[bobmaxja]

I switch to Cyberlink Photo director, $60
Easy , pretty good Raw processor and good noise reduction software

[demp10]

I switch to Cyberlink Photo director, $60
Easy , pretty good Raw processor and good noise reduction software

I was in their beta testing program. Very interesting and powerful software. It almost feels like a copy of Lightroom at a fraction of the cost.

[dmort]

Another bump to lightroom. Get a free trial and see how it goes! I like lightroom because of the very smooth workflow and great library management. The learning curve isn't steep, and like previously mentioned, it will grow with you.

[spartan]

I used Silkypixs for years and now that I bought a K5 I need to upgrade from 3.0. As a result, i am testing both Bibble and Lightroom. I like what I see in lightroom and the cost is the same or less than SP upgrade to 5.0. Bibbel seems good, but I think LR is a better long term investment.

For JPEG editing, I still cannot justify the cost of Photoshop. I use Picasa for catalog and Corel X4 for edits.. Corel has a lot of tools but is unstable.

[bobmaxja]

Cyberlink PHotoDirector 3 beta is available. You CAN try it for 3 months. I downloaded yesterday and I see some good improvement.
http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/events/enu/2011/Q4/photodirector3-beta-test/in...4_phd3beta_0_1

[dosdan]

Corel has a lot of tools but is unstable

Spartan, there's a Service Pack 1 for PSP X4 that came out in Dec 2011. Did you apply it?

I downloaded the 30-day trial version yesterday (I'm a PSP X user) and did a long session yesterday with a couple of plugins, Focus Magic & Remask 3, without AutoSave, to test its stability and usability, and the program didn't crash. My .PspScript (macro) files from PSP X also ran - although that may have been a matter of luck. (Clarify in X is now called Local Tone Mapping in X4, but the script ran correctly.)

I'm running Windows XP. I believe there were problems with 64-bit operation, but SP1 may have helped.

I'm no great Corel lover. I'll run it for 3 more weeks before deciding, but I think I'll get X4. (PSP X only had 8-bit plugin support.) I can get it for $40 as a download from Amazon. Corel US wants $50 and Corel Australia wants $99 AUD (even with $1 AUD = $1.03 USD).

Dan.

[emalvick]

Most of the software posted has its merits, but if you are looking for ease of use and intuition, it is hard to beat Lightroom. It has the advantage of letting you quickly make adjustments without the complications other software can give. A lot of the RAW editing software is similar in terms of ease of use. Lightroom feels like it was designed for photographers. I never cared for it much until it went to Version 3 at which all the features I wanted became available. Silkypix wasn't bad, but it wasn't that user friendly, and it has now priced itself into the same range as Lightroom. Rawtherapee wasn't bad, either, especially for a free software, but there are certain features that it doesn't have, and it tends to lack in terms of speed and efficiency.

[civiletti]

I use LR with .DNG files when I want "perfection" or the situation is challenging and Picasa with .jpg files when "good enough" will do.

[robgo2]

From your self-description, it sounds as though shooting jpegs might be more suitable than raw. This means letting the camera decide which adjustments to make with little further effort on your part. Personally, I shoot raw exclusively, but I appreciate the fact that not everyone needs to do the same. However, on the subject of raw converters, most of the people on this forum use Lightroom, which contains the ACR software. For my money, Capture One does a much better job right from the moment that you open the image on your computer monitor. It comes in Pro and Express versions, the latter costing $129.

In any case, I recommend downloading free trial versions of raw converter candidates to see which one you prefer.

Rob