Simple photo software....

[HotJambalaya]

So, having just ordered a little point and shoot compact (sony RX-100 iv) I'm turning my mind to software.

Again, I have zero understanding of photography, so really just want something that will just do it optimally for me -I know 'optimal' is a subjective term.

Now, as a hangover on my laptop from the ex (ironically a photographer), I actually have Adobe Lightroom 4, and Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.

However I was looking around and saw DXO Optics Pro mentioned a few times. The Adobe stuff looks way way way too advanced for me, and the DXO stuff looks a lot easier to use, and even adjusts for your specific camera and lens, the Rx-100 being supported.

Does anyone have any thoughts on if it is really that easy to use. For £100 I don't mind particularly, particularly if it saves me hours of trying to figure out the adobe stuff....

[GetCarter]

If you go to Youtube and type in Lightroom 4 - there are some really good beginner tutorials.

Within 1 hour you'll know how to use Lightroom, and you'll never regret it.

Honest.

ETA... just set your RX100 to shoot RAW+JPG - Lightroom will let you work on the raw versions, and within a further hour, they will be better than the jpgs.

Edited by GetCarter on Monday 29th May 14:45

[steveatesh]

I Agree with GC, Lightroom is great and there are many many youtube videos and tutorials.

I looked at the other one too but deleted it after a few goes in favour of LR.

I'll stay with it until they go subscription only (if they do) then look for an alternative!

[singlecoil]

Get Photoshop Elements, £70 ish, it will do all you need and will be a good starting point if you want to get more involved and move up to the full PS package.

Download the free trial here

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-element...

[Lucas CAV]

I'd work on exposure, aperture and iso first and then decide what you want/need to edit and then buy the software to suit.

But do shoot jpg and raw though!

[silobass]

Lightroom is easy to use. Even if you just start at the top slider and work your way down! It's a great piece of software.

[tenohfive]

silobass said:

Lightroom is easy to use. Even if you just start at the top slider and work your way down! It's a great piece of software.

It's for precisely that reason that it's so easy to use - it guides you through a workflow in a sensible way. And it's the easiest software I've come across to just dick about with if you're so inclined - you can mess about to your hearts content to get a feel for how things affect the image, then reset it piece by piece or all at once.

[Sparkov]

Stick with Photoshop and Lightroom if you already have them; they're an industry standard and the online support for learning is very good. Well worth putting the effort in. However, if you know nothing about photography, I'd recommend forgetting about software for now and concentrate on learning the basics i.e. composition, focus, exposure etc. You can only create great images through editing if you have good photographs to start with.

I also wouldn't bother with manual raw conversion until you've reached the limit of what you can do with with the JPEGs - the RX100 series cameras create fantastic images on their own, with little need for editing, and your time will initially be better spent taking more photos and learning by your mistakes.

[sgrimshaw]

Free Trial of Lightroom here:

https://lightroom.adobe.com/

[HotJambalaya]

I have lightroom on my laptop, and actually I paid for a subscription to it along with the other stuff for my now ex which is on my desktop. I have to check whos name I put it in, but wondering if the license would cover me for the laptop so I'd have the newer version

[ExPat2B]

In terms of workflow, as long as you have a fast computer, DXO can't be beat.

Use Photomechanic to ingest, rename and "star" rate the best ones.

Open the folder in DXO and filter by star rating to show only the keepers. Apply a preset with the right options selected and it does 80% of the work for you. Automatially gets the exposure right, detects faces and optimises the lighting for them, fixes the distortion and vignettee, sharpens selectively based on lens profiles. Manually use the dust tool to kill facial blemishes. Dehaze to taste. Fix the colour cast.

If you use the manual sliders ( as with lightroom ) a gentle touch is best. In you first years(s) you will misjudge the amount of correction needed.

Then use the tools to crop and rotate, and output as jpeg downsized to the resolution you will display at. DXO does a much better job at all the core functions like noise reduction, resizing, etc than lightroom does.

For real "perfect" shots, output as a full size TIFF to photoshop elements and apply local adjustments with a brush and mask. The TIFF files that DXO produces are amazing, much deeper than Adobe raw which is most obvious when shadows are pulled and some dodging and burning takes place.

[HotJambalaya]

Interesting thanks, turns out I have photomechanic too...

I'll have a short play with lightroom when the camera arrives, but honestly I like to keep it simple so DXO is quite appealing


they have a 30 day free trial, so might give it a bash too.

[Simpo Two]

I use PS a lot, though an earlier version than yours. I recall it was a scary beast at first sight and not intuitive compared to, say, MS Word, but poke around - and as said, there are many tutorials online to help you. Remember that you don't need to learn it all - I know maybe 2% of PS and it's served me well for years. Just learn the bits to do what you want to do.