Photo Processing Software Advice

[duckeyh]

Until recently, I hadn't bothered to process my RAW files as I preferred to have more "natural" images until I started to use Picasa as a more functional tool rather than just for importing.

The Nikon NX software seems fairly basic so I've started to look at both Adobe Light Room and Adobe Photoshop. I'm quite interested in Light Room which imports & catalogues files in addition to having some useful photo editing functions such as spot removal & noise reduction. It also costs alot less than CS5 and the Elements range .

I was wondering what software other people use,and whether you'd use Light Room as stand alone software

[4wd]

Many do manage with Lightroom alone, it's a very powerful tool to work on exposures, saturation and noise reduction/sharpening while exporting as jpg etc in your chosen size.

There are many things it can't do that Photoshop can though.

However most of photoshop's clever things like layers and selecting just part of an image for adjustment can also be done with Gimp which is free.

As you've sussed out, a major part of Lightroom is how it imports and organises your pictures when you plug in the card reader or camera.

[the_voodoouk]

<p>Are you on PC or Mac? If you are on a Mac then I can highly recommend Apple Aperture... Its relatively cheap, great for organising and storing your pics & allows you to do some pretty powerful editing in the software too! Better than shelling out £££'s for Photoshop if you don't need the extra tools it provides! Failing that, 4wd's thoughts are pretty much spot on; Lightroom and GIMP is a god combo & will save lots of money over Photoshop. Some good GIMP tutorials on YouTube too!</p>

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<p>If you don't do much editing with your RAW files then its probably best to shoot in JPEG (at max resolution), as they will already be sharpened & saturated straight out of the camera (And much smaller files!). Save RAW for when you're working in difficult light and may need to work on the White Balance etc when you get home... Just my 2p worth but worth a thought! </p>

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[duckeyh]

Thanks both for the advice it's been really helpful

[Dorsetbred]

Thanks both for the advice it's been really helpful

I use Photoshop Elements, seem to do a lot more than I use it for, but have found it very useful.