Best editing software

[Matty1287]

Hiya, quite new to fighter control so forgive me if this is in the wrong place!

I've always loved photographing aircraft, regularly visiting local bases such as Mildenhall and Lakenheath, I do take a lot of photos however never really been into editing them! I feel part of the fun of the photography is actually capturing the image as it is in the moment, rather than taking just 'okay' shots and spend hours editing them at home, however this is just my opinion and leads me onto my next question! Some photos i take I would love to either simply brighten a little or just sharpen up, just little touches to enhance the photo rather than change it completely, so I was wondering if anyone could let me know which editing software is best value for money, so I can make the most of my images?

Look forward to hearing your responses!
Thanks!
Matt

[edarter]

I would recommend looking at a few and deciding for yourself. Most people shoot in RAW format because of the extra flexibility it gives with regard to recovering less than ideal paramaters in shots. The most popular RAW editor is Adobe Lightroom, but I'm currently considering going to Capture One Pro 8 as it gives me much better results and seems to suit my workflow better. Neither are cheap though so do take advantage of the 30 day free trial with both before spending any cash.

Hope that helps

Ed

[Matty1287]

Thanks for your help Ed! Will have a look into Lightroom as I've hard quite good things about that! Will also have a look at capture one also! Thanks for your help.

[Sparts99]

If you get the Lightroom 30 day trial set aside a bit of time to watch the tutorials on the Adobe website, they're really useful and will get you working very quickly, look for the ones by Julianne Kost. They follow on quite logically from media management to the actual editing. You say you don't want to do much to your pics but I have no doubt you'll end up doing far more than you expected and getting very pleasing results whichever software you use.

[EGDR]

I've found that Scott Kelby's blogs and Youtube videos are also quite good for learning about Lightroom, although it's already quite user friendly as far as photo-editing software goes.

[Matty1287]

Thankyou for your replies! Looks like I'll have to set a little time aside so I can make the most of the 30 day trial! The tutorials sound like a good idea also! and I think you're right Sparts by me ending up doing more than originally expected!

[Heidfirst]

what type of camera do you use? There is a free version of Capture 1 for Sony users plus an option to upgrade to C1 Pro for a bargain price.
Adobe (Lightroom/Photoshop) is the industry standard but that doesn't mean that it is always the best, just the most commonly used ...
Then you have others like Paintshop Pro etc. - pretty much every available editing programme has a free trial version available.

[Matty1287]

I use a Nikon D3100, 55-300mm lens, not the best quality camera but I'm happy with the results I get with it! Had a bit of a Play with photoshop a while ago but haven't used it in a long while! To be honest had completely forgotten about that! Thanks

[edarter]

A few suggestions:

Don't run C1 and Lightroom trials in parallel, take your time with each over the 30 days. At worst then you get 2 months of free RAW processing!
As above, watch the numerous videos available on line for both. There is a wealth of info out there.
Again as above, don't discount things like Photoshop, although LR and C1 are the most popular choices for most.

[SG1]

If you just want brighten and sharpen why not go for elements 13, I think it goes for about 70£

[EGDR]

If you decide on Lightroom then I'd go for Adobe's Photography subscription. About £8 a month gets you Lightroom and the full version of Photoshop including all of the updates.

[tazmin88]

You can do basic editing with the NX2 software that comes with the camera and its free( have sent you a PM)

[sploosher]

here are a couple of free programs you can download, no where near as complex as photo shop etc, but may suits your needs...

http://www.gimp.org/

http://picasa.google.com/

I personally use paintshop pro x2...............

[Matty1287]

Thanks for all of your responses, have managed to find my NX2 disc which, as Chris has said, has the basic editing software on it, its enough to get me started on editing and I feel like it would probably be a better idea upgrading my camera before spending a lot of money on a really powerful editing programme. I will definitely make use of all of the free trials to see what suits my needs (when I find some spare time).

[Green133]

Matty

There is a new version of the Nikon editing software called capture NX-D and View NX-i which is used for organising your images.I'm fairly new to editing myself,so don't know how these stack up against the other established editing suites.

They can be downloaded from the nikon site and while you're at it there's a firmware update for your 3200 if you haven't already got it.

Green133

[Green133]

Sorry just noticed that your camera is the 3100 not 3200.

Green133