topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Tuesday March 19, 2024, 1:30 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Author Topic: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?  (Read 12664 times)

noblejoker

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 20
  • Father & Husband, Biz Owner, PC user & Blogger,
    • View Profile
    • My PC USers Group - Posts & Discussions
    • Donate to Member
Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« on: December 11, 2018, 05:42 PM »
Hi all
What software does everyone use for photo/picture edits?
Would like to do simple edits like crop, colour, filter, face swap, background and object removal, collages etc.

There seem to be a ton of android apps that offer this functionality but less for PC
I have tried and use GIMP which is very powerful no doubt but also complex - more pro than consumer
Photoshop elements is expensive and proprietary
I use Irfanview as a viewer and also good for resize and batch - has some functions including 'paint' but not a real editor

Any recommendations for a program that hits the sweet spot of price, features and ease of use?
Matt from Australia

Deozaan

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Points: 1
  • Posts: 9,746
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #1 on: December 11, 2018, 05:52 PM »
I, too, found GIMP to be far too complex for my needs. I usually go with Paint.NET (which is free!) for very simple edits (crops, resizing). But I've never done "more advanced" edits like face swap, background/object removal. You might need a more advanced photo editor for that.

Have you looked at Affinity Photo?

Seems like it can do a lot of the fancy stuff and is only $50. And I think they usually have a sale around Christmas or the New Year where you can get it for about $35.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2018, 06:13 PM by Deozaan »

noblejoker

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 20
  • Father & Husband, Biz Owner, PC user & Blogger,
    • View Profile
    • My PC USers Group - Posts & Discussions
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #2 on: December 11, 2018, 05:58 PM »
Have tried paint.net - similar to GIMP - quite complex etc. - but good price
Affinity looks powerful but if I am going to pay $80 ** and learn a pro program I would go with Photoshop or at least PS Elements

(** I am in Australia and we get hosed on international pricing and exchange rates)
Matt from Australia

rgdot

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2009
  • **
  • Posts: 2,192
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #3 on: December 11, 2018, 07:43 PM »
I find GIMP extremely over rated, if it wasn't free it would surely be rated much lower. Minus collages which I would say is a more particular 'niche' task a combination of Paint.net, Xnview and Faststone has served me well. Photoscape does a few things well too.

noblejoker

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 20
  • Father & Husband, Biz Owner, PC user & Blogger,
    • View Profile
    • My PC USers Group - Posts & Discussions
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2018, 09:19 PM »
I find GIMP extremely over rated, if it wasn't free it would surely be rated much lower. Minus collages which I would say is a more particular 'niche' task a combination of Paint.net, Xnview and Faststone has served me well. Photoscape does a few things well too.
GIMP is probably good for some but too big and complicated for many
Agree collages are not important
Care to share what you use each of Paint.net, Xnview and Faststone for
Thought Xnview and Faststone were pretty similar (and similar to Irfanview which I use/prefer) so why both?
 ;D
Matt from Australia

rgdot

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2009
  • **
  • Posts: 2,192
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #5 on: December 11, 2018, 10:40 PM »
Faststone is faster workflow for me, for example adding text or text bubbles. XnView is something I use less often these days when there is Paint.net for most editing like lasso or similar features and Faststone for things like text as mentioned and image viewing, cropping, resizing. I never understood Irfanview, and this sounds like a very noob thing (I am talking about default behaviour right after install) but the navigation tree to go to a folder and show thumbnails within a folder  ....is not right there in Irfanview when the program opens (press T to bring it up?), I don't understand why that is the case for an image viewer.

Shades

  • Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 2,922
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2018, 05:29 AM »
If you can get around it's quirks, there is PaintStar. It is rather tiny and uses a floating dock style user interface like Gimp does. But it is free, supports layers and can be used as a portable application. The website has (downloadable) tutorials, lessons and examples.

Perhaps this piece of freeware strikes you as simple, yet powerful enough to do your tasks. That is, there is no active development going on for it anymore, so it might not be your thing after all.

