[boriscleto]

Forget Adobe products. The OS X versions are just bad ports of the Window$ version.

iPhoto is fine for cataloging and basic edititing, and it works with RAW files just fine. Aperture is much more advanced than iPhoto and is quite frankly overkill for most users. Both iPhoto and Aperture use the same processing engine and even share the same photo library now.

If you think you need an external editor try Pixelmator.

Pixelmator

It's a Mac app written by Mac users.

[timmijo]

What is the NIK plug-in suite? By the way, I have Lightroom 4 and Photoshop Elements 11.

When shooting jpeg, I use PSE 11 and only pull up LR4 if I need to correct exposure or grain beyond what PSE 11 can perform. Also, LR4 has a "vibrance" slider, which I like. Be conservative, though. Less is more.

Lightroom 4 is an awesome program for what it was designed to do, but I confess that I only pull it up if PSE 11 needs an extra boost to fix a photo.
One plus that LR4 has is that it can really smooth a grainy shot with its "luminance" slider. Be conservative. Less is more.

I don't like how LR4 organizes photos into numerous folders upon folders. That's why I do not dump my photos into it when loading off the camera. I use a very old program for dumping and viewing.

I have never used the "organizer" in any post-processing software. I like my own way of organizing my files.

When shooting raw, I definitely dump the files via Lightroom 4. Then I can view them, develop them (one at a time if I want), then send them on over to Photoshop Elements 11.

I am currently looking for an older copy of the "real" Photoshop, like CS4 if I can get it cheap enough on a disc.
Not a fan of the Creative Cloud subscription idea, which will cost much more in the long run. Better to have a static CD of the program, in my opinion.

[abmj]

... What is the NIK plug-in suite? ...

A set of creative filter plug-ins to PS, PSE or LR that automate many effects and actions that are difficult or complicated in those basic programs. It used to be quite expensive but NIK was purchased by Goggle who now make it available at a very reasonable $150.00. There are several modules which are accessible from the "Filters" menu in PS or PSE. I use Define 2.0 (noise reduction,) Sharpener Pro (precision and selective sharpening) and Color Effex Pro 4 (selective filtering and enhancement) the most but Viveza (selective adjustments) and Silver Effex Pro (black and white conversion) are also very helpful.

Google Nik Collection

There are several videos that demonstrate the various filters.

[arkav]

I know that most here have followed the Lightroom sheep but I disliked it. PSE + the NIK plug-in suite and Faststone Viewer do everything I want to do.

I'm not a fan of Lightroom either. Though I am a big fan of FastStone, I don't think it's so great as a raw converter. Where it really shines is as an image viewer/browser, and for doing quick adjustments and
edits to JPG/TIFF/other formats.

I use it to view/cull images after a shoot. I've got it configured to display the JPG previews that are stored in the RAW files, which are quite large in Pentax raw files. For preparing a quick sample of an image,
this rocks. Faststone will do most of the basic adjustments you need to do, plus it has a handy draw board and it supports adding a watermarks, border effects, etc. Many of the most often used operations have
easy to remember keyboard shortcuts ( except delete! ). On top of all that, while you're looking at an image, you can invoke another program ( PSE, PDCU, Silkypix ) if you want to convert from RAW and/or do more sophisticated processing.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's a version for Mac.

[abmj]

I wouldn't even think of using FSV for Raw conversion - or serious edits in any case. It excels at what it is, a viewer and sorter. All of my Raw conversions and serious editing are done in PS Elements.

[Tarragon]

Raw Photo Processor (RPP)
A bit of a learning curve, but it's powerful and possible to get excellent results.
And, it's free.

Here's a tutorial:
RPP for begginers | Pavel Kosenko's blog (English version)

I just discovered this one, and I love it! Very precise control. I also am trying out topaz plug ins for photoshop 4, especially clarity and de-noise processes.

[PPPPPP42]

To answer the title, for the most part yes, everyone needs more software these days if they want to keep up. I miss the days when photoshop was pure individual darkroom skill (and basically free) instead of pissing away a months pay on a single program full of auto fixes and calling yourself a pro. Artificial perfection wasn't simply expected as the normal standard back then by non photographers the way it is now. Now I will step off my soap box and get to the details.

