Photo editing software. What and why?

[Nigel C]

I'm expecting this to become a rather lengthy and informative debate, with a variety of opinions.
Arguments and counter-arguments are fine, but please, let's not make any of this personal, or FACE THE WRATH OF THE MODS!!!!!

As they say, lets play the ball and not the man!


So, what photo editing software do you use, and why?
How much would you pay for editing software?
What typical corrections do you normally make for say a full sunny day, a cloudy day, light coloured subjects, dark coloured subjects?
Do you use just one or more programs to get the desired effect?
Was it easy to learn? Tips for beginners?
JPEG or raw editing?


Many thanks in advance. Let the debate begin!

Cheers
Nigel

[Andrew McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by Nigel C

I'm expecting this to become a rather lengthy and informative debate, with a variety of opinions.
Arguments and counter-arguments are fine, but please, let's not make any of this personal, or FACE THE WRATH OF THE MODS!!!!!

As they say, lets play the ball and not the man!

So, what photo editing software do you use, and why?

Photoshop CS2, because my pics often need help!

How much would you pay for editing software?

I got it for free through work!

What typical corrections do you normally make for say a full sunny day, a cloudy day, light coloured subjects, dark coloured subjects?

Most 'corrections' should be made on the camera if you set it up right, although I always seem to need some light/dark/contrast/saturation adjustment and some sharpening when I get home.

Recently I missed a great photo op of a QF 744ER taking off at YSSY from an incredibly short run because I'd bumped the settings on my camera while climbing onto the wall at the beach. Lesson - ALWAYS check your camera settings (i.e. IOS, shutter speed, f-stop etc).

Do you use just one or more programs to get the desired effect?

Just Photoshop CS2.

Was it easy to learn? Tips for beginners?

Depends what you want to do with your pics, e.g. publish them, jetphotos/airliners.net, or personal collection. I'm mainly self taught, although I have picked up hints from the Jetphotos forums, and from other photogs. I'm always learning new things, so I often go back to some of my older shots and am occasionally able to salvage pics which I used to think weren't editing.

My main advice is to talk to other users - you'll get varying opinions but if you experiment you'll find what works for you. Oh, and establish a workflow and stick to it, and if you're looking at publishing your work, get a decent computer monitor!

JPEG or raw editing?

JPEG for me, although I've heard RAW gives you more flexibility when editing. Trouble with RAW is it writes to the memory cards much slower, and the format is much bigger so you'll get a lot fewer pics on a card.

Have fun!

Cheers

[Mark D]

Originally Posted by Nigel C

So, what photo editing software do you use, and why?

Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP) and Adobe Lightroom (LR)

Originally Posted by Nigel C

How much would you pay for editing software?

DPP free with a Canon DSLR, you need some software off the disc that came with the camera to be able to install it. Primarily for RAW processing, and pretty good at it for what I want. White Balance, curve adjustments and batch processing.
LR, I did pay for can't remember how much (hmm.. paid for its predecessor that Adobe bought out now I think about it) Many more bells & whistles than DPP but probably more capable. Its cleverer than me at the moment...

Originally Posted by Nigel C

What typical corrections do you normally make for say a full sunny day, a cloudy day, light coloured subjects, dark coloured subjects?

What I said for DPP, light temp / white bal, and brightness curves is about all.

Originally Posted by Nigel C

Do you use just one or more programs to get the desired effect?

No, one or other of the above. Oh, I also use IrfanView for batch re-sizing of JPG, slideshows etc. Free &well worth grabbing at http:\\www.IrfanView.com

Originally Posted by Nigel C

Was it easy to learn? Tips for beginners?

DPP is pretty easy, LR not so much but I've not had to go for help yet. Lots of buttons & menus to work through.

Originally Posted by Nigel C

JPEG or raw editing?

I shoot both JPG & RAW (ie both at the same time) for several reasons, redundancy as my card reader/PC eats files at random (1% loss rate), JPG also for quick processing as my main PC is a bit of an antique, RAW batch processing takes a long time. RAW because I've had shots I really wanted saved by being in RAW, the extra detail meant I could recover a shot that I otherwise would delete.

[Brenden S]

CS2, was free, use it to adjust the image and crop, resize etc

try this site
http://www.jid.me.uk/workflow/

and this
http://www.jid.me.uk/workflow/Workflow2/

[Craig Murray]

Originally Posted by Nigel C

So, what photo editing software do you use, and why?

Photoshop CS is used for all my editing. I was using Paintshop Pro a million years ago and thought it much better than Photoshop. That was till I started actually working with and persevering with Photoshop. Small steps initially, but once mastered you'll be putting out phat images before you can poke your eyes out with a Rhino horn.

Originally Posted by Nigel C

How much would you pay for editing software?

Mine came pre-installed, I don't recall the cost.

Originally Posted by Nigel C

What typical corrections do you normally make for say a full sunny day, a cloudy day, light coloured subjects, dark coloured subjects?

The only thing I would often "correct" as such is the overall appearance of the image using the Curves (CTRL M) function. It works much more efficiently at brightening the image than simply using the Brightness/Contrast function.

For basic editing for uploading to the online photo sites here's a brief run-down of how I would edit a shot:

1) Open image in Photoshop.
2) Hit CTRL " to open up the grid and level the image using the horizon and vertical items as a rough guide.
3) Crop the image, retaining the same original ratio.
4) Select Layer > Duplicate Layer. I then name the Dupe Layer "Spots"
5) Press F7 to open up the Layers window and click on layer called "Spots".
6) Select Image > Adjustments > Equalise
7) Click on "Background" Layer in the Layers window.
8) Select "Healing Brush Tool" and heal all visible dustspots. They won't disappear on the layer you're working on but in the "other" layer they'll be magically healed!
9) Once finished with the dreaded spots, right click on and delete the layer called "Spots" in the Layers window.
10) Adjust Saturation, CTRL U. More than 10 is excessive!
11) Re-size image to 1152x768 pixels
12) Add sharpening using Filters > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask (Settings of Amount, 50%. Radius, 0.3 pixels. Threshold, 0 levels). 3-4 applications of this setting should suffice. If you require more the shot is probably beyond being razor sharp!
13) Upload to Pixellsandplanes.net

Originally Posted by Nigel C

Do you use just one or more programs to get the desired effect?

Just one. But if anyone finds a program that can make my pictures sing and dance in addition to looking s##t please let me know.

Originally Posted by Nigel C

Was it easy to learn?

No it wasn't, to be honest. But if you stick with it and try to refine your skills and keep applying them to various images over and over again you'll soon get the hang of it. The links BS posted above are very, very good tutorials.

Originally Posted by Nigel C

Tips for beginners?

Enjoy turning your pixels into masterpieces. Editing a good photo can leave you very satisfied. Like not as satisfied as if you'd just had your....... actually, never mind that anagram!

Originally Posted by Nigel C

JPEG or raw editing?

Raw? Isn't that a sort of sugar? Never used it myself, Large JPEG Fine resolution will cause you no problems at all.

I hope my input into your very, very good thread gives you atleast one tidbit of information you can take away and apply to your imagery.

The cheques in the mail

[Brenden S]

Nige, send me a email and I will have a chat to you off the board about this.

[Carl F]

just marking this thread for my reference.