I've realized I'm pretty trash at it.

How do you edit? What programs do you like? What are your preferences for your photos, for what they finally end up looking like?

Does anyone have any n00b-friendly editing tutorials?

I would be really into seeing your before-and-afters!

Posted by kidchaos23 I've realized I'm pretty trash at it. How do you edit? What programs do you like? What are your preferences for your photos, for what they finally end up looking like? Does anyone have any n00b-friendly editing tutorials? I would be really into seeing your before-and-afters!

What brand cam you have?

Posted by blackhawk What brand cam you have?

Canon

Posted by blackhawk What brand cam you have?

That's a big contributing factor too editing... Or not.

Posted by kidchaos23 I've realized I'm pretty trash at it. How do you edit? What programs do you like? What are your preferences for your photos, for what they finally end up looking like? Does anyone have any n00b-friendly editing tutorials? I would be really into seeing your before-and-afters!

I'll get some before and after shots together. A lot of people around here like Photoshop. I've been using lightroom for the past 10 years. It's simple, and works well.

Posted by kidchaos23 Canon

Use Canon DPP, it's pretty easy once you learn it, lossless and made for Canon cams. Easy contrast curves and can do batch editing.
Light on CPU/RAM resources and pretty snappy.
I prefer the older version though.
http://www.uer.ca/...=1&threadid=127106

Make sure the MS x64 & x32 bit libraries are loaded, they probably are. If not you'll get side by side error messages; one or both are missing and need to be downloaded from MS.

I use Lightroom and sometimes photoshop

If this is helpful at all-

Processed slightly in Lightroom. Best to get as much of the shot right as you can when you take the shot. All of these are recent-ish.

Also, as a note- a camera manufacturer's proprietary software kind of locks you into one brand, is often clunky and cumbersome, and is quite limiting.



Before-


_DSC0001 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr

After-

Ext11 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr

Before-

DSC_0083 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr


After-

tank3 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



Before-


_DSC0037 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr


After-

J3 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



Before-


_DSC0034 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



After-

Ext1 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr


If you have anymore question. Ask away!

I don't have any opinion on what software to use. My only suggestion is, make it look as true to life as possible. Remember what the scene looks like in person, then match that look while editing. I shoot film because it gets me closer to reality with less editing. My opinion.

I am certainly no expert, but I dislike Adobe and their online subscription products. I use alternatives to Photoshop such as Paint.NET with plug-in packs, Gimp, and Photopea.

An alternative to Lightroom is RawTherapee. It is a free, cross-platform raw image processing program.

It does not take much to tweak an image. Any of the free programs that I have listed can do a decent job. Your first step is usually adjusting the Hue/Saturation levels. Basic Brightness/Contrast might help as well. Using layers is most helpful.

There is nothing wrong with using two or more programs to obtain the look you desire.


1. I used Paint.NET with plug-ins to create a vintage sepia contrast blend look.


2. This was an image I took in 2016.

My two cents...If you're looking for free/cheap software to use for editing, there are some options out there.

For Raw processing, photo correction, color correction, filters, luts, etc., you can use Adobe Lightroom or an alternative. For software that functions like Adobe Lightroom, you can always use RawTherapee or LightZone. Both are open-source and won't cost you a monthly subscription. I haven't used LightZone so I can't vouch for it but RawTherapee is pretty nice.

For heavy editing, there's Photoshop or one of the several Photoshop alternatives. If you're looking for free/open-source, then Gimp might be the way to go for you. If you're okay with paying a one time fee of $50, Affinity Photo is a nice piece of software.

Posted by Adv.Pack I don't have any opinion on what software to use. My only suggestion is, make it look as true to life as possible. Remember what the scene looks like in person, then match that look while editing. I shoot film because it gets me closer to reality with less editing. My opinion.

I feel you... and agree about keeping it real.

With digital you need to color calibrated your monitor and throughput.
Otherwise you have no baseline.
Establishing proper WB is important.
It's also important the editing room not be too brightly lite.
Neutral grey colors on the screen and surrounding the monitor are best.

DPP comes bundled with Canon cams or can be downloaded, is free and works well for basic editing including, WB and lense correction on selected cam models and lens.
Used to be only L lenses and pro cams had that support but this may have changed in the last decade.

The way it's set up, it is lossless; it always retains the original image automatically.
In thousands of images it's never lost even one original image.

There’s “darktable”, which is a free RAW photo processor and editor, although it isn’t exactly the most beginner-friendly program to use.

Shoot raw in your camera if you can. Think about how you want it to look when you're done and shoot accordingly. It should look as clean and natural as you can get it. Software and cameras don't really matter as long as they accomplish what you want them to.

The photographers package with adobe creative cloud is a no brainer, you get photoshop and lightroom for $10.00/month.

I have tried the free programs but (in my experience and opinion) you can't go wrong with lightroom.

Many despise lightroom for whatever reasons but it does exactly what I need. Once you master the interface and get into your own workflow you can do some amazing things.

Randomesquephoto's pics in the thread are great examples.

Posted by ryanpics Shoot raw in your camera if you can

This all day, every day!

Even if you don't know what RAW is or how to edit them I can't stress enough how important it is.

I shot jpeg only my 1st 2 years and I hate that I can't go back and fix up some of my old faves!

Posted by randomesquephoto If this is helpful at all- If you have anymore question. Ask away!

GREAT examples.

I usually use paint.net, since it's free and has lots of modules you can download to add even more functionality. When editing my pictures before posting I usually touch up the brightness, contrast, color saturation, noise level, sharpness, and occasionally correct any tilt in the picture. I've found that even though it's fairly simple in terms of what paint.net can do, I can usually make the shots turn out the way I want. It's also got an easy option to make the photo black and white or sepia, as well as layering images to create artsy effects.

I read your recommendations and I'm giving Lightroom a shot. I think I'll be messing around with it for a while, lol. randomesquephoto, thanks especially for your examples! I'm going to refer to them often while I try my hand at this.

Totally agree with all who said use Lightroom. Costs a fraction of what you'd pay for Photoshop. Non-destructive, easy to use and the results are fantastic