# Best photo editing software for beginner?



## FightingShibas

Hi, just wondering what everyone is using for editing their photo's. I am looking for more options that what is available in iPhoto, just shooting in JPEG, but would like to try RAW at some point, as I progress. Tried the search function, but was unable to find what I was looking for. Thanks in advance.


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## WCraig

Wild stab in the dark here: iPhoto?


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## Joker Eh

WCraig said:


> Wild stab in the dark here: iPhoto?


The OP mentioned something other than iPhoto. For just JPEG's there are a ton out there. Pixelator (Spelling?) seems to be popular, also Adobe Elements (simple version of Photoshop, I don't think they have any support for raw images though.) Maybe even Apple's own Aperture, good deal for $79 in the Mac App Store.

For raw you are going into a whole different area and you should do a lot of reading to make sure it is worth your time. Aperture will work and is the choice of some. But most I think use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop in combination. Lightroom will do some basic raw photo editing, but Photoshop will take it to the next level. There is a lot more reading material for Adobe products than Aperture but you can’t go wrong with either.


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## Paul82

As another beginner I'd fairly strongly recommend pixelmator it is great and for a beginner I'd say it is a very viable photoshop replacement (personally I find photoshop to be far more complicated than needed for a beginner, not to mention expensive). I'm not certain if pixelmator does raw, but they have a 30 day free trail on the website if you want to check it out. I'm also an occasional aperture user though far from an expert at it. I also find it to sometimes be a bit more complicated than needed for a beginner (I suppose that's what iPhoto is for... And explains why it's usually my goto option)


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## eMacMan

I am not up to date on PS Elements. But a general rule it does almost everything the full CS version does. Will not do pre-press (CMYK) for offset printing and current versions may or may not support RAW (Older ones do not). Probably does not have the very latest Bell or Whistle but will have pretty much all of the B & Ws from previous versions of CS.

A beginner might use very little of its potential but just some of the type enhancement available might make it well worth the $60-$100 price tag. I believe Amazon has a Black Friday sale on Elements at the moment. And should you decide you want to expand your abilities the tools are there without having to buy another bit of Software.

I am still at version 4 and speaking as someone, who before retiring, managed and even owned custom Photo Labs this software easily meets all my personal Photo needs.


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## screature

Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture. Both are powerful and provide you with a great upwardly mobile path but are easy enough to use for a beginner eager and willing to learn.


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## kps

Joker Eh said:


> The OP mentioned something other than iPhoto. For just JPEG's there are a ton out there. Pixelator (Spelling?) seems to be popular, also Adobe Elements (simple version of Photoshop, I don't think they have any support for raw images though.) Maybe even Apple's own Aperture, good deal for $79 in the Mac App Store.
> 
> For raw you are going into a whole different area and you should do a lot of reading to make sure it is worth your time. Aperture will work and is the choice of some. But most I think use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop in combination. Lightroom will do some basic raw photo editing, but Photoshop will take it to the next level. There is a lot more reading material for Adobe products than Aperture but you can’t go wrong with either.


AFAIK, Adobe Elements uses Adobe Camera Raw which is the same programme used between all of Adobe's apps (including Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.). Very powerful application and kept up to date with respect to new model cameras with incredible frequency.

Lightroom and Photoshop are my favourites, but hugely expensive and overkill for a beginner, but you won't be a beginner forever. 

Best bang for the buck... Elements, Aperture and perhaps Pixlemator which I never used, but hear good things about.


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## Joker Eh

kps said:


> AFAIK, *Adobe Elements uses Adobe Camera Raw* which is the same programme used between all of Adobe's apps (including Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.). Very powerful application and kept up to date with respect to new model cameras with incredible frequency.
> 
> Lightroom and Photoshop are my favourites, but hugely expensive and overkill for a beginner, but you won't be a beginner forever.
> 
> Best bang for the buck... Elements, Aperture and perhaps Pixlemator which I never used, but hear good things about.


I think it will read the raw file but any work to the image must be saved to some other format and I don't think it is non-destructive like Aperture and Lightroom, again like you AFAIK.


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## screature

kps said:


> AFAIK, Adobe Elements uses Adobe Camera Raw which is the same programme used between all of Adobe's apps (including Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.). Very powerful application and kept up to date with respect to new model cameras with incredible frequency.
> 
> Lightroom and Photoshop are my favourites, but hugely expensive and *overkill for a beginner*, but you won't be a beginner forever.
> 
> Best bang for the buck... Elements, Aperture and perhaps Pixlemator which I never used, but hear good things about.


I don't believe Lightroom or Aperture are overkill for "serious" beginners as they won't be beginners for long and both programs are easy enough to learn and mean that you don't need to upgrade when you out grow the amateur software so in the end they are cost effective becuase you don't need to upgrade your software when your skills and understanding become more advanced.

My favourite for pure photography is Lightroom. For image *manipulation*, not just editing, Photoshop is king and has been for a decade and more but is cost prohibitive and is overkill for photo editing... 

At this point (since Lightroom and Aperture have come along) Photoshop is more of a graphic designer and artist platform much more geared to an "imaging professional" but it still remains the top of the heap... especially in conjunction with Lightroom. 

