frankrichards16 said: I usually shoot around 6-9,000 photos per year.

I really have a hard time with the volume that I shoot. Yesterday wasn't particularly abnormal for me:


Like Frank, I shoot both RAW and .jpg - so that 12,796 number needs to be halved. But it's still a monumental problem. I've started a system with FastPicureViewer in which (using a programmable mouse), I can very quickly sort a folder into: "cull", "maybe", and "stars". At least that way, I don't have to see the culls more than once - which was really a bane, previously.

There's also a feature in FPV that lets you (with the touch of a different button) toss a copy of the RAW and .jpg into a different folder. I use that quite often if something really strikes me - and I don't want to have to look for it later. Those get tossed into a folder called, "process now".

I've almost come to the conclusion that the output might not be the important thing - might be that I just need to click. And if that's the case, that's okay, too.

I used Adobe Photoshop since version 2.5 (when it came on 3 floppy disks)
I stopped using Adobe software when they switched from perpetual licensing to subscription based software.
I use Affinity Photo, Affinity Design and Quark XPress. All perpetual licensed software.
Affinity Photo is very good. I would say that it is about 85 - 90% to Photoshop and getting better everyday.
It is a Fraction of the cost of Adobe subscription based software.
Affinity Photo lacks some vector capabilities and does not have an Adobe Bridge or Lightroom equivalent, but it is an excellent photoshop equivalent.
I'm Mac based and am not familiar with it's Windows based version.
Affinity Photo's Nikon based RAW capabilities are excellent.

I have Affinity Photo as well, nice package.

I have been using Adobe Bridge (just the uploader) as the first step in my photo workflow.

I use it to take the photos from the camera SD card, convert to DNG format and place in my working folder. I shoot in raw+jpeg, so I end up with DNG+jpeg.

I have decided on this format for 2 reasons:

1. I use Amazon photo backup (part of Prime) and they accept DNG files. They do not accept many of the camera RAW files.

2. I use Photo Mechanic to manage my photos. When using an external editor, many do not maintain metadata contained in an XML sidecar file. When you save your edits to jpeg, metadata is usually lost. However, when using DNG files that have the metadata enclosed, most editors seem to maintain the metadata.

Seems to be working ok so far:)

Baja_Costero said:What programs/apps do you use to edit your digital photos? Why do you prefer them to the alternatives? What do you think are their strengths and weaknesses?

I would love to see as many different answers as possible here.

For what you want, it would be worth taking a look at here: www.xp-pen.com/forum-1790.html

Take a look at Affinity Photo. You can do all your edits from RAW to JPG in one single program.

New to NGA and looking through some of the forums. I love photography. I use Corel Paint Shop Pro 2020 for my editing software. Been using PSP since its inception by the originator of the program back in the mid 1990s.

GardensJohn said:New to NGA and looking through some of the forums. I love photography. I use Corel Paint Shop Pro 2020 for my editing software. Been using PSP since its inception by the originator of the program back in the mid 1990s.

Welcome to NGA John, I'm pretty new myself.
I've loved photography since I was a teenager, so over 50 years.
I started editing photographs in the 90's too with Adobe Photoshop 2.5. But I left Adobe when they went to subscription based software.
I use Affinity Photo and love it. About the only thing I miss from Adobe is Adobe Bridge. It was great for categorizing, cataloging and organizing your photographs. Affinity does not have an equivalent, but there are rumors they're working on one.
I recently started using a program called Fast Raw Viewer that I use to cull files from my media card, before I copy them to my hard drive. You can insert your media card into your computer, Fast Raw Viewer will recognize it and ask if you want to open the files and it will load them all into the program to view, label, rate and pick the files that you want to keep.
I like it. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now.
It's fairly inexpensive $20.
They have a demo if you want to check it out and there are several YouTubes on the software available.
The nice thing about it is you are actually viewing the RAW file and not a jpeg version of it.

Thanks Keith.

I wanted to jump in with an offer I just found... bundle of 2021 software (2022 just released) including Paintshop Pro and After Shot and a bunch of other stuff for $30 from Humble Bumble.

https://www.humblebundle.com/s...

