jnurm99 Loc: Clarkston, Michigan

I am looking for photo editing software. What would anyone recommend ? Where would I get the most bang for the buck? I am new to photography.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

GIMP is an Open Source graphic editing program that is free to the public as part of the Open Source Community. Search for it on the internet and it will take you to Sorceforge which is the community download site. It is very powerful and it has many of the features that the high priced editors do and in many ways it is quite similar to Photoshop. YouTube has many GIMP tutorials and I believe that it is worth the time to look into.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

For my money, Lightroom and Photoshop Classic is the way to go. It's ten bucks a month, it's the "lingua franca" of post processing software, and it's capable of anything you want to do in PP.

It's the digital darkroom of today, and at a price that is a fraction of what I used to spend on chemistry and wasted paper, many year ago. Even unadjusted for inflation. Best bargain on the market.

And yes, I know that many object to the subscription model. But for a company that depends on predictable cash flow (i.e. EVERY company in America...) this is the kind of revenue model that allows them to sink maximum effort into R&D and improved software. Sorry that it's not the model we grew up with, but it's definitely the future of virtually all software developers.

Andy

Bill_de Loc: US

The Adobe $10 subscription is very popular. You might be getting more features than any other software, or at least that is the claim made by many who use it. Now, if you asked many of those folks how many of those great features actually get used by the casual photographer, I'd guess not too many. Yesterday a member in the camera business mentioned his customers who buy top of the line cameras and never learn to use most of the features.

Adobe has a program you can buy outright that is better suited for most casual shooters. It is called Photoshop Elements as it has many of the 'elements' of Photoshop. It has a good organizer similar to the one in Lightroom. It has three levels of editing, Quick, Guided, and Expert. This should serve you for a long while. In the future if you decide you want to get more involved in editing you can always start the subscription and have a very easy learning curve.

There are also a lot of other companies producing excellent software and most have 30 day free trials. Don't rush into anything. You need something that YOU are comfortable using.

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tdekany Loc: Oregon

I would purchase Affinity as a great deal all around if I didn’t already have LR/PS, but I do have Affinity on my iPad Pro

Chaostrain Loc: Hillsboro, Oregon

Well, that depends on what you want to do with it. Personally I just use whatever came on my computer and phone. I can crop and do some adjustments to the image. It's surprising the features they have. I'm not big into post processing. Of course if you want to do some heavy processing you'll want one of the more robust picture makers that'll be recommended. By the way, welcome to the nut house.

srt101fan

I'll throw in my vote for Affinity. I bought it some time ago but just started using it. So far so good; I think I'll be able to do everything I want to do and the price is right (around $50).

I'm not a "power" post-processing guy and I don't aspire to be. If I were, I might look at Lightroom and Photoshop but I don't see that in the cards.

Leicaflex Loc: Cymru

Luminar 18. A modest cost, no subscription, good support and I use it myself.

https://skylum.com/l/luminar-2018-bundle-trial-expiration-bonuses?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Luminar_Brand_Britain&utm_term=broad&gclid=CjwKCAjwma3ZBRBwEiwA-CsblJ3cfbUayKf7MLgla-C-NfpHCQd6AP7_ffCbq-A6H4PsFweZA6cMwRoCKbsQAvD_BwE

bmike101 Loc: Gainesville, Florida

darktable. it is free. it is powerful. you really only need to use a few of its modules:
- lens correction
- base curve -> fusion
- white balance
- perspective correction
- crop and rotate image
- spot removal
- shadows and hilights (start with just turning on) (radius)(3D)
- contrast brig...ss saturation
- color zones
- local contrast = sharpen image (detail) (3D)
- defringe
- denoise (profiled) (must do)

Chadp Loc: Virginia Beach

I would recommend Affinity also. I use it on my IPad Pro with the Apple Pencil. What a fun tool to play with. If I didn’t have the IPad Pro I would just purchase Affinity for the computer.

kmocabee

Throwing my hat in for Luminar. Very nice filters set, and very low cost.

George Collins Loc: Rhode Island

LR and Photoshop are hard to beat; and for $10.00 a month, pretty cheap for really extensive programs. The basic Topaz Studio is free and it offers many good filters ans editing, and if you like it you can also add onto it.

wapiti Loc: round rock, texas

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

And once you've learned to use Photoshop Elements, you can add many of the full Photoshop features by purchasing Elements+ ( http://elementsplus.net/ ) for a mere US$12.
Just make sure you select the correct version for the PSE you have purchased.
Or you can download and install a Demo version for free first. ( https://video-books.net/downloads/index.htm#elem+ )

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom Classic. They cost $10.00 as a subscription. They are frequently updated for free. This is the recognized best combo in the entire world. It's only complicated if you try to learn it all at once. There are literally thousands of free video tutorials available on YouTube. There are hundreds of books. They are even taught in College. There are UHH'ers from the darkside that hate to pay anything are acknowledge the truth about software. One will always jump out and proclaim GIMP or something from Corel. Do yourself a favor and learn the best. Have fun.