Photo Enhancing software? Without breaking my bank account, can you tell me what is a good photo enhancing software? I'm not new at taking photos but still have a LOT to learn. I...

OneShotOne18

Without breaking my bank account, can you tell me what is a good photo enhancing software? I'm not new at taking photos but still have a LOT to learn. I really don't want to sit in front of my PC all day everyday learning - so pleease do not send me don't that rabbit hole. Someone is pushing me to get LightRoom Classic cc.??? Oh, I looked at some ratings and to me it's like shooting fish in a barrel. If I shoot I bound to hit one. So many to choose from - IT's confusing! HULP! THX

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Do you want processing or enhancing software? There is a difference. However, and regardless of price, they all come with a free learning curve.
--Bob

OneShotOne18 wrote:

Without breaking my bank account, can you tell me what is a good photo enhancing software? I'm not new at taking photos but still have a LOT to learn. I really don't want to sit in front of my PC all day everyday learning - so pleease do not send me don't that rabbit hole. Someone is pushing me to get LightRoom Classic cc.??? Oh, I looked at some ratings and to me it's like shooting fish in a barrel. If I shoot I bound to hit one. So many to choose from - IT's confusing! HULP! THX

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

rmalarz wrote:

Do you want processing or enhancing software? There is a difference. However, and regardless of price, they all come with a free learning curve.
--Bob

Luminar is a relatively new one that will offer data management later this year as well processing. Relatively inexpensive offers data, management, a slick processing module and is the easiest to master in my experience. There are a number of others as well. Here are a couple of links to compare some:

https://skylum.com/luminar/compare

https://skylum.com

Happy hunting!

Cheers!

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Try Fotor. It's free, and doesn't take long to figure out at all. For something with more advanced editing features (such as layers and brushes), there's PhotoDemon - also freeware. PhotoDemon has many effects you find elsewhere. Photoscape is also fairly easy to learn.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

OneShotOne18 wrote:

Without breaking my bank account, can you tell me what is a good photo enhancing software? I'm not new at taking photos but still have a LOT to learn. I really don't want to sit in front of my PC all day everyday learning - so pleease do not send me don't that rabbit hole. Someone is pushing me to get LightRoom Classic cc.??? Oh, I looked at some ratings and to me it's like shooting fish in a barrel. If I shoot I bound to hit one. So many to choose from - IT's confusing! HULP! THX

Welcome to UHH. My suggestion: You own it, No monthly charges.Adobe Lightroom.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1132136-REG/adobe_65237578_photoshop_lightroom_6_download.html?sts=pi

ygelman Loc: new -- North of Poughkeepsie!

OneShotOne18 wrote:

. . . I really don't want to sit in front of my PC all day everyday learning - so pleease do not send me don't that rabbit hole. Someone is pushing me to get LightRoom Classic cc.???

Don't want to spend the time? Well, You get what you pay for -- that includes paying in time as well as money.

OneShotOne18 wrote:

. . . I looked at some ratings and to me it's like shooting fish in a barrel. If I shoot I bound to hit one. So many to choose from - IT's confusing! . . .

You already got some help and apparently don't want to listen. Maybe you don't want to really do this thing, so you claim you can't choose.
.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

The easiest ones to learn are the ones with good training systems. Because they are so huge, Adobe products have an industry of learning and training built around them. In other words, the basics of Lightroom Classic CC is easy to learn if you get an organized plan in place. You may need a day, maybe two, in front of you computer to learn the fundamentals.

Note that there are plenty of horror stories around Lightroom. They all come from people that jumped it without a day or two of learning the basics.

If you want a sample of how it works, invest an hour watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFf1WScRlOk

johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

I use Zoner Photo Studio normally, but I also use "Google Photos" (https://photos.google.com/apps) it's entirely free and has a basic but very good photo editor including an auto mode and also a series of sliders in Lighting, Colour and Pop, you can also crop and rotate. As well as using Google Photos on your PC/Mac it can be used on a phone or tablet.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

OneShotOne18 wrote:

Without breaking my bank account, can you tell me what is a good photo enhancing software? I'm not new at taking photos but still have a LOT to learn. I really don't want to sit in front of my PC all day everyday learning - so pleease do not send me don't that rabbit hole. Someone is pushing me to get LightRoom Classic cc.??? Oh, I looked at some ratings and to me it's like shooting fish in a barrel. If I shoot I bound to hit one. So many to choose from - IT's confusing! HULP! THX

if you opt for the quick and dirty, you will soon be frustrated with the results. Most of the videos on youtube are very well done and in short pieces making the learning curve easy. I happen to use the the lightroom, Photoshop combo. Both of these have super videos sets. I do use LR for 95% of my editing and PS when I need to do something more powerful. Your camera and sensor provides a lot of information - how much of what you pay for, do you want to be able to massage? There will be an education curve and no way around it. Embrace it!

