Advice needed: Best photo editor?

Jazzman wrote:
Would greatly appreciate advice on what would be the best photo
editor for me. I use a digital camera, am strictly an amateur,
but would like a user-friendly photo editing program to do
basic things like removing red-eye, cropping, downsizing file
sizes for emailing purposes, etc. Right now, I'm using Adobe's
Active Share, but I find it kind of cumbersome and not
particularly user-friendly. I read somewhere that Photo Shop
is very sophisticated, but has a steep learning curve, which
I'd rather pass on. Also, if the editor recommended is
Freeware, so much the better.

Twobtold's answer, Irfanview, is a good one. It's more a viewer
than an editor, but it does all of the functions you mentioned
except red-eye removal. It's also easy to use and free. It will
do cropping, resizing, simple sharpening, simple color enhancing,
and compressing.

It can't do sophisticated color work. It won't do things that
require you to edit individual parts of a photo, like red-eye
removal, eliminating unwanted picture elements, enhancing color,
or other aspects of some particular part of the photo, etc. For
that you'd need a real editor.

Some fairly simple editors I've used are Microsoft's Picture-It,
which I think may be free with Windows XP Home edition, and
Roxio Photosuite.

Photosuite is very easy to use. Red-eye removal is a snap. But
I have stopped using it because the interface is dumbed down to
the point where easy things are easy but harder things are very
much harder or even impossible. Like many photo editors, it
tries to force you into it's own idea of workflow, with "albums"
that you may not want. It's not free, but it is cheap.

My personal favorite is the GIMP. It is completely free, very
powerful and very flexible. But it has a significantly steeper
learning curve than the lower end commercial programs.

Alan

Thanks, Alan. Since fixing redeye is the main purpose for my seeking
out a photo editor (VuePrint allows me to do a lot of the other
stuff), I'll pass on Irfanview. I'll check on the others you mention.


On 27 Dec 2004 11:09:10 -0800, wrote:

Jazzman wrote:
Would greatly appreciate advice on what would be the best photo
editor for me. I use a digital camera, am strictly an amateur,
but would like a user-friendly photo editing program to do
basic things like removing red-eye, cropping, downsizing file
sizes for emailing purposes, etc. Right now, I'm using Adobe's
Active Share, but I find it kind of cumbersome and not
particularly user-friendly. I read somewhere that Photo Shop
is very sophisticated, but has a steep learning curve, which
I'd rather pass on. Also, if the editor recommended is
Freeware, so much the better.

Twobtold's answer, Irfanview, is a good one. It's more a viewer
than an editor, but it does all of the functions you mentioned
except red-eye removal. It's also easy to use and free. It will
do cropping, resizing, simple sharpening, simple color enhancing,
and compressing.

It can't do sophisticated color work. It won't do things that
require you to edit individual parts of a photo, like red-eye
removal, eliminating unwanted picture elements, enhancing color,
or other aspects of some particular part of the photo, etc. For
that you'd need a real editor.

Some fairly simple editors I've used are Microsoft's Picture-It,
which I think may be free with Windows XP Home edition, and
Roxio Photosuite.

Photosuite is very easy to use. Red-eye removal is a snap. But
I have stopped using it because the interface is dumbed down to
the point where easy things are easy but harder things are very
much harder or even impossible. Like many photo editors, it
tries to force you into it's own idea of workflow, with "albums"
that you may not want. It's not free, but it is cheap.

My personal favorite is the GIMP. It is completely free, very
powerful and very flexible. But it has a significantly steeper
learning curve than the lower end commercial programs.

Alan

Thanks, Alan. Since fixing redeye is the main purpose for my seeking
out a photo editor (VuePrint allows me to do a lot of the other
stuff), I'll pass on Irfanview. I'll check on the others you mention.


On 27 Dec 2004 11:09:10 -0800, wrote:

Jazzman wrote:
Would greatly appreciate advice on what would be the best photo
editor for me. I use a digital camera, am strictly an amateur,
but would like a user-friendly photo editing program to do
basic things like removing red-eye, cropping, downsizing file
sizes for emailing purposes, etc. Right now, I'm using Adobe's
Active Share, but I find it kind of cumbersome and not
particularly user-friendly. I read somewhere that Photo Shop
is very sophisticated, but has a steep learning curve, which
I'd rather pass on. Also, if the editor recommended is
Freeware, so much the better.

Twobtold's answer, Irfanview, is a good one. It's more a viewer
than an editor, but it does all of the functions you mentioned
except red-eye removal. It's also easy to use and free. It will
do cropping, resizing, simple sharpening, simple color enhancing,
and compressing.

It can't do sophisticated color work. It won't do things that
require you to edit individual parts of a photo, like red-eye
removal, eliminating unwanted picture elements, enhancing color,
or other aspects of some particular part of the photo, etc. For
that you'd need a real editor.

Some fairly simple editors I've used are Microsoft's Picture-It,
which I think may be free with Windows XP Home edition, and
Roxio Photosuite.

Photosuite is very easy to use. Red-eye removal is a snap. But
I have stopped using it because the interface is dumbed down to
the point where easy things are easy but harder things are very
much harder or even impossible. Like many photo editors, it
tries to force you into it's own idea of workflow, with "albums"
that you may not want. It's not free, but it is cheap.

My personal favorite is the GIMP. It is completely free, very
powerful and very flexible. But it has a significantly steeper
learning curve than the lower end commercial programs.

Alan

the newer versions of IrfanView include red eye reduction. Look under
options.

the newer versions of IrfanView include red eye reduction. Look under
options.

There are many ways to edit, store, print and save digital images. I
would suggest that you investigate the Adobe Photoshop Elelments. This
addresses all the above, is designed for people with little or no
experience, and yet is powerful enough to do many amzing things. Also
if you decide that you want to get more involved, it is a direct step
into Photoshop.
Regards
John

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