My favorite editing software for digital images: what's yours?

[gardenstate]

I recently upgraded from the Canon S400 to the G6 and really like this new camera!

As with the S400, I use several programs to tweak and expand the useage of the digital images. Here is a list of some of my favorites and why...

Paint shop Pro 9 (http://www.jasc.com) - does most things that Photoshop does at a lower cost and even uses PShop plugins. I really like the easy to use PERSPECTIVE CORRECTION feature. about $129 USD

DCE Autoenhance (http://www.mediachance.com/dce/index.html) - a low cost batch image "enhancer" that really adds "pop and wow" to your files.

Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop plugin - Skintune (http://www.phototune.com/skintune_intro.html)- although it is somewhat expensive ($70), it allows you to easily make images with almost perfect skintones based on ethnic group of your subject. It beats lengthy manual adjustments hands-down!

Fotofusion (http://www.fotofusion.com) - very easy to use high resolution collage maker that is also a big hit with the scrapbooking community (they even have a Yahoo Group devoted to this). Some wedding photographers love this program too (see http://www.lumapix.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=513) for an example! $40 up

DVD video montages of your still shots with music- MemoriesOnTv (http://www.codejam.com/motv.htm) with the MPEG2 plugin (both for $50 USD) to make DVDs gives you pan and scan effects on your still shots (like Ken Burns documentaries on public television. Of the packages I've tried, this was about the easiest to use with the smoothest slide transitions. TOP NOTCH! Note: in my opinion, only opt for the razor sharp DVD output because the VCD and SVCD were lower in quality. I also use an external video encoder (TMPGenc Plus) with this program. An example http://www.waunakee.k12.wi.us/heritage/MOW/mow2.htm using their free MemorieOnWeb software that gives effects like MemoriesOnTv.

[RAW]

My favorite software is my camera...take the best image that time at that place and save time editting...;) .


By the way I read reviews about CS and it is awesome...

[neil_r]

Adobe Photoshop. I started with V3 and now using CS, about to upgrade to CS2.... possibly.

There is quite a bit of investment required learning what it can do (and boy am I still learning) but once you start to master it there is so much you can do.

N

[Mannytkd]

CS2 is awsome, especialy the new features, get it soon??!!

Adobe Photoshop. I started with V3 and now using CS, about to upgrade to CS2.... possibly.

There is quite a bit of investment required learning what it can do (and boy am I still learning) but once you start to master it there is so much you can do.

N

[Rob612]

PSCS2 since last week. Before it was PSCS

[Mannytkd]

What do you think of it? I also use PS9 too for some things but PSCS2 gets used the most.

PSCS2 since last week. Before it was PSCS

[Rob612]

What do you think of it? I also use PS9 too for some things but PSCS2 gets used the most.

Well, I said that before I used PSCS, not PS9 (if with that you intend PaintShop 9), si I'm just a Photoshop addicted :D

I have always used Photoshop since version 2, I think (or maybe version 3) so the only thing I can say is that i just love it.

At the opposite of what happened with Premiere, where the complete change of interface made me dislike the latest versions (Pro and Pro 1.5, and I stick with 6.5) not because they are bad (I must say the functionalities are just great) but because I cannot get used to the new interface after years of NLE with Premiere, Photoshop has mantained its interface relatively similar.

And CS2 is just as great as the other versions.

[nick1946]

I use the Microsoft Digital Image Pro 10 and the free ArcSoft that came with my Canon G6 and Canon scanner, I really like the magic eraser in DIP10, I'm not that far advanced yet to deal with layers,etc--maybe someday when I have more time

[Mr. Twister]

Photoshop Elements 2. Does great job.

[magicmikey]

Photoshop Elements 3.

[steve547]

I use Micrografx Picture Publisher 8. It has alot of features and it's much easier to use than my photoshop 6 . The only problem is that Corel bought Micrografx and stopped making Picture Publisher so there are no new versions, and this version erases the EXIF information on my photos after it edits them. Other than that, I really like it for editing, but not for printing.

[kraterz]

There are several cheap and free image editing software options. I've been using photofiltre which is pretty amazing considering it's free. It does almost everything you need for basic image editing. GIMP is yet another free alternative I've been using since the old Unix days on our Solaris and Linux machines, but its user interface is really weird and was designed for martians with four hands.

Unfortunately most alternatives to photoshop (including elements) don't support (or have insufficient support for) color management.

[lostdoggy]

Learning PSCS

[ATucker]

Picture Window Pro. Fully color managed, 16 bit editing. www.dl-c.com (http://www.dl-c.com)

[bikerider]

Photoshop 7 but moving to CS soon........been using PS for about 4 years now and know about 30% of the features well!

[condyk]

PS CS and I use a full 10% of its capabilities ;-)

[lefturn99]

Photoshop 7, Elements 3 and CorelDRAW! 11. For normal photo work, E3. For more serious graphics, a combination of CD and PS. I've used CorelDRAW! since v3 and PS since v4. There used to be a significant Corel community but that has pretty well dried up. I used Corel Photopaint for years and struggled. Corel fans always said " you can do anything in PP that you can do in PS". That may be true, but PP is a pain. That probably goes for PSP.

[j.baker]

I have been a paint shop pro user for a very long time. V8 and V9 are getting a bit large and cumbersome, but it is still a good program.

Regards

John Baker

[colliewalker1]

"DCE Autoenhance (http://www.mediachance.com/dce/index.html (http://www.mediachance.com/dce/index.html)) - a low cost batch image "enhancer" that really adds "pop and wow" to your files."

I wouldn't be without Autoenhance but have some difficulty with Colorcast Removal. The Automatic White Balance mode rarely works and when using manual the type of colourcast tends to swing from one color to another -is this just my clumsiness?

I have found though,that if I use Auto White Balance several times in sequence it sometimes produces a result.

Have you had any problems like this?

[gardenstate]

I just use the color enhancing and simulated filters from the colorcast removal section -- both functions seem to work well for my needs.

[gardenstate]

Easy PERSPECTIVE CORRECTION with Paint Shop Pro 9

I recently shot some pictures of a reception with my G6. Taking a photo of a large glossy foam sign-in board seemed like a real challenge. Well.... I took the shot at an angle to avoid flash glare and ended up with a distorted image. At home, I imported the picture into PSP 9, placed the corners of the perspective correction around the image and voila -- got the finished image you see in

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gardenstate60031/detail?.dir=9f2e&.dnm=8459.jpg&.src=ph

I'm sure you could use a transform function in PS and other programs -- but the function in PSP9, for me who is Adobe PS7 challenged, is very easy to use and straight-forward.

When I take pictures of tall buildings and images with windows, this function is very handy to have to correct distortion.