Horseart Loc: Alabama

Just thought I'd show you how easy. Here's an actual picture of how easy it is to use Irfanview. If you zoom in on this or click the download you can see that if you make it your default editor, every time you open a picture, the instructions are at the top of the page. Click on one of those and it shows you exactly what to do. You can click on "Image" and do so many things to it, like sharpen, saturate, straighten the picture, colors, lighten, darken and so much more. Click on "Edit" and add text along with much more. I only go to a different editor when I need to work with layers.

(Download)

Nickaroo

Great shot. That sums this up right here right now. But does it work like that with all of Your Images/Files. I never took them serious, but now maybe it's worth further investigation.

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

If I may piggy-back on this conversation, it is as I said in my post that came in late in this thread. I use IrfanView for working with all my photos--personal, family, professional stock photos, etc. When you begin to use IrfanView, it may feel like all you can do is adjust the contract, brightness and gamma. But one can add text, change the color temperature, make oil-painting filtered illustrations, clean up ragged lines in b&w illustrations, change the dpi and pixel size of a photo, and so much more. --Richard

Horseart Loc: Alabama

The good thing is that one will never regret having this one handy, even if they have other programs! Once you get it, you will never want to lose it.

Heather Iles Loc: UK, Somerset

Seems a decent program to have alongside all the others and it is free. I certainly will download it.

Thanks to you and profbowman for the information.

H

jsfphotos Loc: New York, NY

I can't believe after you said you're done with PS and LR that everyone keeps recommending PS and LR. I felt like you did -- PS is so non-intuitive and complicated and I did not want a subscription service.

I started using On1 Photo RAW about five years ago--there is a learning curve no doubt but it does just about everything LR does PLUS you can work in Layers when/if you get to that point -- something LR doesn't do so you have to go back and forth LR/PS/LR. Ugh!!!

On1 has MANY MANY "how to" videos for their users plus many more done by people like Matt Klauskauski, Scott Davenport and others on YouTube.

They are always improving it and for my money, does anything I could ever want to do to a photo and I started out with film about 40 years ago and had a darkroom in my house. You do not need Photoshop!!!

EJMcD

Paintshop Pro

tkvaughn Loc: Merrick, NY

Luminar NEO is now released by Skyrim (btw, they are in Ukraine)

louparker Loc: Scottsdale, AZ

Check out ACDSee -- they have several editing programs depending on what level you want. Also check out prior threads on UHH that have discussed this topic many, many times.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/uk/buying-guides/the-best-photo-editing-software
Try this. A good start. No recommend from this from me.

How Effen Ever ....
I tried trials from many different programs. They all worked.
Try too many, you'll just be cornfused. Take your time, pick one, go for it.
We could talk about it- but practice makes perfect. Devote 1 hour/day to learn, another to practice.

*I* would still suggest the Photoshop bundle. $10 a month. Industry standard.
Everything has a steep initial learning curve. You're gonna suck at them. It's OK.
EVERYbody has tips and tutorials. eBay has mouse pads and keyboards for it.

*!* have used Elements forever. It does what I want. A lot of things it don't do, I don't do.
BUT I've been dabbling with Affinity. I like it. Cheaper, better, but different from Adobe.
Silky Pix is interesting. Quirky.
BUT I just got a PC with Capture One installed, Ir's a MUCH BETTER app with RAW files.
This may be my new keeper. For a while. I still like Elements, tho.


I like it. So far.

DavidM Loc: New Orleans, LA

Try exposure x7. There are plenty of training videos and the UI is easy in my opinion. See link below...

https://exposure.software/tutorials/

JDVDUBAI Loc: Dubai

Hi,

Not to worry, we have all been there.

I took a step-by-step approach. Jumping with zero knowledge straight into PS didn't seem a good idea to me as I thought it was overwhelming.

I simply started using the editor that is part of Apple Photos. Clean simple, has decent performance and is not complicated. Above all, it has a magic button: "Auto". I used auto in the beginning and then closely observed which sliders it was changing. After a while, that gave me some sense of what the different sliders do.

After a while, you will discover that you're looking for certain features which unfortunately are not incorporated. In other words, after a while, you will discover the limitations. That's an important crossing point: are you happy with what you've got and don't mind skipping those features. Or are you curious enough to move on?

After Apple Photos I moved on to Nikon NX Studio. It is completely free, offers bit more controls, and in my humble view color rendering is absolutely great. Nikon claims it is also a photo management archive or catalog tool. Forget it, it is not. The program suited me well for a while but I was getting curious about all fast AI developments.

So I moved on to Luminar. Luminar is great if you're a bit further than a pure beginner. The Ai features work like clockwork. After a while, however, my photo archive became a mess. Used it as a plugin for Apple but also standalone which made it sloppy. The biggest drawback however I found, was that the photo management module was way too basic and lacked power.

It did teach me however that for me an all-in-one solution would be ideal. And I found one; for about 2 years I am now using ON1 RAW Photos and I must say that I am extremely happy with it. Editing functions are broad and many. In my experience, it has taken the top features from Lightroom and PS and combined them into one software pack. The photo management (or DAM as its called) part of the all-in-one pack took some time to figure out but once you get the hang of it, it is really very good, near perfect not yet perfect. If they ever add face recognition to their smart albums I would be very happy.

I very briefly tried the photo creators benchmark Adobe (PS and LR) if only because 80% of all photographers use it. Well I belong to the 20% minority who don't use it. I found it complicated, non-intuitive and way too complex. Yes it has a million functions but I have no use for them and heck, I have no idea what most of these functions do. So not for me, at least for now.

Hope that writing my personal learning path in the editing software world helps you with your selection decision.

Let us know what you ended up with.

mundy-F2 Loc: Chicago suburban area

Once my vision returns to a reasonable level, I will change to a more ingegrated photo software. I currently use the free software that came with the recent purchase of my Nikon Z6ii. I had to down load it from the Nikon website. It is basic software and that is with minimal use on my part. I am also newto this process.
I may add that I am a major user of Linux/Unix, and there are several free options. I am not a big fan of billwear (Microsoft), but On1 will be my selection in the future using Windows.
Mundy

mundy-F2 Loc: Chicago suburban area

I agree.
Mundy

mundy-F2 Loc: Chicago suburban area

Very nice!
Mundy