I love Paint Shop Pro! I've been using it for 30 years from the time it came out as one of those $20 cheepy programs at Office Depot back when they sold a lot of software. Corel bought the program and now it's Corel's answer to Photo Shop.

Hold off on getting that bundle... I can download the brush packs but not the big pieces. Will consult with
DH... hopefully I'm just missing something

Never mind about the Humble Bumble alert. The links are all there! There are extra instructions for the larger software programs at the top of the page, and the download links for them are below, mixed into the links for all the brush sets and stuff.

I downloaded Paintshop Pro 2020 from that bundle, used it just briefly, and I'm impressed! There are some new AI features, like being able to de-pixelate images so they can be enlarged.

Here's an old photo of me being put on one of Great-Uncle Gene's Clydesdales. Dad scanned the photo into a digital file years ago, and when I printed it for a family event in June I boosted the faded color and contrast a bit. That was done quickly and simply using the Windows "Photos" app tab, "Edit & Create."



Here, I tweaked it a little in Paintshop Pro 2020, first making very minor adjustments to lighting with the Smart Photo Fix sliders. The program makes suggestions for improvements, and you take it from there -- for example, I rejected the suggestion to sharpen the image, because the people were in good focus, and I didn't want the background sharpened. Then I applied the new "AI denoise" feature at its mildest setting.



And then I enlarged it from 4x6 at 300 dpi to 8x12 at 1000 dpi, just to see if I could. Not sure how much of that will show with the upload, but the quality remained excellent.



And now I'm LOL, because the "improvements" are all pretty subtle unless you're magnifying the image. I do have to say that I've seen the original photo nearly all my life without realizing there's a colt behind the big horse! Wish I had the original scanned image to show you, but that's on a portable hard drive.

Hi Jill,

The original has the most detail out of the three you've uploaded. I'm afraid the denoise filter has blurred the image a lot.

I'll just keep playing with that filter! Like everything, there are pros and cons to using it. Wonder if sharpening or increasing contrast would counteract the blurring...

At any rate, for $30 I don't have a need to get anything other than PSP 2020. The other stuff in the bundle is just a bonus. I'll download it all (not sure how long that page will stay active) this weekend, not sure how much I'll really use. I don't shoot in RAW, so I don't think Aftershot will be useful.

The Painter program might be fun to fool around with, especially with some of the additional brush packs ("Fur" for example). I think both Painter and Paintshop Pro let you take photos and transform them into various "styles" of art, altering size of brushstrokes, color palette, or just giving you a coloring book outline... all of which I find rather fascinating.

Jill, I don't use the denoise feature on Paintshop Pro for the very reason Australis pointed out. It always seems to blur things too much.

I almost always use the sharpening feature. But be careful, if you use it too much on a photo the edges of everything become really distinct and then things look kind of garish. It also puts a very tiny white outline on everything that isn't very great. I like using fade correction feature in the color correction section, but it too can really mess up the colors of a picture if you're not easy on the setting. Under the Hue and Saturation setting the "vibrancy" feature is really nice.

I would not suggest trying to correct one result from using a tool by using another tool. I prefer using the "back" feature and simply undoing whatever I did to the picture and then trying something else.

I also have started using the "fill flash" feature a lot more recently. Especially if the foreground is a little darker than I like. It really brightens up the subject a lot, without adding too much overall light as with the Brightness and contrast feature.

I've used Paintshop Pro for so many years I love it! But there are hundreds of features that I have never used! Many of which I may never use either. But it is one powerful program!

I've always just used Adobe Photoshop, or Paint 3D to edit my photos. I don't really edit them all that often anyway. Mostly because I'm not good at it.

Many of the photo software programs are on sale for black friday and cyber monday.

I like Perfectly clear from a canadian company. On sale now at 50% off, $64

https://sites.fastspring.com/a...

Just dropping by to post that Corel Paintshop Pro 2022 has an upgrade offer, something like $35 (I keep getting a popup on my browser about it).

What a great picture of you on that horse, Jill! At first glance, you looked just like my 3-year old granddaughter, lol!

I agree, the first picture is the best. Scanning old photos to digital file is a good idea. I am not looking forward to the project, but I really should do that.