[expatCanuck]

Greetings -

Not looking for something overly elaborate. Something to remove redeye, get rid of 'product placements' inadvertently captured.

Photoshop is a bit steep for me.

Anything in the $100 or so category?
Free is fine too.

Thanks kindly.

- Richard
Old Without Money

[deejjjaaaa]

Comparison of raster graphics editors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Peter Zack]

This is a great program Paint.NET - Free Software for Digital Photo Editing and it's free. It will do a lot of what PS will do and it's open source freeware. Don't forget to visit the forums there to add tons of plugins and get tips and advice.

I open all my shots with Pentax browser and save them as TIFF's. Any that need adjusting are then opened with PN and it can handle almost any job.

[xs400]

You can get Corel's Paint Shop Pro X2 on ebay for less than $50. If you don't mind getting an older version, you can get PSP 9.0 for about $10 on ebay. I've used PSP XI and it works pretty well.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 is about $100. I've also used Elements 6.0 and it is also very good.

[Matt Miller]

I second the Elements 6.0 suggestion.

The Online Photographer: Photoshop Elements 6—It's Not Just for Kids Anymore

[ManWithCamera]

This is what I use: (all are free)
Picasa for easy photo organizing and most simple fixes (can take care of red-eye)
Raw-Therapee for better RAW conversion
GIMP for a free Photoshop alternative (for more advanced manipulation)
I've heard great things about Paint.net, but I haven't really used it

[Vlasta]

You can try this little program for photo retouching. Although still in beta stage (and hence free), it kicks Gimp's and Paint.net's butt when it comes to retouching with a unique cloning options and partially lossless .jpg manipulation (when you remove red eyes, or do a bit of cloning, the unaffected regions are not re-compressed and maintain original quality). No raw processing though.

[ftpaddict]

Picasa is good for minor touch-ups and organizing
RAW Therapee for RAW processing
XNView for viewing, minor touch-ups (more flexible than Picasa, and supports Photoshop plugins such as Virtual Photographer which I highly recommend)
GIMP for advanced manipulation, but I find the interface really quirky and hard to fathom.

[photolate]

Hi Richard,

I run a photo retouching service Photolate - Photo retouching and airbrushing for everyday photos which provides all types of retouching and high-end post processing to photographers. Prices start from $7 and turnaround is less than 48 hours.

Professional Photographer retouching (please contact me directly for bulk prices)
• RAW conversion
• Colour correction
• Image stitching
• Clipping path
• Layer masks
• Background replacements
• Sharpening
• Overall cleanup For the Amateur (& Pro)

Everyday photos (please use the website to upload pics)
• Smooth out your skin
• Soften your facial lines
• Whiten your teeth
• Remove your blemishes
• Correct red eye
• Remove distracting backgrounds
• Enhance the exposure
• Improve the colours

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm on Skype under 'photolate'. Hope you find what you are looking for. Natalie

[ftpaddict]

Hi Richard,

I run a photo retouching service [...] Hope you find what you are looking for. Natalie

This isn't software, it's a service, and you're spamming the forum.

[Mike Cash]

This isn't software, it's a service, and you're spamming the forum.

Let's not overlook the humor, though. Here's a gal promising 48 hour service....while having "late" as part of her user name.

[Tom S.]

Let's not overlook the humor, though. Here's a guy promising 48 hour service....while having "late" as part of his user name.

Good catch!

[rormeister]

• Smooth out your skin
• Soften your facial lines
• Whiten your teeth
• Remove your blemishes
• Correct red eye

I think I'll just go for the spa treatment

[procyon]

I use Photoline32 (PhotoLine: Image Processing) for my editing.
It's quick, has a ton of adjustment layers for really non-destructive editing, supports 16-bit, colour management, and includes almost everything that I would use from Photoshop. And is a lot cheaper (69 euros IIRC).

[brothereye]

I use Corel Paintshop Pro Photo X2(upgraded from XI) for retouching and raw conversion. Other than the mouthful of a name, I've been really happy with it as a retouching/editing tool. Performance is pretty good on my modest pc, and while there is a lot to the application, you can use just what you need and explore the rest. A couple of downsides: There are only a couple of books that cover it, it's windows only, and if you want to work in someone else's graphic/printing shop they probably are using PhotoShop, so any skills you build won't be exactly translatable. I bought one of the books and the software comes with tutorials, I have windows, and I'm only using it at home, so it works for me.

While I do raw conversion with PSP, I've been considering making the investment in Bibble or Phase One, from what I've read I can't say that PSP is very strong raw conversion tool, although it does work.