Editing digital photos, software?

Iristxo

Hi guys

Not too sure if I am in the right forum here but mods feel free to move. I am looking for the best freeware digital photography editing software that I can get. At the moment I am editing my photos with the windows photo gallery editor I am using a 5-year old Panasonic Lumix digital camera, if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance

Thecageyone

A lot of people who don't have photoshop or lightroom use Gimp:

http://www.gimp.org/

I've never used it so can't say how good it is. But it is free

liberxiii

http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/default.asp?SP=G600_UK&gclid=CJPog6Oq56MCFeFc4wodg144ZQ


its OK, but Photoshop is the only way to go and if your going down the Photoshop road then you'll need a good DSLR...sorry to say, but photography is expensive

liberxiii

Thecageyone wrote: »

A lot of people who don't have photoshop or lightroom use Gimp:

http://www.gimp.org/

I've never used it so can't say how good it is. But it is free

Gimp is good, so I hear

kelly1

Photo.net is another option. http://photo.net/

Haven't used it much but it's a Photoshop clone.

DaireQuinlan

kelly1 wrote: »

Photo.net is another option. http://photo.net/

Haven't used it much but it's a Photoshop clone.

I think you mean paint.net ? http://www.getpaint.net/

I have it on my machine here in work, it does a grand job for most of the stuff I have to do in work image-wise.

kelly1

Thanks Daire, silly me!

pullandbang

liberxiii wrote: »

its OK, but Photoshop is the only way to go and if your going down the Photoshop road then you'll need a good DSLR...sorry to say, but photography is expensive

Maybe I'm missing something here but what is the correlation between PS and a "good DSLR"? Is it a prerequisite the you must have a "Good DSLR" in order to have Photoshop or the other way around? Can a person not use PS if they have a bridge camera or a point and shoot?
I'd also disagree with you regarding photography being expensive - good equipment is expensive but photography isn't. Taking pics with your €50 Lidl point & shoot is photography and if you like and enjoy your shots, then you don't need to spend a King's ransom on equipment.

To the OP, GIMP is a really good free programme but can be quite daunting for a beginner. There are however umpteen tutorials available on the interweb.

CabanSail

From my reading of the OP I'm not sure that Gimp is the way they want to go. The fact that they are just using the Windoze Pitcher Eggitor means that they are only doing some minor edits to their images.

Gimp I hear is good, but it's a multilayer editor, which can be quite daunting. Something simpler would be Picasa or FastStone.

liberxiii

pullandbang wrote: »

Maybe I'm missing something here but what is the correlation between PS and a "good DSLR"? Is it a prerequisite the you must have a "Good DSLR" in order to have Photoshop or the other way around? Can a person not use PS if they have a bridge camera or a point and shoot?
I'd also disagree with you regarding photography being expensive - good equipment is expensive but photography isn't. Taking pics with your €50 Lidl point & shoot is photography and if you like and enjoy your shots, then you don't need to spend a King's ransom on equipment.

To the OP, GIMP is a really good free programme but can be quite daunting for a beginner. There are however umpteen tutorials available on the interweb.

ok I have taken some great pics with my Nokia phone (5Mp) but my Canon 500d Dslr is light years ahead. If you want to take great photos save-up and buy a DSLR. its like anything else e.g. Cars....if you want faster and better step up to the mark and spend the money.

toe_knee

For basic photo editing picassa is very good. Has a great library as well for easy access to all your photos and a great photo viewer.
http://picasaweb.google.com/home

Iristxo

Thanks everybody for your responses. I do actually use a point and shoot camera and never even bothered to look at manual to mess around with the features etc. I have downloaded gimp and picassa but I do actually do very basic editing so Picassa might do the trick for me, but I'll look at both.

With regards to my camera: I am actually in the market for a new camera alright. However, I pretty much take the camera anywhere and was wondering, is there a compact DSLR that I can buy that won't break the pocket too much (say 400 to 500 eur max) that is not much bigger than my current camera? I do not want a big camera, I put it in handbags, the kids bags etc and will not carry around a bulky camera. So is there such a thing, and will I notice a difference with regards to a regular point and shoot camera? I now have a Panasonic Lumix dmc-fx 9, works ok but too old now.

Thanks in advance

CabanSail

I think that question has been answered in the other thread you started