Royce Moss Loc: Irvine, CA

Hey Hoggers need your help. I have been using Picasa for some time but it is past time to move on to something else. I am not a pro and don't plan to be one just a guy with a D7200 and some nice lenses. I am looking for a somewhat simple software to store, edit, and share photos directly from the site. It goes not have to be free. Is Lightroom CC the way to go? Thanks

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

I say yes to Lightroom. Others may disagree, but I find the organizational tools useful and the editing ones very intuitive.

Andy

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Andy is absolutely right. Getting immersed into Lightroom Classic CC will honestly, without a shadow of a doubt, move your photography to a completely different level.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Royce, your status as a photographer (pro/enthusiast/snapshottaker) - should not dictate what software you get. What does matter is what you feel you want to do with your images that you can't easily do now.

Many recommend Lightroom, as do I. It's image management capabilities, are excellent, and the editor is quite good. But, as I have said many times - it is not intended for image finishing. It has limited local adjustment capability, and even removing dust specs can be challenging. It can't do layers, work with channels, do precise masking, content aware, custom brushes, etc etc etc that you may want/need for a specific task on an image.

Since you are already considering LR CC, I would get LR Classic CC, and you will also get PS CC for the $10/mo. Taken in small bites, the learning curve is quite manageable. You don't need to know everything there is to use Photoshop at the most basic level. You only need to know how to use a small set of tools to effectively improve your images.

One of the great things about CC is that it is supported by many third party plugins - a big plus for them. Plugins are great because they make short work of repetive tasks or tasks with many steps to them.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

LRClassic is about $120 from many vendors, but try befoe you buy: https://creative.adobe.com/products/download/lightroom-classic?promoid=KSPGB

However, there are PS like but better [?] programs like $50 Affinity. Lots of online training.

johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

Why not use its replacement "Google Photos"
The app will download all your photos old and new, organise them in date order and you can search for a subject such as "dog" or "buildings"
There is a basic but very good editor, you can create albums and share them or just single photos.
And:
It's FREE.

anotherview Loc: California

No. Instead, go with Photoshop Elements. It should suit all your photo-editing needs at your level. I believe PE comes with Adobe Bridge which helps store and organize photographs.

If by chance later, you advance in your photo-editing skills, then you could always move up to the full Photoshop. Your skills will move with you.

Good luck.

11bravo

Besides Lightroom, you might also look at ON1 Photo RAW. Has a free trial, and is a one time purchase. I actually have both (Lightroom's becoming obsolete "owned" version 6), and an older version of PS too.

https://www.on1.com/products/photo-raw/

traderjohn Loc: New York City

Yes. I think Lightroom is the way to go. Go to youtube and check out all the tutorials on LR then after viewing a few you will have a better idea if that's what you want.

david vt Loc: Vermont

Hi

The question of Lightroom (any version of it) vs xxxxx comes up all the time on this site. There are many people, especially those whom are or lean to the professional end (or aspire to be there) here who swear by LR XXXX version and are very happy with it. There will be many replies going in a different direction.

I have three suggestions for you

First, there are about 1-2 threads per weeks on “best editing software”. Suggest you do a search and you will find lots of opinions and it will help accelerate your decision process.

Second, understand what you want out of the editing software. What do you want to be able to change? Basic sorting, cropping, and some very basic modifications, or extensive edits? Go with what works for what you want for the short to medium term. Yes, there is something to be said for investing in learning for the long term, but if it is too much overhead and work in the mean time, and/or you don’t want to be able to take advantage of the extensive editing of LR or PS or XXXX, then it may not be prudent to invest that time or money

Finally, try before you buy. All programs offer a trial period. Invest some time here to make sure you like what you go with. Try to download/import some existing pictures and make sure the software flow makes sense, for what you want to do with it. Make sure you can edit and output (share or print) with what you go with.

Does is make sense, FOR YOU and YOUR GOALS.

Good luck

Ron 717 Loc: Pennsylvania

That $120.00 is per year or $10.00 per month. Just want to clarify that it’s not a onetime cost.

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

Photoshop ELEMENTS should be all you need. Look at some of the How To videos to get an idea of all it can do.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

Check out Corel PSP, easy to use, very complete, fairly reasonable, buy and use no rent.
Free stuff Fastone has some good items.
Sign up at Give Away of the Day and watch for photo editing programs, have to down load and install within 24 hour period, some good some not so.
Bob.

Papa Joe Loc: Midwest U.S.

Hi Royce, for a very easy and straight-forward, free program, I suggest you download and try PhotoScape. I think you'll enjoy using it.

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

Photo Processing Programs I use: PhotoScape X Free - Intuitive and easy to use. A really good standalone program. (85%), Adobe LightRoom 6 Verison 6.14 (Classic?) Standalone (5%), and Picasa 3 (2% to import and organize). For “special projects” (8%) I use the following freeware; Andrea Moasic, Raw Therapee 5.3, Regi Stax 6, Noiseware Community Edition, and Canon Digital Pro 4.
PhotoscapeX tutorials: http://x.photoscape.org/help.php All of my best on your photographic journey, JimmyT