Having said that, I have used the software since Windows XP and it still works fine on Windows 10 (and every version of Windows inbetween).

noblejoker

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 20
  • Father & Husband, Biz Owner, PC user & Blogger,
    • View Profile
    • My PC USers Group - Posts & Discussions
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #7 on: December 12, 2018, 06:53 AM »
If you can get around it's quirks, there is PaintStar.

Pretty amazing features for the file size etc
May not quite be what I had in mind but hats off to the developer - shame he didn't open source the code so someone could take it forward
Matt from Australia

wraith808

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 11,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #8 on: December 12, 2018, 09:46 AM »
If you can get around it's quirks, there is PaintStar.

Was it payware at one time and stopped being supported?  Just get that feeling from the last update to the page.

Shades

  • Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 2,922
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2018, 11:07 AM »
@wraith808:
I assume you are right about that. Still, Installed it once, liked it enough to keep and was pleasantly surprised that it could be used on other computers by simply copying the installation folder to that computer. Have been using it like that ever since. Caveat: I barely have a need to edit images, so my (lack of) experience might mean diddly squat to anyone else.

4wd

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 5,640
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2018, 01:43 PM »
XNView - View, crop, quick colour adjustment, resize, batch
Photofiltre - General painting, text, drawing, fisheye removal
Affinity Photo - Aspect correction - AU$40 when it was launched ;)
Sagelight - Quick single image HDR effects, noise removal.
DxO OpticsPro 11 - Quick preset colour effects (free occasionally)
GIMP - Very good object removal by "healing", cutting up multi-photo scans.
Image Analyzer - "Feature preserving" resize, reduce quality until file size constraint is met, other esoteric operations.

Haven't settled on any one program because it always seemed that some program did something I wanted better than another program that tried to do everything, (eg Polaroid Dust & Scratch Remover instead of whatever GIMP had, Affinity's aspect correction compared to MV's Plugins which I used for ages).
« Last Edit: December 13, 2018, 08:45 PM by 4wd »

noblejoker

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 20
  • Father & Husband, Biz Owner, PC user & Blogger,
    • View Profile
    • My PC USers Group - Posts & Discussions
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2018, 06:19 PM »
Haven't settled on any one program because it always seemed that some program did something I wanted better than another program that tried to do everything
My issue in a nutshell
Thanks for the list
Matt from Australia

cranioscopical

  • Friend of the Site
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 4,776
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2018, 10:01 PM »
Sagelight - Quick single image HDR effects, noise removal.
Any idea what is/was the latest (last) version of Sagelight? Mine's 4_4

4wd

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 5,640
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #13 on: December 12, 2018, 10:48 PM »
Sagelight - Quick single image HDR effects, noise removal.
Any idea what is/was the latest (last) version of Sagelight? Mine's 4_4
-cranioscopical (December 12, 2018, 10:01 PM)

Mine's 4.4h (b) - was the last beta version before development died, IIRC.

Executable properties:
2018-12-13 15_50_09-Sagelight.exe Properties.pngConsumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?

Normal 4.4 installer: 21,456kB
4.4h (b) installer: 22,234kB

Still available on Softpedia.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2018, 12:31 AM by 4wd »

panzer

  • Participant
  • Joined in 2008
  • *
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 941
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #14 on: December 13, 2018, 05:18 AM »

Arizona Hot

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 3,181
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #15 on: December 13, 2018, 08:48 AM »
I use Irfanview for most cropping and screenshot saves, Paint to get rid of parts of site screenshots(Irfanview leaves area affected black, Paint makes it white which matches background). I have used Paint.net for a more complicated edit(only 1, yesterday).
« Last Edit: December 13, 2018, 09:01 AM by Arizona Hot »

cranioscopical

  • Friend of the Site
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 4,776
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #16 on: December 13, 2018, 08:31 PM »
Mine's 4.4h (b) - was the last beta version before development died, IIRC.
Thanks, that's very helpful...as always.

rjbull

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 3,199
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #17 on: December 14, 2018, 05:38 PM »
I use IrfanView as my regular image viewer, and perhaps because of that, for cropping.  The fine-mesh grid it can overlay is sometimes useful.  Occasionally I use it for other things.