I am poor and every program seems to have good and bad points. I can't afford the full PP software which has the least bad points by far (new versions of elements are irritatingly crippled on things like raw editing now and I don't know enough about lightroom), so I figured I might as well stick with free.
I just use the Pentax digital camera utility version 4 that came free with the K-5 to fiddle with the DNG files, then I kick it over to paint.net which is also free.

The Pentax software V4 is clunky to learn and use and its a huge hassle if you have a smaller old monitor like mine because of the way it is set up, but once you get the hang of the basic functions it does really well for setting custom exposure correction and white balance and spitting out a Jpeg without screwing the image up or making it look modified. The lack of a real instruction book after version 3 (which came with my K20D and had a book) makes this a hard program to get into unless you know how to edit stuff with other software already and can find the tools in the menus and modes without instruction. Did I mention it was free?

Paint.net I picked because it has a useable interface and can do most things. I tried stuff like GIMP which has more plugins and capability but the interface was designed by an idiot and its really only fully supported for Linux users. Some of the things that are notably lacking from paint.net are the fancy smart tools you would find in the full photoshop. I really could use something to automatically remove chromatic aberrations for example, and I desperately need better burn and dodge tools. It lacks useable raw support (there are plugins that don't work right) so things still go through the Pentax stuff first unless the camera gets the white balance and exposure where I want it in the jpeg (meaning I did my job as the photographer right and it wasn't an unusual exposure). Free is also the key with this program so I don't expect much but it gives a good amount, and more gets added with plugins and every new version. If version 4.0 actually comes out soon (any time now) I had heard important stuff was getting added but I am not holding my breath.

Someday someone will explain to me why nobody is able to challenge the full version of photoshop for functionality. Considering the piece of crap costs $700 a copy, someone like Corel could afford to hire the best programmers on the planet and still turn a huge profit selling something for $300 a copy (which is still barely within reach of your average amateur), and yet they fail to do so.
I certainly don't blame adobe for screwing everybody simply because they can (that's how capitalism works), but $700 for a piece of software is a joke. I will not even dignify the subscription method with a rant.

Also why has nobody gone through and made a single locked thread for a sticky that has each major software (and its version at time of writing) listed with the abilities and strengths and weaknesses of each listed? It would eliminate a large number of the threads in this forum.
Searching other threads doesn't really help because they always turn into a 5 page rambling conversation full of opinions and old information.

[arkav]

Did I mention it was free?

That's always a plus. That's one of the reason's why I'm a big fan of FastStone ( though I did send in a donation, because I get more use out of that program than any other )

The Pentax software V4 is clunky to learn and use and its a huge hassle if you have a smaller old monitor

I actually prefer PDCU 3 over 4 in some respects, but both are clunky. Now that I'm shooting with a K-30, neither of them will convert my RAW images. And the Silkypix I got with
the K-30 won't convert my old RAW images.

I tried stuff like GIMP which has more plugins and capability but the interface was designed by an idiot

I'm a bit surprised that folks talk about using GIMP for photos. You can use it to process photos I guess, but I don't think that's really what
it was designed for.

Someday someone will explain to me why nobody is able to challenge the full version of photoshop for functionality. Considering the piece of crap costs $700 a copy, someone like Corel could afford to hire the best programmers on the planet and still turn a huge profit selling something for $300 a copy (which is still barely within reach of your average amateur), and yet they fail to do so.

I've never used Corel Paintshop Pro, but there have been good reviews here on the Pentax forum. And it's a lot cheaper than $300. Will it do everything that Photoshop does? Probably not.

Also why has nobody gone through and made a single locked thread for a sticky that has each major software (and its version at time of writing) listed with the abilities and strengths and weaknesses of each listed? It would eliminate a large number of the threads in this forum.

The problem is that the majority on this forum probably think that such a thing is completely unnecessary. They'd say "Just buy Lightroom and be done with it. Why would you even consider using
anything else?".