LarryFitz Loc: Beacon NY

Does your camera manufacturer provide any software. Canon DPP it's a good program that gets you into pp and the terms that you will encounter. There are also many free 30 day trials available, with YouTube videos. You will see the biggest benefit from pp software when shooting in raw.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Affinity is a good one $50 and has upgraded three times for free since I bought it 6 months ago. Many excellent and short videos to educate you bit at a time. There are two tools to know well before getting complicated into layers etc. Those tools are crop and clone... crop to the composition/story and clone to remove a few mistakes or enhance. Crop... is to limit the scene to get to the main character of the story.... if something does not add, then it subtracts from the story of the final product [image].

Composition is key to good photography... it is based on human primitive brain response and is universal. Read bit-wise this free book.... Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche
http://truecenterpublishing.com/photopsy/article_index.htm

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

Check out the free trial of Luminar - its a very powerful program that's easy to learn. If you don't want to spend much time editing, there are a variety of presets that you can apply straight out of the box to immediately improve your images. If you become interested in getting more involved in post processing, you can apply filters, masks and use layers. Luminar only costs $69 to buy the licensed version of the software.

papakatz45 Loc: South Florida-West Palm Beach

ygelman wrote:

You already got some help and apparently don't want to listen. Maybe you don't want to really do this thing, so you claim you can't choose.
.

Wow! What good advice.

Brucej67 Loc: Cary, NC

And if you want free photo processing software then try GIMP, DarkTable and a few others. There is going to be a learning curve with any software you get just be aware.

OneShotOne18 wrote:

Without breaking my bank account, can you tell me what is a good photo enhancing software? I'm not new at taking photos but still have a LOT to learn. I really don't want to sit in front of my PC all day everyday learning - so pleease do not send me don't that rabbit hole. Someone is pushing me to get LightRoom Classic cc.??? Oh, I looked at some ratings and to me it's like shooting fish in a barrel. If I shoot I bound to hit one. So many to choose from - IT's confusing! HULP! THX

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

OneShotOne18 wrote:

Without breaking my bank account, can you tell me what is a good photo enhancing software? I'm not new at taking photos but still have a LOT to learn. I really don't want to sit in front of my PC all day everyday learning - so pleease do not send me don't that rabbit hole. Someone is pushing me to get LightRoom Classic cc.??? Oh, I looked at some ratings and to me it's like shooting fish in a barrel. If I shoot I bound to hit one. So many to choose from - IT's confusing! HULP! THX

You can spend $120 a year for Adobe's products, or you can get Affinity for $50. I bet it will do everything you want. You have lots of choices, and YouTube has lots of tutorials -

Affinity
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/software-review-affinity-photo-1-5-2
http://www.shutterbug.com/content/affinity-photo-software-review-has-photoshop-met-its-match#d1c5lY5EQ03QoLjh.97
http://www.diyphotography.net/affinity-photo-can-give-adobe-run-money/
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/affinity-photo-1.5,review-4257.htmlOthers

Others
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-lightroom-alternatives
http://digital-photography-school.com/a-beginners-guide-to-choosing-the-right-post-production-software/
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/photo-editing
https://www.reviews.com/photo-editing-software/
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-photo-editing-software,review-1972.html
http://www.redmondpie.com/best-adobe-photoshop-alternatives-for-windows-and-mac-list Affinity
http://www.shutterbug.com/content/affinity-photo-software-review-has-photoshop-met-its-match#d1c5lY5EQ03QoLjh.97
http://www.diyphotography.net/affinity-photo-can-give-adobe-run-money/

Free -
https://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-edit-rawtherapee/
https://www.lightstalking.com/free-photography-software/
http://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-photo-editor
http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/the-best-photoshop-alternatives-that-are-totally-free-5974500
http://lightzoneproject.org/