bicyclerepairman Loc: North Central Texas

Hi everyone. This is my first post. I have a D90, which I really enjoy. My question is which program would you recommend for processing raw files. Nikon Capture NX2, Lightroom, or Corel Aftershot Pro. I like the price of Corel. This is a great forum with some really valuable information, so thanks for that.

architect Loc: Chattanooga

Welcome bicyclerepairman. I also love my D90. My strong preference for processing RAW files is Adobe Camera RAW, which comes with Photoshop, Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. I have used Nikon NX2, but not Lightroom or Corel Aftershot Pro. I have used other Corel products but they are quite frustrating and slow compared to Photoshop. Try it out first before buying it.

bicyclerepairman Loc: North Central Texas

Thanks Architect,
I have lightroom as a trial and it seem pretty powerful. With NX2 I just don't like the look of it. Photoshop is just too much for me at this point and too expensive. I guess I'm leaning toward Lightroom. Yes, the D90 is a great camera.

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

Get the Free Trial of PaintShopPro x6, as well as the others and see which fits your needs and budget.

amehta Loc: Boston

It's tough to beat the price of FastStone Image Viewer (link): free. :-)

Pine1 Loc: Midland & Lakeway

Look at the Adobe Cloud. You can get LR5 and Photoshop for $10.00 per month and it's always upgraded.I have it and I like it. Welcome to UHH. These are great members, well informed and experienced. No matter what..someone will go to great lengths to help you.

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

There is also Raw Therapee and it is free.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Nion's Capture NX2 and ViewNX are both good. I also use Corel's PaintShop. Have PhotoShop but don't like it - To me the others are easier to use.

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

I picked up a copy of this the other day and on first glance it appears to be quite good. However, it also looks as though the learning curve is pretty steep and with so many options it is probably pretty tricky to use. I do plan to study the manual when I have time. My impression is that I have serious work ahead, but that it may be worth the effort.

I've been using PSP6 with pretty good results and it's pretty easy to use.

Mark7829 Loc: Calfornia

I think you will like Lightroom. It is the professional choice. There are soooo many tutorials out there, especially on free YouTube that if you have a problem, someone has the answer. At the moment you can subscribe to Adobe and get Lightroom and Photoshop for $9.99/mo with a one year subscription.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Bicyclerepairman, I am a big fan of Corel. Probably the best buy for the money and easy to use. However, for photography, I use LR and PS CC because, whether I like it or now, they are the standards and have a seemingly unlimited amount of "how to do's" free online. No other product can say that. You post "How do I do ... in LR?" and you will have a dozen answers by the end of the day.

You have to understand exactly what LR and PS do. LR does two things primarily: keep track of your pictures and edit them. Do not underestimate the former. Before you know it, you will have thousands of images and keeping track of them will quickly overwhelm you. With its database approach, keywords, metadata, classifying them, LR helps you find what you want instantly by a variety of criteria.

As for editing, I can edit over 90% of my images in LR. It does not have the powerful tools that PS has but has the ones you need for most fixing.

Here comes the problem. If you need more than LR for an edit, what do you do? PSE is a great program and, like PS, is integrated fully into LR. PSE is great for a beginner. The worst thing about it is that it is 8-bit while LR and PS are 16-bit. That means, PSE has to convert down the image. An extra trivial step with a minor loss of editing flexibility. PS is much harder to use and you can get lost in the maze of features you will never use. PSE has some special features that may be fun to use. Now comes the practical problem: what to buy. If you go with LR and PSE, you have to buy two programs and they will run well over $100, even on sale. On the other hand and as was mentioned above, you can "subscribe" to LR/PS Creative Cloud for thirty days free and then a one-year commitment in $10 monthly increments thereafter. Cleaver pricing from Adobe and they will introduce new features first into CC. Every so often, they bring out a real "must have" tool. Adobe may even eliminate the traditional way of distributing its software. By the way, you do not own any software. You merely license it and this is no different from their new subscription cloud tack.

I suggest you research these programs and those from other vendors. Another problem is all the choices and time needed to figure out how each works. The Adobe products will probably take more than a month to figure out unless you are a fast learner.

Good luck.

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

There is a downloadable manual available:
http://rawtherapee.googlecode.com/hg-history/4.0.12/doc/RawTherapeeManual_en.pdf

As well, a website called RawPedia has been set up, claiming to have articles describing every tool and topic related to Raw Therapee:
http://rawtherapee.com/blog/documentation

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

You will like Lightroom, but get a book to use with it It will help with the learning curve.
here are some links
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E5ZITCW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00E5ZITCW&linkCode=as2&tag=phbe1bl-20 Lightroom 5: Streamlining Your Digital Photography Process
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DZP3KJ0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00DZP3KJ0&linkCode=as2&tag=phbe1bl-20">The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book for Digital Photographers

bicyclerepairman Loc: North Central Texas

Thanks everyone for your valuable input. I appreciate it very much. This is a great forum with friendly folks that really want to help. You can't ask for more than that.

Al7

For LR I would suggest Scott Kelby's book. Both entertaining and very informative. It is really essential to have a manual. Great program if you know the ins and outs.