvements like noise, sharpness, etc.. In years past, I bought the software and did not have to pay an ongoing monthly fee. Is it all monthly or yearly fee-based now? Any thoughts on Luminar Neo or should I just stick to programs that are popular…and popular for a reason. Thank you for your input, again, on this topic but am trying to decide if I wait to purchase something that might be more expensive but better.
I’m not an expert on the free programs that are out there, so maybe someone else can chime in on those. Affinity was purchased by Canva a little while ago, and I believe it has a free version that will probably do more than what you need.
For me, Lightroom is very intuitive and easy to use, but it isn’t cheap. Back in 2009 I chose it because it made me a lot less crazy than Photoshop, but it is a different beast than it was. I guess what I’m saying is that whatever tool you choose, ease of use will probably be important since if it isn’t fun, it will make you nuts. Anyway…hope this helped a little and good luck!
ETA - Lightroom (and maybe Affinity, too) has a ton of teachers on you tube and also paid tutorials from various folks. Sean Bagshaw is good and so is Matt K, and if I’m not mistaken, NPN owner David, also teaches Lightroom. Many books and other resources out there too (google The Lightroom Queen).
I primarily use Lightroom, with a few specialty apps. Based on your comments, I suggest checking out Elements. It is another Adobe product, and designed to be easier than Lightroom and Photoshop, but still has some very good capabilities. That was my software choice years ago, and they have continued to improve it. Right now it sells for $69.99 for a 3-year license with no monthly subscription. If you also do video, there’s Premiere Elements, both are $99.99 (that’s on the same page as the Elements link).
I think the easiest program to start with is FastStone Image Viewer. It’s free and offers quite a few features for editing.
Thank you Kristen for the info. Yes, I am trying to avoid something that will make me nuts. I know free isn’t always better but will take a look at Affinity and see if YouTube has any tutorials. Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Steve and Garry, both wonderful ideas and I will check them out. I am hoping if I learn something easier and get more experience, I will then progress to more advanced. Again, thank you so very much for the suggestions. Can’t wait to research them.
I know that I’m an odd one out, because I don’t use Lightroom and PS only rarely.
Instead of LR I use DxO PhotoLab. It isn’t cheap, but you pay the fee once and there is no monthly subscription. I use DxO PL for RAW conversion and some basic corrections, mainly because of its excellent optical corrections and NR. You can go as far as you wish, you can do almost anything that you can do in LR as well.
In my job I worked with PS a long time, almost from the very beginning of PS. Version 2 or so. PS more or less started not as editing software, but for “building” your file (I worked in R&D in the printing industry). That was what I mainly used it for. Over the years, it became the favorite pixel-based editing software for photographers. I think that it is overwhelming for someone who starts with it. And it has a load of functions that you don’t need as a photograper.
Affinity is a close competitor for PS, similar in use, but free. And also with a steep learning curve. But if you know how to use PS, you will learn Affinity quickly.
After a while, I wanted something different than PS to edit my photographic images, although I was very familiar with PS. I started to work with Picture Window Pro. In that time mainly because PS wasn’t able to do all transformations on 16 bit images, and PWPro could do this. It is very different in use and it took me a while to learn to work with it. But the manual is excellent, the forum members are very helpful and I never went back to PS. The designer of PWPro is active in the forum, almost daily. Several additions and changes came from suggestions of users and sometimes they are implemented within a few days.
If you need to learn PS/Affinity or PWPro from scratch, I think that PWPro is a lot easier, especially with the aid of the manual and the forum. Another reason for me was, that at a certain moment the complete PS suite cost about €1000 (no monthly subscription yet), while PWPro was $75. Nowadays, PWPro 7 is free, PWPro 8 has an optional $25 fee. Up to your generosity. I still use PWPro7, because the workflow and interface of PWPro8 is VERY different from PWP7 and I am too lazy to learn it. The handling of RAW images of PWPro isn’t the strong point, therefore I use DxO PhotoLab.
I think that, independent of the software that you use, the main thing that you need to learn is how you wish your image to look and what you need to edit in order to achieve that. That is a matter of vision and experience. After that, there are many ways that lead to Rome. And with whatever editing software you use, it will take time.