nikon123 Loc: Toronto, Canada

I need advice please. I have been 'into' photography forever. When it comes to PPP I used Picasa for many years and Photos (Apple product) for the past 5 years or so. I need to advance in post processing just as much as I have advanced in my photography shooting skills and my camera equipment. I am 'freaked' by a learning curve but am committed to move forward. I am contemplating acquiring either Capture One for Nikon or Luminar. I know that many of you use Lightroom but I think that this program may have too steep a learning curve for me. Your comments please would be so helpful.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

I found Paint Shop Pro the easiest to adapt to, I suggest you get free trials and try several before you invest, also consider the cost of renting or purchasing, what ever fits your style, Bob.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

All professional-grade digital editing software has a learning curve. You should download each candidate software in a sequence where you exhaust their trial period before moving onto another candidate. Today, pick a group of 20 test images covering your work, maybe some you're proud of SOOC and others that always seemed like they needed some work, if you'd just had some more software. Work this group of images in every candidate software for real-life, hands-on experience.

The real complexity is the detailed editing. Consider the 'auto' function of each software. Does a 1-touch AI-enabled button add value to your image? How hard is it to tweak that 'auto' result? Find the free getting-started video to begin to use each software. Don't just click around thinking this complex piece of software in intended for the novice to click around and figure it out.

One difference of the Adobe subscription comes from the depth of knowledge. They're the largest and oldest option so there is a wealth of free training on every possible aspect of the software as well as the largest community of experienced users. That might be a benefit that isn't directly covered by the subscription payment.

David Martin Loc: Cary, NC

Do you shoot in RAW? I compared Capture One to Affinity Photo, Luminar, ON1 and DxO Photolab. In my hands, Capture One did the best job "developing" RAW files, in terms of overall appearance, particularly contrast and saturation. Capture One does nearly everything I need in a photo editor. (Affinity Photo has by far the best content-aware deletion tool.) Capture One also has Digital Asset Management. There are plenty of instructional video tutorials on Capture One's website to get you started. Of these 4 programs, I would rank Luminar last.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Funny you should ask, since I just posted these links.

I use an old version of LR, but I also like ON1. I'll have to update some of the links below, but some are self-updating.

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.html

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/
https://photographypro.com/photo-editing/

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Capture One's learning curve will be just as steep or even steeper than Lightroom's.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

I shoot Canon and prefer Canon's own program, DPP, for RAW conversion, a separate program for this does not bother me. PSP has an auto fix that works well with an easy to tweak set of controls readily available right next to the image, again fits my work flow, Bob.

JFCoupe Loc: Kent, Washington

Although every software package will be different, there are probably many commonalities as well. I use LR and PS but guess that all packages today use sliders to make adjustments to an image, such as brightness, sharpness, white balance, etc.

With You Tube videos, I suspect that your learning curve and past experience with Picassa will mean a reasonable learning curve lies ahead.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

You'll get lots of suggestions. I like ON1. One charge for the year with free updates during that period. You will have to pay to get the newest yearly upgrade each year.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

"I know that many of you use Lightroom but I think that this program may have too steep a learning curve for me."

In my view, it does not. There are maybe a dozen basics that you use to import, catalog, view, adjust and save or print. The learning curve is only steep if you try to learn everything it can or might want to do. That is the same with any of the primary programs.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

NX Studio FREE from Nikon.

JohnR Loc: The Gates of Hell

G'day Mr Nikon123. I have just been through the exercise as proposed by Mr CHG-CANON downloading numerous trials and seeing just what suits me. Results are that most may do what I want but.... are far too complicated for my simple mind doing much more than I need them to do. Its also a very time consuming exercise not only downloading and installing but then finding out how to do things in the software.

If I only had Nikon cameras I would settle for Nikons free software as I find it very good indeed. Unfortunately I also have Olympus, Lumix and Canon cameras and View Nxi ignores their RAW files totally!

At the moment I'm strongly leaning towards Luminar - so far it does do what I want to do without my having to learn too many different strokes.

Haenzel Loc: South Holland, The Netherlands

If you want to avoid a steep learning curve have a look at Digikam. I know many ex Picasa users moved to Digikam...

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

All of the top-tier post-processing programs have a steep learning curve. I too was mystified and befuddled by Lightroom until I took a class from a local camera store. Then the light bulb 🎆 came on and it all made sense. That was 5 years ago. Capture One is not going to be any different.

There are other applications out there that position themselves as a Lightroom alternative; Gimp and ACDSee Pro are two that I know of. Skylum's Luminar AI and soon-to-be-released Luminar NEO will perform many of the same functions as Lightroom, but they just aren't Lightroom.

There are literally hundreds or more YouTube channels with Lightroom tutorial videos to guide you through the learning curve. In this time of Covid, in-person classes may be impossible, but YouTube can answer a lot of questons/

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

I teach photography at the college level... 95% of my PP editing is done on Apple photos. For more extensive editing I use ON1. Their help line is very good. They also have very good YouTube instructions.