Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Photo Editing Software 2014


Being from the old school  and enjoying photography far more than photo editing and I wont go to graphics editing . Yes I will , putting my head on Rambos body with a background from somewhere on the planet with a skyline from mars ISNT photography.  Thats better , purged now . :)

I have always looked for software that suited my eye and my requirements .    My eye ? , the interface  , something quick , simple  and I don't need  a degree to learn to use it . At best I'm nothing more than a enthusiastic  Happy Snapper taking around 4 to 5000 frames a year on cropper Canon cameras with the vast majority going on the net and never getting printed at more than around  A3 or A4  .  OK , software . I have gone down the Adobe route and don't like it  apart from an old Elements  I use for cloning out telephone wires and Garbo bins etc.  I call it "Bloatware"  2.46 GIG  ..

My New Years resolution for 2014   , "Find Something Holty"  and I think I have . Over the past 6 weeks I have download  around 4 gig of trials and updates etc    and compared them side by side to see  if there is anything new  or with new improvements over the past 12 months .  Yes, I even downloaded new Adobe stuff as well  including Elements 12  . 

OK what stayed   , got upgraded or purchased   and I will  put them in no order ..
While it may be a HDR  program  I use it on single images  and I love it , so simple and quick , I have shown people printed photos  including Lab tech's and  no one picked   HDR .
A lot slower than Oloneo with an interface that looks Windows 95  in comparison BUT a great ghosting algorithm  , especially for hand held shooting. .  I have made some of my own "presets" that make the photo look non HDR , just a little more punchy to put on the net , especially Flat Face Facebook . If you ever want to see a good photo look like crap put it on there .  .I am VERY surprised Facebook haven't come up with a  "Hi Res " membership  that allows better quality  photos , sizing  and graphics on sites when you consider how many businesses are now using it .
Very sexy , if you can call software sexy .  A bit slow on my box but I love it for when I get serious . Quality breeds quality and  for me this is it . It has even made me get off my butt and go out and take some decent photos because I wont use this program for happy snaps.
I saved "MY" best until last .  Not long back from who knows where and now Open-source  and cross platform with a user base of 35,000 and growing rapidly . You can read the spiel on their site and while it has an unusual process of membership before downloading I can see the reason in their methodology . I have only just begun to use this but within minutes it fitted "my eye" and  logic .  Once I get more familiar with the program I will put a few photos online  in my Photo bucket site . The irony of this is  being Open-source it is free  and compared to some of the other stuff I have played with over the past 6 weeks or so  I would gladly pay $100 dollars for it . I cant even make a "donation " .

ADDED  14th FEB
Sorry guys windows only  . I don't know where this has been hiding  but is a no brainer for me and within an hour of finding it  I put it on both machines and deleted programs I have used for many years .  Simple to use , quick , well quick enough for me but I don't have huge downloads / folders because I don't shoot 1200 frames a session  at  8 FPS  then sort and throw out  1000 .
 The only thing to date it doesn't have that I use is a Perspective function  but apart from that its great .  If  this program ever gets it  I can stop using an old Elements 10  and then I will be totally Adobe FREE  !!!!

BTW:
 Love the full frame viewer with the hidden menu bars that don't hog screen space and only "pop up"  when you scroll over them when needed  . Also I have set the 100 % magnifier to "click" so if you left click and hold down  you can scroll at 100 % anywhere on the image .  Finally we wont mention footprint size will we Adobe bloatware.

Footnote: These are my personal choices and comments  , you are entitled to yours .

Holty..






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