So if the OP wants to have an upgrade path that is flexible and open and has great integration I would suggest starting with Lightroom and when it fails to be able to realize what you want to do then buy Photoshop as an extension to Lightroom.

If the OP feels that they don't want to/never will advance beyond being a rank amateur photographer there are probably at least a half dozen or more alternatives.

My 2 cents.


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## Lawrence

Lemkesofts GraphicConverter is still the old standby that I use,
Sure, I have all the others too, But, I like GraphicConverter better.

For quick editing and batch conversions it can't be beat.

Thanks for reminding me though, I just upgraded mine to the latest version.


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## okcomputer

If you are a photographer, and are mostly just editing photos, then Aperture or Lightroom for sure. 

If you do any compositing or stuff for web or anything like that, Pixelmator can't be beat for the price.


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## Shrek_Toronto

Aperture is definitely a better choice


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## yeeeha

I took few photos in the film days so when I had my first digital camera in 2003, I was pretty much a beginner. Back then I shot only JPEG and used Photoshop Elements 2 to process my images.

Since Lightroom came out, I gave it a try and never went back to use Elements.

It is more expensive to get a copy of Lightroom than Elements and the likes. Once you spend the time learning how to use Lightroom, you may find it easier to use than Elements.

A key feature with Lightroom is that any adjustment that you make is non-destructive to the original image, unless you ignore the on-screen warning when it comes to the time of saving your processing work and overwrite the original image.


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## eMacMan

yeeeha said:


> I took few photos in the film days so when I had my first digital camera in 2003, I was pretty much a beginner. Back then I shot only JPEG and used Photoshop Elements 2 to process my images.
> 
> Since Lightroom came out, I gave it a try and never went back to use Elements.
> 
> It is more expensive to get a copy of Lightroom than Elements and the likes. Once you spend the time learning how to use Lightroom, you may find it easier to use than Elements.
> 
> A key feature with Lightroom is that any adjustment that you make is non-destructive to the original image, unless you ignore the on-screen warning when it comes to the time of saving your processing work and overwrite the original image.


Elements at least up to version 4 does not Autosave and is therefore also non-destructive. I cannot speak to the latest and greatest versions as I have seen no need to update. If they do have AutoSave presumably it can be toggled on or off.

Bridge is of course a part of Elements as well as Lightroom and PhotoShop 

Cardinal rule, no matter the software always work with dupes. Together with the download images, back-up down loaded images, then test back-up rule; this will insure that you never accidentally lose an original image.

Note: iPhoto also preserves the original, but if you let iPhoto download your images, grabbing the original version of an altered image without destroying the second version is not entirely intuitive.


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## Joker Eh

yeeeha said:


> I took few photos in the film days so when I had my first digital camera in 2003, I was pretty much a beginner. Back then I shot only JPEG and used Photoshop Elements 2 to process my images.
> 
> Since Lightroom came out, I gave it a try and never went back to use Elements.
> 
> It is more expensive to get a copy of Lightroom than Elements and the likes. Once you spend the time learning how to use Lightroom, you may find it easier to use than Elements.
> 
> A key feature with Lightroom is that any adjustment that you make is non-destructive to the original image, *unless you ignore the on-screen warning when it comes to the time of saving your processing work and overwrite the original image.*


That is the opposite of non-destructive. It should never overwrite the original. It saves a copy with the changes you made.


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## yeeeha

Joker Eh said:


> That is the opposite of non-destructive. It should never overwrite the original. It saves a copy with the changes you made.


To be honest I never check to see if Lightroom can overwrite the original image. Right after I launched Lightroom for the very first time, I set the preference to add a suffix to the filename when I save the changes.


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## screature

yeeeha said:


> To be honest I never check to see if Lightroom can overwrite the original image. Right after I launched Lightroom for the very first time, I set the preference to add a suffix to the filename when I save the changes.


When working with RAW files even when you save the file the changes are completely non-destructive as the changes are all made in an XML side car file associated with the image and do not actually alter the original image at all.

Additionally you can save versions of the image but these are versions based again on the information contained in the side car file and again do not affect the original image in any way....

One of the great beauties of shooting RAW.


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## Abby

Not a right version of tool, sorry


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## eMacMan

Sorry Abby, but if you were a new poster I would be calling SPAM. That's a Windoze product. No mention at all of a Mac version.


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## Mopar

I use photoshop elements and lightroom. Staples has a sale on Elements 10 that ends today (Dec. 2 for 59.99 ). You can download photoshop and try it free for 30 days.

P.S I saw in another staples flyer that photoshop is coming on sale again but at a higher price. I just can not find the flyer and to day was recycle day, so I think I know where it went.


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## Abby

eMacMan said:


> Sorry Abby, but if you were a new poster I would be calling SPAM. That's a Windoze product. No mention at all of a Mac version.


Thanks for the reminding.
Im so sorry for mistaking the wrong app.


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## eMacMan

Abby said:


> Thanks for the reminding.
> Im so sorry for mistaking the wrong app.


Nice to know I am not the only one that has those kind of days.


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