normc

All these suggestions are great. From Faststone to PS. Give ON1 a try. Free trial and worth the effort. Free download at https://www.faststone.org/ or ON1 at https://www.on1.com/

rbnm Loc: New Mexico

Take a look at ON1. I purchased it recently for my Mac. They have Windows and Mac versions. It has a lot of features but not the price of Adobe products.

TerryLA Loc: Port St. Lucie, Fl

As you mentioned Lightroo Classic is one option depending on how serious you are Adobe has the Photo Package for $9.99 a month which is LR Classic anong with Photoshop and LR mobile for your smart phone. Which by the way if your not aware the mobile app allows you to set it in RAW to shoot. Another one that I just started using is Luminar 4 just got the upgrade two weeks ago and I'm really liking it. Love the sky replacement feature that it has. Like someone said some of these have like 30 day trial periods just make sure you cancel if you don't like it or you will be charged as I'm sure you know.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

A lot depends upon what you mean by hobbist and what you plan to do with your photos. If you have no plans to sell your work or make many prints then a "simple" processing system like Faststone might do. Otherwise a more sophisticated system as mentioned above will be required. As a hobbiest I use Faststone

tjkelly03

Hi,
I use DxO's PhotoLab 3, the Nik Collection, Alien Skin's BlowUp 3 and PhotoShop. I would like to move over to Capture One but net new computer hardware for that.

DarylEPC

I use DXO Photolab 3 and I like it, you might want to check it out and give the trial version a go.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

I've been an Elements user for years and am very happy with it. Its camera raw processor is good. I always recommend Scott Kelby's book on Photoshop Elements to any new Elements user. When I first bought Elements I bought a lot of books to go along with it; most were either too technical or too involved to do what I wanted. Kelby's book is good.

jak86094

I have both Affinity Photo and the Adobe Photography suite. Both are excellent and both have some advantages. They each have excellent training materials so you really can't go wrong unless there is something specific you want to do that the package you choose doesn't support well. You really can't go wrong with either. Depending on what you want to do as a "serious hobbyist" may determine whether you can be satisfied with some other application.

I finally chose to spend most of my time in the Adobe suite for the following reasons: 1. I wanted the media management tools of Lightroom because I had over 50,000 photos (which I've recently culled down to about 32,000, all within Lightroom). 2. The subscription offered support and updates as long as I pay my $10 per month on multiple devices and multiple versions (i.e., Lightroom CC, Lightroom Classic CC, and Photoshop. That means that as new features and improvements are issued, I can immediately upgrade and use them. With the old versions, I would buy an upgrade of either Lightroom or Photoshop, or both, for for anywhere from a couple of hundred to several hundred dollars, then have to wait until the next time I was willing to spend a substantial amount to get the new features offered in a later version. Now, for $240 every 2 years, I am always current and always getting the newest features, some of which I have found invaluable. And if I have problems with the software, I just call, text or email Adobe for assistance at no extra cost.

So I'm happy with my choice but know that packages like Affinity Photo offer some great features and can be a real value.

jak

Eric Bornstein Loc: Toronto Canada

so, with apologies to all, I'm tou hing on the topi but looking for some advice at the sme time. I would say that I am an advanced amateur photographer. I teach photography, I have written two books, not yet published and have sold images over the years. BUT, I use very basic editing software. For many years I used Picasa and since acquiring a MacBook Pro, I have used their Photos application. I am a senior and don't want to experiment with several different software products and am also 'afraid' of getting into a complex software product. The Photos program has some serious stability issues, at least my particular application has them, which Apple engineers have not ben able to resolve. It has tested my patience and won. Its time to move forward. I do not need to have editing software to manipulate - move heads around, as I spend a great effort on the composition of the image. Sometimes, it is the contrast for example that I cannot correct with basic software.What would my colleagues out there recommend? I am enclosing three images which are indicative of what I like to photograph and how I select scenes that may not require lots of manipulation.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Photoshop is definitely the was to go as the possiblities of creating great photos are certainly there. Additionally, there are tons of very good video tutorials to help you along.
--Bob

photonut54

Love Luminar 4.

smiller999 Loc: Corpus Christi

I have a thing against subscription software. For free, try GIMP. It lacks organization tools, but there are other programs for that (at least for Linux, not sure about Windows). But it is a very powerful editor. Maybe not quite PS level, but more than adequate for even a serious hobbyist. If you decide you don't like it, all you've lost is a few hours of time.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I don't have anything against subscription software but YMMV. The cost of the subscription is small compared to impulse purchases I make when I'm out shopping, and the software gets used more than the impulse purchases so I get value for the money. I'm an amateur, but many people don't think I'm serious.

I used GIMP for several years when I was getting into editing and found it was useful. It does have a learning curve but there are lots on online tutorials. Eventually I found that GIMP wasn't quite as powerful as Photoshop so I switched.

The UI for Photoshop and GIMP are quite different, so there's another learning curve if you want to switch. However, that was a decade ago so things may have changed. But I'm happy using Photoshop now rather than GIMP. One thing that you can learn from GIMP is how to deal with layers. That is invaluable if you plan to get into more advanced editing.

Soul Dr. Loc: Beautiful Shenandoah Valley

I too, would agree. Paintshop Pro is really good PP program. And you only have to pay for it once.
I have it and Corel Painter, a really good program for doing painting and graphics.

will

OleMe Loc: Montgomery Co., MD

Try a different, FREE, road. The GIMP.As with all sofware, there is a learning curve. One can do virtually all of the editting with The GIMP that one pays for with Adobe products. And, there is online help. Start with easy stuff like cropping, etc. GIMP only edits and does not organize collections.

GIMP

/Roger