Image Editing Software Lets You Prepare Camera Files For UseThere are many image editing software programs available. Some are very good and comprehensive, some are good for basic needs and some are not very good and difficult to use. Prices range from many hundreds of dollars to free. Learning to use them ranges from long and difficult to extremely easy. But all camera files need at least some adjustment to look their best when printed, when viewed on a television or monitor screen or when attached to an e-mail. This page covers the best editing software from the first two categories. Which adjustments to make for each end use and how to make them will be covered on the
Image Sharing page.
Most software companies offer free trials for thirty days. Take advantage of this to test drive a variety of programs within your budget. Each package has a very different interface(look), names similar tools differently, controls those tools differently, etc… Find one that you can understand and are comfortable with using and you will be happy for a long time and produce better final results. The minimum any image editing software must have to be useful are adjustments for: overall exposure, white and black points plus gamma(levels), curves or equivalent sliders, contrast/brightness, color balance and hue/saturation. Manual control over these adjustments is much better than auto-only because each image is unique. You must also be able to crop and resize an image and also save as another file type(minimum is .TIF, .JPG and .BMP, but more is much better). Being able to create multiple layers is very helpful as are selection and cloning tools. Having the capacity to work with 16-bit depth files is another big plus for final image quality. More is better for all of these controls and will give you more options when working with your digital image files. Gimp, Paint.NET and Serif PhotoPlus are free downloads that have the tools needed to do basic adjustments to camera files. Gimp and Paint.NET, in my opinion, are the most advanced and offer more and finer adjustments without added complexity for a new image editor. PhotoPlus is extremely basic image editing software and offers less fine-tuning control but will still do the minimum required. These are all small software programs that require few operating resources from the computer. None of these programs will open RAW files(see Digital Photography Tips for why raw files deliver the best image quality) and so require a separate file-conversion program(usually a basic version is supplied with the camera). In summary, all of these editing programs will give improved results over doing nothing to the camera files, they are very easy to understand and use and you are not going to beat the price! There are many other free image editors out there which I have not tried, so browse around and try a few to find one you are comfortable using.
The next step up the image editing software ladder are programs in the $70-$200 range. Examples of good ones are Corel’s excellent PaintShopPro and Adobe’s Elements. It is always worth getting the latest version as they keep packing more and more features into them. Both offer nearly all the adjustments of a top-of-the-line editor with a much shorter learning curves and easier to understand interfaces. If you have any money left in the budget after the camera purchase I highly recommend one of these instead of a second lens! It is worth investing the time and money in one of these programs at the beginning to learn how to maximize your image quality so that you can take full advantage of any future equipment additions to your camera kit. Both programs include RAW image converters and browsers as part of the package, making things much more convenient than any of the free software. What you won’t get are all of the bells and whistles of the professional level editors nor the same degree of fine tuning ability.
At the top of the heap is full-blown professional image editing software. The big three are Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture. Photoshop has been the king for a long time and is still unchallenged as a multi-purpose program. Lightroom and Aperture are very close for photographic editing only and are both gaining ground rapidly among professional photographers and serious amateurs. For image editing, any of these programs offer almost unlimited adjustment with very fine control over every imaginable aspect of the file. The only real advantage Photoshop still offers is that it is a more all-around package, offering illustration and web tools that can take you well beyond the realm of photography. You pay dearly for this extra level of control and extra features, both in dollars spent and in time learning how to use the software. If you are a serious photographer and have the budget it is time and money well spent and the improved final image quality will prove that. Also, once the initial learning process is out of the way, these professional programs can save a lot of time because of more convenient features and extra niceties like more keyboard short-cuts and improved customizability. A disadvantage is that most people never have use for many of the extra feiatures that come with these programs. After more than seven years I still feel like I am scratching the surface of Photoshop’s possibilities and I explore new-to-me areas of the software on a regular basis just to find out what else I might be able to use. Those are the choices. Start out small and cheap and see what limitations pop up. Take those into account when you upgrade to something better. Take full advantage of free trial offers! They are great, giving you a chance to test drive the full program before committing your money. Don’t buy more than you need unless there is a good chance using the extra capability in the future. Be aware of the time commitment necessary to learn a program well and what it will offer your images in return for that investment. Most of all, keep taking pictures whatever image editing software you are using.
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