• This topic has 19 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 6 years ago by DrJ.
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  • Recommend a photo editing programme please.
  • judy-rockshox
    Free Member

    I used to use Picasa but they retired it and i cant download it to my new PC. I had Adobe but found it very complicated. I’m on Windows 10. Can anyone recommend please? Free is good but don’t mind paying for the right thing?

    fruitbat
    Full Member

    For the very basic tweaking I use FastStone Image Viewer (is free).

    DrJ
    Full Member

    Maybe not what you’re looking for, but I am looking for alternatives to Photoshop and have been very impressed by Pixelmator and (even more so) by Affinity Photo. Not free, but not Ps territory.

    BoardinBob
    Full Member
    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Picasa still works

    colournoise
    Full Member

    I use Polarr but there are loads of similar cross platform apps that do similar.

    Pixlr is a good shout too – 2 or 3 apps depending on how deep you want to go with your editing.

    spacemonkey
    Full Member

    Pixlr and GIMP.

    graemecsl
    Free Member

    There’s an Open Source version of photoshop but I can’t for the life of me remember what it’s called, I’ve got it here somewhere, maybe I’ll be back with an Edit.

    Found it, GIMP it’s called.

    Steve_B
    Full Member

    As above Picasa works fine in W10. The W10 photos app has also been much improved and is good for simple editing.

    judy-rockshox
    Free Member

    I had Picasa on my old laptop but now they say it’s retired and to use Google Photos

    ctk
    Free Member

    I like irfanview, very simple to use.

    judy-rockshox
    Free Member

    Thanks. I’m going try PIXL R

    Cougar
    Full Member

    I don’t know what sort of editing you do but, Lightroom is the professional version of Picasa in terms of photo management and stuff like contrast adjustment.

    For retouching, Gimp is well regarded but confuses the crap out of me. I use Paint.Net which feels to me like the spiritual successor to Paint Shop Pro (back when it was free and came on three floppy disks).

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Has anyone tried the latest versions of Paintshop Pro?
    You can get it for around £65 and it seems to get decent reviews.

    I keep debating buying it, because I could do with a program that I can edit photos with, but also has some kind of organisational/catalogue side to it.

    There’s also a product called On1 Photo Raw, which I keep getting e-mails about because I’ve got a free copy of one of their plug-ins (from a magazine). They are always sending offers & discounts.
    It looks pretty slick, but there’s not quite as much information about it out there.
    It seems like more of an effects program, than an editor….

    keithr
    Free Member

    PaintShop Pro is very capable, but it’s a big installation, and can be extremely flaky, slow and unreliable on a lot of machines, without there being any obvious rhyme or reason to it.

    On1 Photo Raw is primarily a Raw converter with editing capability, rather than an image editor: and in my experience (I do a bit of photography and I’m pretty demanding about my end-results) it’s a work in progress; and overpriced for what it is.

    I’ve been a satisfied PhotoShop user for years (I even liked the subscription pricing model, and I don’t see Adobe as the Devil Incarnate), but – like a lot of folk – I’ve moved to Affinity Photo, and can’t see that changing any time soon…

    It’s important to point out that even though two packages might have similar functionality, they won’t have the same capability – as anyone who has tried to effectively recover highlights or deal with high ISO noise without killing detail – will know.

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Cheers, keithr – does Affinity photo have an ‘organising/cataloguing’ element to it, or is it purely an editor?

    It looks like a really good program.

    keithr
    Free Member

    It hasn’t got cataloguing/DAM yet – but Serif has a solution in development.

    Depending on your DAM needs, Picasa is still pretty good; and I just use my OS’ tagging/Exif/search tools (in Win Explorer) to manage my thousands of images – it can do a lot more than most people realise…

    ampthill
    Full Member

    Dark table might work

    http://www.darktable.org/

    Not tried it bit its meant to be a free Lightroom alternative. So a bit like Picasa. Apparently it has some cataloging facilities

    BigEaredBiker
    Free Member

    If you really want Picasa it is still possible to download it:

    http://dl.google.com/picasa/picasa38-setup.exe

    DrJ
    Full Member

    It’s important to point out that even though two packages might have similar functionality, they won’t have the same capability – as anyone who has tried to effectively recover highlights or deal with high ISO noise without killing detail – will know.

    I’ve used Ps for a number of years, and have been a fan of “content aware fill” for removing unwanted stuff from the image, but I’m blown away by Affinity’s “inpainting” equivalent tool. It really does seem like magic!

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