Photofinishing programs? Can anyone recommend a free, easy to understand photofinishing program that allows for some creativity? It's gotta be really easy to understand. I don't seem...

Festie Loc: Minnesota

Can anyone recommend a free, easy to understand photofinishing program that allows for some creativity? It's gotta be really easy to understand. I don't seem to be able to 'sense' what to do with them and have wasted many $$ on programs I can't use because I'm not a huge techie. I know there's a lot of them out there. I have a nice, new computer and want to get it right the first time.
Thanks!

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

What are you referring to as "photofinishing"? Post processing software? Or printer packaging software?

les_stockton Loc: Eastern Oklahoma

I can recommend free programs. I can recommend flexible programs. I can recommend easy to use programs. Likely, in the "triangle" of these, you'll only get 2 of them.
You can get free and flexible.
You can get free and easy to use.
You can get flexible and easy to use (but not free).

Gimp is free and flexible for most things photographer want to do.

Paint comes with Windows and is free and easy to use.

I haven't used Paintshop, so I can't comment on that and not sure if there's a free version.

Picasa has some editing software that is free, but I'm not sure how easy to use or flexible it is. I've barely used it in the past and that was a revision or two ago.

There's Paintscape that is free. Not sure how flexible it really is.

Google and get an idea of what's out there that provides the functionality you want 90% of the time.

Festie Loc: Minnesota

Um, yes.....A program to mess with my pictures once I get them on the computer.

Still figuring this out. This was addressed to 'Shooter'

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Festie wrote:

Um, yes.....A program to mess with my pictures once I get them on the computer.

Two to look at would be GIMP and PICASA, they are free to use. For more intense work I would recommend Paintshop Pro X4, its available for $50 but there are some discounts and rebates going on right now from what I hear, and it will do a lot more than any of the free programs.

Festie Loc: Minnesota

les_stockton wrote:

I can recommend free programs. I can recommend fl... (show quote)

Thanks. I have looked at paint, and all there is, is pictures. I can't figure it out. I used to use Picasa, but then upgraded it and didn't like it very much. I'll look at Gimp.
The world in general has gone to cartoons to explain everything, I have lots of trouble with that. Words, I like words.

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

sign up for a free account with photoshop.com it combines the free storage (2gb) of flickr, the organizer from pse and a good easy to use editor like piccasa.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Festie wrote:

Can anyone recommend a free, easy to understand photofinishing program that allows for some creativity? It's gotta be really easy to understand. I don't seem to be able to 'sense' what to do with them and have wasted many $$ on programs I can't use because I'm not a huge techie. I know there's a lot of them out there. I have a nice, new computer and want to get it right the first time.
Thanks!

Also, if you have Windows 7, you already have Windows Live Photo Gallery which allows you quite a bit of free editing of your photos, and its already integrated into your computer. Take a look.

les_stockton Loc: Eastern Oklahoma

MT Shooter wrote:

Festie wrote:

Um, yes.....A program to mess with my pictures once I get them on the computer.

Two to look at would be GIMP and PICASA, they are free to use. For more intense work I would recommend Paintshop Pro X4, its available for $50 but there are some discounts and rebates going on right now from what I hear, and it will do a lot more than any of the free programs.

I'm glad that Paintshop Pro was mentioned. I've never used it but I have a friend that uses it a lot and has for years. I didn't realize that it only costs $50. If there's a trial copy available, it would be ideal so you could download it, try it out, and see if it's easy enough to use and flexible enough to do all the things you want to be able to do.

I also like that the integrated Windows photo editor was mentioned. I don't use it, but if you have Windows 7, you have it already.

tg1911 Loc: SW LA

Basic, easy to use, several useful features, and free, ............. FastStone Image Viewer

If you use the Portable version, there's no installation necessary.
If you don't like it, just delete the file, because it doesn't need to be uninstalled for complete removal from your system.
There's also the advantage of being able to copy it to a thunbdrive, so you can take it with you for use on any PC.

les_stockton Loc: Eastern Oklahoma

MT Shooter wrote:

Also, if you have Windows 7, you already have Windows Live Photo Gallery which allows you quite a bit of free editing of your photos, and its already integrated into your computer. Take a look.

If I'm not mixing this up with another program, I wanted to mention that Windows Live Photo Gallery also has face recognition. (Picasa does too). So if you take a lot of photos of people, you can start flagging each face with the appropriate name, and eventually, the program gets "smart enough" to figure it out and have them pre-flagged so that you can just confirm (or change if not correct).

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

les_stockton wrote:

quote=MT Shooter br Also, if you have Windows 7,... (show quote)

The Gallery has a lot of free useful feature for the beginner.

Festie Loc: Minnesota

MT Shooter wrote:

quote=Festie Can anyone recommend a free, easy to... (show quote)

I do have Window 7, it's such a nice change from Vista! I use the Photo Gallery, it's really easy. I wanted a bit more creativity, that's all. I had a program that came installed on my machine years ago that not only corrected them, but did things like 'oil paint' and 'sketch' for special effects. Can't remember the name, though. 'Part-timers' kicking in , I'm afraid. :lol:

tg1911 Loc: SW LA

Festie wrote:

I had a program that came installed on my machine years ago that not only corrected them, but did things like 'oil paint' and 'sketch' for special effects. Can't remember the name, though. 'Part-timers' kicking in , I'm afraid. :lol:

FastStone Image Viewer (from my last post) has both of those features.

If you're looking for a lot of effects, try Irfanview.
It comes with a lot of plug-ins, and it supports Adobe Photoshop Filters.
It's easy to use, and also free.

Nikon_DonB Loc: Chicago

Like MT said, Try Corel Paintshop Pro X4. I've got it and it will grow with you. The better you get, the more you'll be able to do. Plus as a newby it won't "blow your doors off" with a lot of techie B.S. Here's a link.
http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod4130078&cid=catalog20038&segid=2500058&onyxcampaignid=&promo=4731&dcs_action=applyCoupon&url_coupon=4731&storeKey=&mapcounter=