Opinions differ. One person may view a feature as a strength while another will view it as a weakness, so it would be tough to get a consensus on what should be said about each program. But it might still be worth trying.

Cheers

[timmijo]

Was it on this forum or some other spot where a fella mentioned that in many places overseas (Asia in particular), Adobe Photoshop (not Photoshop Elements) sells for $1. That person spoke of the native folks laughing at him when he told them he paid several hundred for CS5.

I read an article recently that said that the moment Adobe released its latest non-cloud Creative Suite program (I guess that was CS6?), it was pirated and subsequently sold all over the world market for way, way less. The article suggested that Adobe knows this will happen and tolerates it—perhaps to bring in new potential customers.

I'm not sure I want the Creative Suite or even just Photoshop itself anymore. I had longed to be able to afford it, but only because my peers who are pros treat me like a second-class citizen (as an Elements user).

PSE 11 (in expert mode) is very close to earlier versions of Photoshop. I think the gap is closing as Elements keeps upgrading. I have Lightroom 4 but only use it to pull out "the big guns" when I need them. PSE11 handles 95% of what I need. I got it on special at Sam's Club last year when it was released. Price: ~$49.00 US dollars.

You can be a pro with using only Photoshop Elements.
The bottom line is that customers don't care what you did in whatever post-processing software you have. Does the final result satisfy them? Do they like the pictures? That's what counts.

[abmj]

Was it on this forum or some other spot where a fella mentioned that in many places overseas (Asia in particular), Adobe Photoshop (not Photoshop Elements) sells for $1. That person spoke of the native folks laughing at him when he told them he paid several hundred for CS5. ...

That is because in "many places" they pirate and bootleg virtually everything, including PS. You can buy "Rolex" watches for $29.95, too. Shoot, you can download the full version of PS with a software protection crack via bittorrent for just the cost of the bandwidth, if you are so inclined. It is stolen but so is the $1.00 PS. It just depends on how comfortable you are with software piracy.

[SpecialK]

Also why has nobody gone through and made a single locked thread for a sticky that has...

I semi-jokingly suggested something like this for all the common recurring threads, that would have to be read by newbies before being able to post. :-)

[NicoleC]

That is because in "many places" they pirate and bootleg virtually everything, including PS. You can buy "Rolex" watches for $29.95, too. Shoot, you can download the full version of PS with a software protection crack via bittorrent for just the cost of the bandwidth, if you are so inclined. It is stolen but so is the $1.00 PS. It just depends on how comfortable you are with software piracy.

This is true, but there is also region/country specific pricing. In poorer countries, the official pricing can be much lower than the US MSRP (or Canada, or Australia, or...). Not $1 low -- that's obviously pirated. Well, we call it pirating, they call it entrepreneurism.

When I lived in LA many years ago, you could find similar wares in many ethnic markets and at street sellers. I imagine they are still there and the specic movie, music and software titles have just changed.

[Tarragon]

Interesting topic. No wonder companies don't like international sales! Makes me wonder though - if I were, for example, going on safari, would I be entitled to buy photoshop in Africa and bring it home with me? What about cameras too? At what point is it more economical to fly off somewhere to pick up serious gear?!! Anyone want to pay me a ticket to Africa for my holidays and I pick up loads of stuff when I'm out there??!

There must be a catch somewhere along the line!

[NicoleC]

There's two catches:

1) The manufacturer may not provide warranty service out of region. For software, that's not such a big deal.
2) If you attempt to resell imported software, they may go after you.

Then of course there are customs fees that you may need to pay when you travel into your home country.

[Tarragon]

Ah well, there goes my safari trip to Africa!!

It's funny how we live in a global community (Internet revolution) and have to negotiate different economic territories to buy stuff like software. Hardware I can sort of understand (moving physical stuff around), but software? Especially downloadable stuff. I actually use 100% legit software and wouldn't have a clue where to get pirated stuff from (nor would be interested in knowing). If something is expensive and worth it, I don't mind paying. If I can't afford it, I find a cheaper product. Or save up for it!