What photo editing software do you use?

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

The stuff on my Imac is totally useless.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

now i mostly use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. really great for processing RAW images..the main thing i like about it is that it's FAST, yet u can still do things like sharpen images, change exposure/brightness etc. also great for organizing sets of images

if i'm doing something more detailed (like merging photos for a panorama or something, or other cool effects on a single picture), i use Adobe Photoshop Elements.

ETA: although a lot of adobe products are $$, you can get a discount if you are a student. i was done with school but while preggo i took photography classes at night at a local community college. since i was taking those classes i was technically considered a student so i got a pretty good discount on those software packages.

[Babymakes3]

I have Adobe Photoshop but don't do much with it, I can never figure out how to do what I want it to do. I bought Photo Explosion on sale at Office Depot at Christmas and kinda like it! It's pretty easy to navigate but i've only used it a few times. So if your looking for a cheaper option and not going to be doing anything professionally take a look at that!

[khm]

Can you use Picasa (free from Google) on a Mac? It can do a shocking amount of stuff and it is EASY and it's good and saving you from yourself in terms of editing over the original. (If you edit and save a pic within Picasa, it automatically makes a copy of the original in a separate "originals" subfolder.)

I use photoshop, and it is amazing, but it has taken me years to learn even a fraction of it!

[JTsMom]

Photoshop here.

[Indianamom2]

Can you use Picasa (free from Google) on a Mac? It can do a shocking amount of stuff and it is EASY and it's good and saving you from yourself in terms of editing over the original. (If you edit and save a pic within Picasa, it automatically makes a copy of the original in a separate "originals" subfolder.)

I use photoshop, and it is amazing, but it has taken me years to learn even a fraction of it!

I just started playing around with Picasa and it is really easy. I have no other photo editing experience, other than with whatever came on my computer, which for the life of me, I cannot get to resize anything.

Picasa is easy and FREE!

[SammyeGail]

I use Picasa too, I have been amazed at how clear I have made pics of me and of DH when we were little that were scanned in. I've been most amazed with what I can do with 'Retouch' on the first page of editing in Picasa. You can make that brush size really small ;).

I've always wanted Photoshop, maybe one day.

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

I use Picasa, too. Love that I can always go back!

I use Photoshop when I want to make cards or combine images or whatever.

[bluestarfish18]

Photoshop CS4. It's really $$$, but for professional use, it's one of the best out there.

[egoldber]

For the stuff I want to do (re-sizing, cropping, minor touch-ups) I use Picasa or irfanview (available from free download at irfanview.com). We do have an (old) version of Photoshop that DH uses for anything major.

[Penny's Pappa]

For general photo viewing I use Irfanview. For more involved adjustments I work with GIMP. Both are free downloads.

[JoyNChrist]

Lightroom is amazing, and about a billion times easier to use than Photoshop.

I do photography as a side job and I have both Lightroom and Photoshop CS4, and I honestly only open Photoshop if I absolutely have to...Lightroom is just so much easier, faster, and far more intuitive. It's also cheaper. ;)

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Lightroom is amazing, and about a billion times easier to use than Photoshop.

I do photography as a side job and I have both Lightroom and Photoshop CS4, and I honestly only open Photoshop if I absolutely have to...Lightroom is just so much easier, faster, and far more intuitive. It's also cheaper. ;)

:yeahthat: ITA. i'm so glad i got lightroom last year. it is soo much easier & fasterto edit photos. with adobe photoshop u have to open and edit each file one by one..with lightroom, it's very easy to take say 20 photos of the same subject and easily pick out which one is the best, throw out bad ones, and edit small details. i'm surprised lightroom isn't more popular, as i do think it's easier to use than photoshop. imo photoshop seems more designed for people who do a lot of in-depth photoediting, using several layers, special effects etc, which may be why it seems complicated for most ppl to use.

[american_mama]

I just started with Memory Manager software, sold by Creative Memories, costs $40. It has very impressive ease and editing features. Here's a summary of what I wrote in another thread:

You can color adjust and lighten in at least 5 different ways including reducing shadows or warm-ing the photo up
sharpen the focus
blur (good for 5 o-clock shadow, wrinkles, etc)
and, best of all, CLONE. So you can clone out unwanted objects sprouting from the background, or crop the photo and then clone out any unwanted stuff still left in.

I cropped a photo of all three kids to show just the baby, then used clone to remove a shoulder from another kid that still showed up. In another photo, there were toys cluttering the carpet around a great photo of DH and the kids. I cloned the carpet over the toys and, voila, had a great family photo with no distractions in the background. I have even cloned a face from one photo into another photo to get a good photo of three people.

The main reason I am so gung-ho for Memory Manager is because the editing is much better than what you can do on a free photo website. When I rave about it, people think it's the same as what you can do for free, but it's not. I have dreamed for years about being able to get rid of un-wanted shadows or objects in photos, and I am stoked to be able to do it for $40 and very little learning curve.

I've used Picasa and do really like it, but it can't clone and I don't think offers as many ways to alter the color/lighting of a photo, and those are by far the two most common things I need to do with my photos.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Picasa. I wouldn't know what to do with anything more advanced than that. I pretty much only use it for red eye removal at this point. Would love to learn more.

Beth

[m448]

Photoshop Elements. I like the open as RAW adjustment window even when your'e working on JPEGs. If it's just a quickie pic I'm posting on the blog I just do a quick fix on my preview window on the windows player. Otherwise if it's a portrait or more formal shots I use photoshop. I've played with GIMP as well and it's pretty similar.

Beth if you want to get acquainted with photoshop I highly recommend the Scott Kelby books. I'm working on editing a photo shoot and the way he explains adjustments for portraits is super clear.