whats the best photo software

snowfacke · Joined: 22 Jun 2007 Posts: 1

Hi can any1 tell what is the best photo software as i have been told a lot of diffrent ones. and if you can download for free 100%free thanks

Tiberius · Joined: 18 Nov 2006 Posts: 369

The best software is Photoshop CS3.

However, that's something that can do everything, and it's also very expensive.

You can get a program such as Ulead's Photimpact which is quite similar to Photoshop in many ways, and it is much cheaper. There are also a bunch of free downloads. These won't give you anywhere near the flexibility of Photoshop or Photoimpact, but they let you do some things. PhotoPlus is an example of this.

However, if you have a budget and want a really nice photo editing program, you can't look past Photoshop Elements. It's basically a stripped-down version of Photoshop, and gives you the most used functions.

Here's a list compiled by Inkwolf over on CoS Forums:

For Macintosh:
FuturePaint
Alternate Futurepaint download site since you have to scroll way down on the orriginal site
NIH Image
ArtRage

For Linux, even!
The Gimp
i.Mage
Cine-paint Was used to retouch the Harry Potter movies! Very Happy

For PC
Artweaver Natural art materials simulation.
Paint.net
Ultimate PaintUltimate Paint is shareware, but offers a freeware version. Plus, the trial shareware program can be used without restriction.
The Gimp
ImageForge
Project Dogwaffle This is a link to download the freeware Version 1.2. Newer versions are no longer free, but may be worth paying for if you like the freebie!
VCW Vicman's Photo Editor
Pixia
Painter 25
602 PC Suite (Part of the Office suite)
Photoplus
Brush Strokes
Evan's Image Editor Perfect for painting Lily. :angel:
ArtRage
Drawing for Children If full-featured programs scare you, try this. Smile

kombizz · Joined: 10 Mar 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Berkeley

As Tiberius said, I would go with PS CS3.

spluurfg · Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 107 Location: London

Considering the original poster made a seriously vague question and doesn't look like he's going to even return to the thread, I'm surprised people are answering.... but there are good answers, and hopefully the thread will be useful to other visitors to the forum... so I'll just throw in some info...

If it's free downloadable software you're looking for (...legal that is) then try picasa2 for file organization and simple manipulation and paint.net for more advanced editing features like color correction and curve adjustment etc. Picasa is very basic but organizes photos very quickly, paint.net has quite a few useful features but isn't photoshop by any stretch. At any rate, they're free.

herrickphoto · Joined: 17 Apr 2008 Posts: 19

Definitely Photoshop PS3. It's got quite a learning curve on it (I still discover new things it can do). If you don't need all of its functions, go got photoshop elements - that way you'll be learning the ropes and if you do go to CS3 it won't be quite so much to master all at once. Hope that helps! Lynn

miranddavid · Joined: 14 Sep 2009 Posts: 4 Location: NY, NY

I hear light room is great. Never tried it though.

orestesdd · Joined: 13 Nov 2009 Posts: 15

I wonder why people recommend PS CS3 instead of CS4. Also could someone use a simple software liks PS Element 8 or Photo Impact Pro 13?

Ciao!
orestesdd

Tiberius · Joined: 18 Nov 2006 Posts: 369

I recommended CS3 because when I wrote that post, CS4 hadn't been released. Very Happy

Elements and PhotoImpact are also pretty good. I used Photo Impact before switching to Photoshop.

orestesdd · Joined: 13 Nov 2009 Posts: 15

flyingdutchman · Joined: 17 Jun 2010 Posts: 7 Location: central Italy

I couldn't live without IrfanView.
http://www.irfanview.com

It does all of the following:
Fast viewer - flip through a folder full of full-size images very quickly indeed. Has a configurable thumbnail mode as well.
Batch operations - Convert, resize, rename, curve correct, add captions to a folder or multiple folders full of images, automatically.
Editing - Curve correction, jpeg lossless crop / rotate, add captions, simple filters, simple paint type operations, correct red-eye.

It reads just about any raster file format, including RAW, and writes most common formats.

It does for 99.9% of anything I ever do with my photographs, for the remainder I use the GIMP.
And last but not least, it works well also on not terribly recent computers, doesn't take half an hour just to load, and it's free for personal use.

headshotlondon · Joined: 18 Aug 2012 Posts: 1 Location: United Kingdom

It has been a few years since this subject was raised. PS5 is amazing. What do others think?

Tiberius · Joined: 18 Nov 2006 Posts: 369

The latest version of Photoshop is always going to be the high-water mark for photo editing software. But there are lots of other programs too. I'd argue that the latest version of PSE is more powerful than Photoshop of a few years ago.

nkg · Posted: Fri 24 Aug, 2012 2:14 pm Subject:

I think PS CS5 is pretty good. CS6 introduces some very useful tools for the photographer, especially the wide angle lens correction stuff. Unfortunately they've changed the zoom responsiveness, making it crazy sensitive to scroll wheel motion, which drives me bonkers. Makes CS6 very difficult for me to use!

Tiberius · Joined: 18 Nov 2006 Posts: 369

nkg · Posted: Sat 25 Aug, 2012 11:22 am Subject: