Photo Editing Software (Page 6): Luminar Neo is an excellent photo editing software.

Richards' Small World

Luminar Neo is an excellent photo editing software.

DPFotoZ Loc: Woodruff, SC USA

BobHartung wrote:

Check the Adobe site. They offer many tutorials on Lightroom Classic. Also YouTube has too many to count. Be sure you are looking at recent releases due to the changing software functionality.

I agree! If you take your time and understand what all it can do for you plus an excellent catalog system, I don't think it can be beat. And don't try to jump ahead to do something that will come to you in time. I felt the same way when I started it but now, I would be lost without Lr. Everything is basically in one place, Also, check out Mattk.com, good instructor and easy to understand.

shunter62 Loc: New Mexico

Pattilu wrote:

I’m a newbie and am asking for guidance regarding photo editing software. I haven’t been able to understand PS & LR and am looking for “photo editing software for dummies.” Any recommendations about how to get my feet wet and learn slow and easy?

For fast, very easy to understand editing of just about any kind of graphics package, I recommend Irfanview, a German freeware. I have used it for at least 15 years with no problems at all, no spam or malware attached. They WILL take donations, but it's not required. Be sure to download the plug-in packages as well as the engine software. It's not quite as sophisticated as say, the Canon photo editor, which I also use. I don't care for Adobe products: expensive and complicated to use.

Bruce121

xt2 wrote:

Luminar 4 and or Luminar AI are “dummy” prof and pretty powerful software packages. They work extremely fast and well with “Photos” on Mac OS which would act as a steady data management source.

Cheers!

I have been using Luminar AI and agree it is powerful and easy to use. Just downloaded Luminar Neo which will remove power lines and dust spots!

timcc Loc: Virginia

I agree with bsprague: a great place to start is with the Photos program already in your Windows 10. It is simple to use:
1. Once you have imported your photos to a folder, simply right click on the photo you want to edit.
2. Click on Edit with Photos.
3. Options to straighten, crop, or rotate are on top of the screen.
4. Click on Adjustments to adjust Light (contrast, exposure, highlights, or shadows), Color (tint or warmth), Clarity, Vignette, Red eye, or Spot Fix (to delete dust spots, etc.).
5. Click Save a Copy or Save (drop down menu).
6. That's it! Very intuitive and easy, with all the basic edits. Once you've mastered this, you can move on to more sophisticated editing programs. Or not. 😃

Pattilu

radiojohn wrote:

Here's a question: WHAT do you need to edit? Cropping, color correction, lighten/darken, change contrast?

Photos taken in JPEG. Mostly lightening darks, sharpening, minor cropping, red eye, etc. Nothing along professional lines.

yvesfeder Loc: Bath, ME

Amazing isn't it that even in "Photos" (that comes with Win10) you can remove telephone wires, smudges, etc. and that's already pretty darn nice!

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

Pattilu wrote:

I’m a newbie and am asking for guidance regarding photo editing software. I haven’t been able to understand PS & LR and am looking for “photo editing software for dummies.” Any recommendations about how to get my feet wet and learn slow and easy?

Photoshop Elements is a slightly less powerful version of Photoshop and there are a few books available to guide you through many procedures for post processing. Check out Amazon for the books or possibly the other online book stores. Plus there are many other apps as suggested by others.

augieg27 Loc: Central California

Pattilu wrote:

I’m a newbie and am asking for guidance regarding photo editing software. I haven’t been able to understand PS & LR and am looking for “photo editing software for dummies.” Any recommendations about how to get my feet wet and learn slow and easy?

Faststone free and easy to learn and use.

John H. Loc: Central Washington State

Pattilu wrote:

I have a Dell. I think I’m running windows 10 on it.

On the lower left is a white rectangle saying: "Type here to search"

Type: system info

A pop-up will show the app you need to find "system information"
Scroll through the list to see all the things you can learn

Nickaroo

burkphoto wrote:

The most CAPABLE options all have significant lear... (show quote)

I totally agree with your statement as I kind of look up to you as an Educator. I try to stick with LR Classic CC and ACR as I get them with my Subscription. Plus I do use Illustrator also when someone needs some work done. I personally love the whole Creative Cloud Subscription. I do have Topaz DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI, but only when I need to double check myself. I did try DXO Prime, but it made my Files look fake. Even after DeNoise or LR Classic Noise reduction, which Thank Goodness that LR Classic CC now has masking, I have found myself on certain images adding a touch of Grain to get the Film Nostalgic look. Let me know if You agree with that method. Thank You for all that You have taught me in such a short time. By the way, my lungs are stabilized now due to the new Cystic Fibrosis Medication that I take when I where my Vest at Night for a couple of hours.

drzuvela Loc: Croatia

sippyjug104 wrote:

GIMP 2 is a feature-packed photo processing program that is available at NO COST as part of the Open Source community. YouTube has bushels of tutorial videos. GIMP stands for Graphics Image Manipulation Program.

https://www.gimp.org/

Confirming everything what is said and warm recommendation. Besides, it works on Win/Osx/Linux.
Next step from that or in conjunction with would be Darktable. Also opensource, probably best next to Lightroom. Darktable is intended to edit and convert RAW files from camera to jpg, png, tiff... Also works on Win/Osx/Linux.
Both tools are quite serious. You need follow manual from basic to get there.

However, since declared as "newbie" I can recommend google drive/photo cloud. There is available google editing option online inside the browser. You can play with your jpgs as much you like learning basic editing functions.

WoodturnerJohn Loc: Pittsburgh PA

Pattilu wrote:

I’m a newbie and am asking for guidance regarding photo editing software. I haven’t been able to understand PS & LR and am looking for “photo editing software for dummies.” Any recommendations about how to get my feet wet and learn slow and easy?

I recommend two Skylum products, Aurora HDR and Luminar AI both have an extremely easy learning curve and reasonable priced. There are templates within the program that will give you a preliminary adjustment which you can then adjust to your liking or you can just start editing without using the templates. They have a great forum "Luminar Insiders" that you can join, that gives you access to daily zoom seminars on specific topics as well as "ask me anything" about the products segment, as well as other benefits. I've been using their products for 8 plus years and I'm very pleased with both their products and customer support. Skylum products are are a purchase you own it, not "rent" software. The company is in the Ukraine and they can use all the support they can get. I would not purchase their NEO product as it is not fully developed. It will be a great product once they have time to complete it.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Pattilu wrote:

Photos taken in JPEG. Mostly lightening darks, sharpening, minor cropping, red eye, etc. Nothing along professional lines.

You can do that with (1) free programs from the camera manufacturer; (2) programs included with the OS on your computer; (3) freeware programs from the internet (e.g. IrfanView, FastStone).

I have been using IrfanView since the '90s. It's free and fairly capable. Does everything you want. FastStone is similar but came out after I had been using IrfanView for a decade or so, so I haven't really used it much. These two programs are light and fast-loading. For really simple stuff they beat out any of the programs with more capabilities. Although I use LR/PS a lot, IrfanView is still my go-to for quick changes: Cropping, changing brightness/contrast, adding text, converting jpg to tif/png/bmp/etc, making contact sheets, viewing a sequence of photos in a folder. As long as the image doesn't require anything else, IrfanView works just fine.

The only limitation is that once my photo pile reached 10K images, I needed a better way to find things. LR is my solution there. Others have different solutions.

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

IrfanView, if not mentioned yet, is a very good choice. I have used it now for several decades with lots of success. And it is free. --Richard