Recently I've been using FastStone Image Viewer (FIV) more, for three things:
  • The Compare feature can put two to four images on screen at once, so you can view subtle changes of composition, exposure, whatnot.
  • Resizing to standard sizes: File > Email (equivalent to F6) <Pick a standard size> from a dropdown
  • Renaming image files numerically so they're in the order I want.  FIV allows you to drag-and-drop files into whatever order you wish, then rename them with prepended numbers.  Then you can view them later with any file viewer and it will show them in the intended sequence.  This is a trick I learned from asking on DC.

For a much more Photoshop Elements-like experience, I've dabbled with Photo Toolbox (PT) Photo Editor.  There are free basic and (at the time of writing) US$29.95 Pro versions; you need the latter for batch, watermarking, and some advanced tools.  I bought a discounted license when it was on Bits du Jour once.  The web site says "Free Upgrade," but I don't know if that's forever or limited.  I haven't got far into the program.  The author claims it's "amazingly light weight."  He could well be right. It has so far run uncomplainingly on my old Vista Home Premium laptop, where Elements 10 is nearly crash-o-matic.

A couple of more specialised programs:

Peter Bone's Resize (mentioned on DC before).  It's small, old, free, portable, and does a fuss-free job of resizing.  I especially like its ability to resize a batch of images so that the long edges all end up with the same number of pixels, which helps make layouts neater.

QuickImageComment:
QuickImageComment displays EXIF, IPTC, and XMP properties of digital images (e.g. JPEG and TIFF) and allows to edit them. Especially editing of user comment and artist (author) is supported by using the last entered or predefined values. These attributes are read from the EXIF, IPTC, and XMP properties of the image and are stored there.

Overview of features are:

    The program displays all EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties, as well as some other file properties such as modification date.
    In addition to the full lists of EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties a list of properties is displayed, which is configurable.
    In addition to user comment and artist further EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties can be changed. The list of modifiable properties can be configured.
    Data templates can be defined to set several properties in one step.
    Via placeholder it is possible to copy values of properties in others.
    Changes can be carried out simultaneously for two or more files.
    EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties can be deleted, thereby exceptions can be defined. Single properties can be deleted selectively.
    Files can be renamed using Exif, IPTC and XMP properties.
    The EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties contained in the files can be compared.
    A special mask is used to synchronize the recording time of a set of images taken with different cameras. Images are grouped by properties (mostly camera model). For each group, a shift of the recording time can be entered. Then the images are immediately sorted in order to check whether the images are then in the correct timely order.
    Selected image properties of all images in a folder (including any subfolders) can be exported to a text file.
    All image properties of selected images can be exported to text files (one file per image).
    Display metadata (XMP) of video files as well (depending on the operating system and, if necessary, installed components) display a frame of the video.
    Display of image details with graphical and numerical representation of brightness and RGB values.
    Display recording location in a map using the GPS coordinates; change of coordinates by selecting a position on the map.

The program also supports various RAW formats. In order to display the images, the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack needs to be installed additionally (http://www.microsoft...etails.aspx?id=26829). The properties can be viewed and modified without the codec package.

Further processing of the images (e.g. adjusting the contrast and brightness) is not the purpose of this program.
It has a GPL license, and is the first free (as in beer) WinGUI program I've seen that can do all that.  Note the "Selected image properties of all images in a folder (including any subfolders) can be exported to a text file" feature, which could be used, for example, to generate a list of the focal lengths you've used most, to inform future camera or lens purchases.

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - try Inkscape.
« Reply #18 on: December 14, 2018, 11:26 PM »
Back in 2014, @Edvard of this parish very kindly fixed up the amusing smiley logo for AVON (the Allied Violent Offence Network) and advanced my education by introducing me to Inkscape - which was the image editing tool he used to fix up the AVON bullet-in-the-head-smiley.
He also pointed me to some useful documentation/tutorials at flossmanuals.net, which can now be found at Wayback.
« Last Edit: December 14, 2018, 11:34 PM by IainB »

