[aamendoza93]

Greetings Family,

My K-3 should be arriving this Sunday and I can't wait to get started learning every inch of it! Now, just wanted a little advice as far as software goes. Adobe Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, or I think I remember hearing something about Adobe CC? Anyways, I'm sure there are plenty more and I'd love to hear all about them. I'm willing to spend what is necessary as I see this as a new serious hobby and an investment.

[jatrax]

Photoshop Elements - the dumbed down version of Photoshop. But even dumbed down it is more than enough for any photo editing
Lightroom - Data base driven photo editing and cataloging software. The 'gold standard' for photographer software. Does most editing required and provides solid digital asset management
Photoshop - The big gun in image editing. Seriously way, way more than most people need. But it will do anything you can think of
Adobe CC Photographer bundle - The subscription version of Photoshop and Lightroom. Costs $10 per month and includes both programs as well as some additional features/
GIMP - free photo editing software similar in functionality to Photoshop
FastStone - free viewer and editor, somewhat simpler than others but does the job
Irfanview - free viewer with some limited editing functions

You should decide what you need to do before selecting software. You can spend months learning some of these programs. If you need the ability to quickly do simple edits and apply keywords & titles and print then Lightroom is likely your best choice. For image manipulation and layering and compositing then Photoshop either Elements or the full package.

If your needs are rather simple the combination of Lightroom and Photoshop Elements is quite good. If you are very serious then look at the CC bundle but remember you pay $10 per month

If you want to stay on a budget then the free software may be all you need until you decide what all you really need to do.

[Tas]

Greetings Family,

My K-3 should be arriving this Sunday and I can't wait to get started learning every inch of it! Now, just wanted a little advice as far as software goes. Adobe Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, or I think I remember hearing something about Adobe CC? Anyways, I'm sure there are plenty more and I'd love to hear all about them. I'm willing to spend what is necessary as I see this as a new serious hobby and an investment.

Jatrax has covered Adobe and some free options to consider if you don't want to buy.

An option you might consider too that I've been using is this one: https://www.on1.com/apps/on1photo10/

Like the Adobe options it costs but it's not as expensive as some, particularly when you consider the capabilities it provides. It plugs nicely into Lightroom and Photoshop or used as a stand alone.

All these systems are good of course, I use LR6 a lot (I shoot in RAW DNG) and tend to use Photo 10 more that Photoshop these days too.

Anyhoo, lots of choices, and lots of info online to help with the decision.

Tas

[Paul the Sunman]

Even the On1 people don't recommend it as the front-line editor. It's for more powerful editing after LR or similar, and more convenient than PS.

[Tas]

Even the On1 people don't recommend it as the front-line editor. It's for more powerful editing after LR or similar, and more convenient than PS.

I mentioned it as it has the browse module now and is much improved compared to five years ago.

I start in Lightroom for 99% of my images, and why I pointed that out though I probably didn't make that clear enough. Ta for picking up the slack.

Tas

[Taurus85]

Silkypix could be an alternative. Not as expensive as Adobe and did nice results for me so far.
Maybe worth to look into it as well.

[MPrince]

I would not call Elements a dumbed down version of PhotoShop, it's more like a streamlined version. It has most of the functionality of PhotoShop at a fraction of the cost and its feature set will satisfy the post processing needs of most amateur/enthusiast photographers, IMO.

I do my initial raw processing with DxO Optics Pro and finish up in PSE. Mostly what I do in Elements is white balance, levels adjustment, cropping if desired and conversion to b&w if desired.

[runswithsizzers]

A graphic artist who wants to combine multiple images, draw on them, add text, and creative effects should get a subscription to the full version of Photoshop CC, which includes Lightroom CC. It will cost you $120/year to 'rent' the CC package.

But for the photographer who wants a digital darkroom to make a final product which still looks like a photograph, then Photoshop Elements is plenty powerful to get the job done.

I've been doing almost all of my editing in Adobe Photoshop Elements for about 5 years, now. I paid $50 for version 10 in 2011, which is what I'm still using. The current version is 14, and sells for about $80 (and you own it).

But forget about prices. I must emphasize that the dollars you spend on any decent photo editing software is insignificant compared to the hours you will invest learning to master it.

After 5 years, I'm still discovering new aspects of Elements, and in no way have I outgrown it. Elements has a few user interface quirks that are annoying, but there is absolutely nothing I've ever wanted to do that the software was not capable of. For organizing, keywords, etc, I'm still using an older version of iPhoto, but looking for a replacement, obviously.

More recently, I've been fooling around with Affinity Photo. ($50, Apple App Store). In many ways Affinity Photo (AP) is much more powerful than Adobe Elements, and considering the price difference, AP is a better value. However, there are some things that Elements can do better than AP. For example, when bringing out details in underexposed shadows and/or recovering details from overexposed highlights, I prefer the results I get in Elements, compared to AP. On the other hand, I like (most of) the AP interface better than Elements, and AP offers some very exciting features that makes Elements feature set look somewhat basic.

For now, Elements is still my go-to editor, mostly because I'm comfortable with it. However, if you are not already invested in the Adobe Way of doing things, I believe AP has the potential to be the better editor, regardless of it's lower cost. Affinity Photo is still under active development, and upgrades have been no cost (so far). When Adobe upgrades Elements, you pretty much have to buy the latest version to get the added features.

Another issue with AP for me is this: because the software is relatively new, there are fewer books (maybe none!) to help you learn how to use it. Affinity does provide a pretty good Help menu, and numerous video tutorials on their website. In contrast, Photoshop and it's variations have been around for along time, and there are MANY ways to get help learning it. One of my favorite authors for Photoshop reference books is Scott Kelby. I usually recommend the 'Missing Manual' series, especially if written by David Pogue, but for Elements the Scott Kelby books are better.

[jatrax]

But forget about prices. I must emphasize that the dollars you spend on any decent photo editing software is insignificant compared to the hours you will invest learning to master it.

Too many people forget this. I have months invested in Lightroom alone and still finding new things. Dollars are nothing compared to hundreds of hours of learning.

[stevebrot]

I generally recommend Lightroom as the first tier tool. It is capable of doing the most important post-processing tasks on RAW files as well as JPG and TIFF image files. It also has a powerful pass-through mechanism to work with image manipulation software such as Photoshop, Elements, Paintshop Pro, or The Gimp. The cool part is that all Lightroom processing is non-destructive and leaves the original source file unchanged* despite having the ability to work with many virtual copies and processing approaches.

While the processing strengths of Lightroom are usually highlighted, its cataloging and print facilities are very powerful and not quite as obvious. I prefer the non-subscription version and strongly suggest that even experienced users invest in the Martin Evening's excellent guide LINK as a means to plumb Lightroom's full feature set.

There are also several open source tools with capabilities similar to Lightroom. Darktable is good for Linux and MacOS. RawTherapee is popular on Windows.


Steve

* The original source file is not overwritten unless the user specifically requests that processing information and metadata be inserted into the file EXIF section. This is technically a revision of the original file, but not required for routine processing.

[Aksel]

...

There are also several open source tools with capabilities similar to Lightroom. Darktable is good for Linux and MacOS. RawTherapee is popular on Windows.

...

There are also Photivo for Linux, and LightZone for Windows as free software.

But I use most DXO Optics Pro (elite version).