Suggestions For A Newbie

F

Flash Pot

Senior Member
The choices are overwhelming to say the least so perhaps the experts here can help a total newbie.

First a little background. I just got my new D3100 DSLR today after 50 years of point and shoot with a failed attempt at 35mm SLR camera 25 years ago.

I am also not very savvy with computer graphic programs.

So I am looking for a low priced, easy to use program to edit my photos.

I have my eye on Corel Paintshop Pro X6 or Adobe Photoshop Elements 12.... But truthfully they are both more than I really want to spend and both look very hard to master.
 
K

Krs_2007

Senior Member
Lightroom 5 for windows and if you are using a Mac then Aperture. With that said I switched to LR because apple was a little delayed with Aperture updates, but I do use it for storage cataloging. LR for initial editing and move to aperture so I can share via ICloud.
 
4

480sparky

Senior Member
How much 'editing' do you expect to do? Adjust contrast, WB, saturation, etc., then crop? Maybe ViewNX will work........ that's on the CD that came with the camera.
 
Last edited:
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
480sparky said:
Or VNX's big brother, Capture NX-D.
Click to expand...

I have found with newbees that ViewNX2 is a good place to get their feet wet. A lot of people will be happy with it and it will do everything they want it to do. I started there and trained my wife on it. I am now on PhotoShop CS6 with Nik Tools. I recently made the mistake of working on a photo of my wife's because it needed a little something extra like a sign removed. That was it. I have now taught her the basics and she is hooked. The point is that it was a lot easier to teach her PS since she already knew the basics from ViewNX2. Learn the basics like shadow control, brightness, Contrast and sharpening and cropping in a simple interface first.
 
4

480sparky

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
I have found with newbees that ViewNX2 is a good place to get their feet wet. A lot of people will be happy with it and it will do everything they want it to do. I started there and trained my wife on it. I am now on PhotoShop CS6 with Nik Tools. I recently made the mistake of working on a photo of my wife's because it needed a little something extra like a sign removed. That was it. I have now taught her the basics and she is hooked. The point is that it was a lot easier to teach her PS since she already knew the basics from ViewNX2. Learn the basics like shadow control, brightness, Contrast and sharpening and cropping in a simple interface first.
Click to expand...


True. VNX is good for minor adjustments, but lacks more powerful tools, especially curves. And you really can't learn true PP without knowing curves.
 
R

rikman

Senior Member
Took the nikon school class last year. They went over capture nx. Not bad. Actually looked easy to use & powerful. Looks like it's going for $89 at B&H & Adorama.


Sent from my iPhone 5s using Tapatalk
 
F

Flash Pot

Senior Member
480sparky said:
How much 'editing' do you expect to do? Adjust contrast, WB, saturation, etc., then crop? Maybe ViewNX will work........ that's on the CD that came with the camera.
Click to expand...

Don Kuykendall said:
480sparky is right. ViewNX2 is a great program for basic editing. It is free and it used to be packed with new cameras but don't know if it still is.

At least give it a try and see if it will do what you want

Nikon Imaging | Global Site | ViewNX 2?*Download
Click to expand...



Yes it was packed with the camera. I think I'll install it and see how it works
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Don't know if you're running Windows or not but if you are one of the best free photo editors out there right now is an app called IRFanview. I have full-blown versions of both Lightroom and Photoshop at my disposal and I still find myself using IRFanview to do simple edits because it's fast, fast, fast and stupid simple to use.

....
 
F

Flash Pot

Senior Member
kluisi said:
If you have any kids (kindergarten-college aged) you can use their information to get the student/teacher version for about $70.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Sadly I don't



Horoscope Fish said:
Don't know if you're running Windows or not but if you are one of the best free photo editors out there right now is an app called IRFanview. I have full-blown versions of both Lightroom and Photoshop at my disposal and I still find myself using IRFanview to do simple edits because it's fast, fast, fast and stupid simple to use.

....
Click to expand...


That is what I currently use. You are right it is super simple, but I think of it more as a viewer than I do as an editor.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Flash Pot said:
That is what I currently use. You are right it is super simple, but I think of it more as a viewer than I do as an editor.
Click to expand...
Well it allows you to basic color adjustments (R, G & B) as well as gamma/brightness, contrast and saturation, image flipping, converting to B&W, resizing and its cropping tool is awesome. If you want to get more complicated than that, you might as well start learning PaintShop, Lightroom or one of the other full fledged editing applications. You don't need to "master" any of them, you just need to learn to do what you need to do with them.

....
 
Last edited:
K

kluisi

Senior Member
Flash Pot said:
Sadly I don't
Click to expand...

Your other option is gimp for free. It is a free, open source photoshop competitor. Not as good or easy to use, but it is free. Not sure if you can use it for raw editing yet, or only after exporting to jpg or tiff.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
 
W

wornish

Senior Member
Another free option is Darktable it works on Windows and Macs and lots of open source Unix based systems.
I tried it recently and was surprised with what it can do.
 
4

480sparky

Senior Member
kluisi said:
Your other option is gimp for free. It is a free, open source photoshop competitor. Not as good or easy to use, but it is free. Not sure if you can use it for raw editing yet, or only after exporting to jpg or tiff.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

You can use UFRaw with it, or Raw Therapee and then send it to GIMP.

Sent from MyOuthouse via ToiletPaper.
 
Top