datguy

  • Participant
  • Joined in 2019
  • *
  • Posts: 5
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #19 on: May 27, 2019, 04:56 PM »
Now there are a lot of different software, so it’s easy to pick it up. Just to start, you need to understand what exactly you want to emphasize in training, since each program has its advantages. I would recommend that you read the article Best Photo Editing Software for Beginners, perhaps it will help you make a decision.
« Last Edit: May 28, 2019, 03:31 PM by datguy »

tomos

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 11,958
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #20 on: May 28, 2019, 06:10 AM »
QuickImageComment:
QuickImageComment displays EXIF, IPTC, and XMP properties of digital images (e.g. JPEG and TIFF) and allows to edit them. Especially editing of user comment and artist (author) is supported by using the last entered or predefined values. These attributes are read from the EXIF, IPTC, and XMP properties of the image and are stored there.

Overview of features are:

    The program displays all EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties, as well as some other file properties such as modification date.
    In addition to the full lists of EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties a list of properties is displayed, which is configurable.
    In addition to user comment and artist further EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties can be changed. The list of modifiable properties can be configured.
    Data templates can be defined to set several properties in one step.
    Via placeholder it is possible to copy values of properties in others.
    Changes can be carried out simultaneously for two or more files.
    EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties can be deleted, thereby exceptions can be defined. Single properties can be deleted selectively.
    Files can be renamed using Exif, IPTC and XMP properties.
    The EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties contained in the files can be compared.
    A special mask is used to synchronize the recording time of a set of images taken with different cameras. Images are grouped by properties (mostly camera model). For each group, a shift of the recording time can be entered. Then the images are immediately sorted in order to check whether the images are then in the correct timely order.
    Selected image properties of all images in a folder (including any subfolders) can be exported to a text file.
    All image properties of selected images can be exported to text files (one file per image).
    Display metadata (XMP) of video files as well (depending on the operating system and, if necessary, installed components) display a frame of the video.
[..]
Further processing of the images (e.g. adjusting the contrast and brightness) is not the purpose of this program.
It has a GPL license, and is the first free (as in beer) WinGUI program I've seen that can do all that.  Note the "Selected image properties of all images in a folder (including any subfolders) can be exported to a text file" feature, which could be used, for example, to generate a list of the focal lengths you've used most, to inform future camera or lens purchases.
only seeing this now, looks very impressive :up:
Doesn't seem to show Picasa's name tags.
Tom

rjbull

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 3,199
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #21 on: May 28, 2019, 04:09 PM »
QuickImageComment:
QuickImageComment displays EXIF, IPTC, and XMP properties of digital images (e.g. JPEG and TIFF) and allows to edit them. [...]
only seeing this now, looks very impressive :up:
Doesn't seem to show Picasa's name tags.
Well, it only says it supports EXIF, IPTC and XMP, which as I understand it are all established standards.  You could ask the author about adding Picasa - but he might not be interested in a proprietary program that's been abandoned.  Speaking of which, Google at one point owned the Nik collection, and offered them free of cost.  They're now owned by DxO, who are charging for them again, and at more than a casual impulse purchase price.  Maybe Google should sell Picasa on to someone else, but really, the market for digital imaging software must be pretty saturated

tomos

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 11,958
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Consumer Photo/Pic Editing Software - what do you use?
« Reply #22 on: May 28, 2019, 06:07 PM »
QuickImageComment:
QuickImageComment displays EXIF, IPTC, and XMP properties of digital images (e.g. JPEG and TIFF) and allows to edit them. [...]
only seeing this now, looks very impressive :up:
Doesn't seem to show Picasa's name tags.
Well, it only says it supports EXIF, IPTC and XMP, which as I understand it are all established standards.  You could ask the author about adding Picasa - but he might not be interested in a proprietary program that's been abandoned.  Speaking of which, Google at one point owned the Nik collection, and offered them free of cost.  They're now owned by DxO, who are charging for them again, and at more than a casual impulse purchase price.  Maybe Google should sell Picasa on to someone else, but really, the market for digital imaging software must be pretty saturated
turns out the name-tags (via Picasa) *are* in the XMP data, but the XMP tab is completely blank for some of the photos. Will try check tomorrow what is going on with them, and where the problem lies...
Tom