New D3100 owner - photo edit software

Hi All,

A quick intro first.......and then a short question (i will be looking at old posts to answer it also but will ask anyway)

I'm a new and pretty excited D3100 owner, after messing with a Fuji HS10 bridge camera for a few years I now find myself with the budget Nikon which when compared to the bridge in question it really is like the greatest thing ever. A friend who is a semi-pro photography is a Nikon user so it seemed stupid not to be able to tap into his knowledge with the brand, but also whilst researching a start point DSLR the D3100 seemed the complete no-brainer. So far i am really impressed, particularly with the intuitive Nikon setups and menus, ease of use, options and possibilities (particularly for exposure and focus...and one of the reasons my Fuji bridge was no longer doing it) and (luxury of luxury) the shot response....which i really feel is key to the good shot you are after.

So given all that i just wondered what advice you could give regarding image editing. I am not really prepared to outlay for photoshop or lightbox for image editing, but my only previous use of image editing software is paint.net. I would like an all-in-one image editor (JPG & RAW capable) which is either low cost or free? Any guidance or direction i should go....

Thanks and looking forward to some feedback.

Hi and welcome....A cheap way to acquire Photoshop or Light room is if your a student you can buy it at a reduced rate..

Hi pedroj, and thanks, my student days are way behind me sadly. Do you think using for example rawtherapee is a waste of time? I just don't want to spend ages mastering a software application to find it is a dead end etc. Are photoshop/lightbox so far ahead of the rest?

Did you see a post today with Light room for sale?

I am wondering if you have tried out the software that came with your camera? It's a pretty decent bit of software. Perhaps you can dive into that and master it. Once you have done that, maybe invest in an Adobe title.

No....did look extensively for editing software posts but only found a few and they didn't really provide much info specifically.

Any links for stuff ive missed would be great.

I received NXView2?....which i think is not able to edit (maybe talking rubbish here). Only i tried it and cannot find any edit facility....you can update online to the captureNX but its £68 i think. Any feedback as to my accuracy here is appreciated...i read the manual for it though so im not asking without looking first. No mention of editing raw files.

Right i'm gonna revisit this and see if i can edit RAW on ViewNX2....it deffo doesnt say in guide or on Nikon website that it does but will check again. Maybe ive missed something. I have tried it with a RAW file but wouldnt let me do it...will try again.

Thanks all.

Right sorry people, ive got it working. I was pulling a copy of a RAW (jpg fine not nef) into the editor. It will edit my RAW, which is great...strange though that it wont edit jpg. Anyway am gonna get into this and see if i can get to grips.

NXView is bare-bones. You should seriously download a copy of Lightroom to try. You'll quickly see the difference.

I got by on GIMP and CaptureNX2 for several years thinking they were just fine for my needs (and relatively cheap, too). Then I got my hands on Lightroom, and WOW! I had no idea what I was missing. There is a slight learning curve but it will totally change the way you work with images.

EDIT: You can still pick up a copy of Lightroom 3 (old version) on Amazon for only $89. Well worth it.

Ive worked viewnx2. Opening wrong file....really stupid. It is basic but may do for time being....will download lightbox though.

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Definitely have a go with LR4. I've downloaded the trial and have had some amazing results. I will definitely be buying at the end of the trial period.

Yeh im gonna give it a go. Ive got nxview2 working now (guide is verbose but not the best) and its clunky....omho. I was trying to open files i thought were nikon raw into it but they weren't raw. My mistake. As such they werent editing much....obviously. It was only when i clicked on the raw in grey top left i realised it wasnt actually a raw file. Anyway will open them straight into the editor now and pay attention to the file name too. Silly.

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hi yes you can edit with veiw nx2...locate pic file on left side of screen then select pic by double clicking then on rt side there is a little tab that you click and it expands the edit functions

Have a look at this one I found by accident and had a couple of days looking around it until I went back to getting to grips with LightRoom 4 instead of trying to learn two pieces of software. But for FREE software its very handy

RawTherapee Features

100% free and has a lot of options similar to LightRoom or Aperture (MAC)

Try this free one, it won't do it all, but it may be enough. IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide