This one has been done over and over on other photo forums (and pros are not necessarily the best people to ask when you're on a budget) but I'd like the view from here..... I'm after some post processing software. I've just downloaded Paint Shop Pro 4 and it looks nice if a little big (in fact, I'd call it huge). My requirements:

1. Occasional re-size of images.
2. Very occasional spot of sharpening on images (really don't like the over cooked look).
3. Occasional changes to brightness and contrast for printing (some of my images look fab on an LCD display but a little dark on CRT and when printing).
4. Occasional cloning out of dust spots resulting from dust on my DSLR's sensor.
5. Possibly a little noise reduction but I'm already quite happy with Neat Image.
6. Must not come with an Adobe price tag (I consider Paint Shop pro pretty good value for money from what I've seen so far)!

If it works with RAW format files from my Panasonic LX2 and Nikon D40 then that would be an added bonus.

Photoshop Elements 5 is a pretty good value. I've seen it for <$80 at CostCo. Supports RAW files, and does everything on your list.

Why not download a trial version of Photoshop Elements as a comparison (which you can later buy for about the same price as PSP, if you like it)?

Depending on how tight your budget is, you might also look at Picasa (by Google) which is free, although it is pretty limited.

As always, thanks.

Hmmmm, just shows how daft I am but understood Photoshop Elements to be something far more limited...... I shall download and try.

Generally, at the $80-$300 range, cost is not an issue - above that and I'm falling into the mind set where I think "hmmmmm, but I could go for that lens" or "I have to have that camera".

Get UFRAW and the GIMP. You will be able to work with RAW and GIMP is a very nice image editing suite. The best part is that it is all open source and free. Although both are Linux programs (and really run best in Linux) there are windows versions if that is your OS. I think the learning curve with both is higher than with the off the shelf stuff, but there are a ton of scripts and plugins available for gimp that let you do nearly everything you could want to do.


UFRAW:

http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/

GIMP

http://www.gimp.org/

PSElements is likely fine for what you need. It has the basics you are seeking. In fact, quite a bit more. I think my original version of PSE that came with my camera 3 years ago had what you list, 2 versions old.

I just found in my mailbox my copy of CS3 Extended for $289 under their academic license, if $300 is in your price range and you qualify.

GIMP is fine if you're the roll-your-own, Linux-kernels-are-easy, open source type.

Well, given your specs, I'd say the suggestion of PS Elements is a pretty darn good one. You don't specify what the raw format is for Panasonic, but assuming that it is TIFF, I'd also add Nikon's Capture NX (also available as a 30 day free download) to the list since it will cover your D40 NEF.

I used to use ACR for raw conversion, but having tried Capture NX over the past week, it impressed me so much that I bought the key online from the Nikon site (cheaper if you buy it online elsewhere, but I couldn't wait) and expect to use that for a good majority of my post processing now. With the better interface, the addition of the D-lighting feature, and Color Control points, it does a good amount of what I would seek to do in PS with less headache. The only thing I could say they need to improve is better selectioning tools, but seeing where I think they are going with this product, I predict that this will be forthcoming.

Regarding your point #3, I wouldn't necessarily blame the software. Frankly, it sounds more like a color management issue. Is your monitor calibrated? Are you allowing your printer to manage the output or is PS handling it? Are you soft proofing with the proper ICC profile? There are many things that can go wrong color management wise from image capture in your camera to printing.

Hmmmm, just shows how daft I am but understood Photoshop Elements to be something far more limited...... I shall download and try.

Generally, at the $80-$300 range, cost is not an issue - above that and I'm falling into the mind set where I think "hmmmmm, but I could go for that lens" or "I have to have that camera".

What type of images do you want to work and in what way? If all you want to do is the basics, people are telling you to just get your feet wet........!!!! And you have a few apps you can download and use for free for a trial period.

Do it! - try them out - and post some questions as you go through the process. Even better, tell us your experiences as you go along!

You can spend as much money as you wish, but what is the point? What are you doing with your photos?

Don't connect spending money with better photos.

Just have fun.

And tell us .......... :) ;)

Once again, thanks for all the good advice here. Ok, as per Faux Pas's suggestion, I've started playing, first with Paint Shop Pro.

This packages headline feature is it's so called "one click" functions which effectively de-brain a lot of the post processing process. I'm guessing a lot of this is down to to having good defaults in the first place (and I'm sure scripts are available for things like "the Gimp" to do exactly the same thing).

Now, I took a couple of my Christchurch photos and used Paint Shop's "Smart Fix" feature and the difference was surprising. A photo from a cable card ride now looks a little bland in comparison with the "fixed photo" (though the differences are subtle). A photo of one of Christchurch's trams is much improved.

I had to under expose a lot while in Christchurch because the minimum shutter speed of my Panasonic LX2 just didn't cut it in the bright southern sunlight (event at the narrowest aperture) and surprisingly, the PP on the tram photo even bought out a couple of reflections that weren't all that visible before (though this is IMHO at the cost of the quality of the shadows).

Both photos can be seen in the "before" form in the current Trip Report competition and I'll not change them. If there is interest, I will show both the "improved" versions here after the competition is over (the burning question - excuse the pun - being "are they over cooked").

Next I will try Photoshop Elements :).

I installed PS Elements 5.0 on my laptop this week, mainly because of the comments here. I am using a Canon EOS30D. In the past I've used Picassa and some of the olympus software.

The Canon software was OK, but I wanted more flexibility in printing multiple pictures on a single page.

PS Elements seems pretty nice, but it sure is slow--especially for raw image files. Any tips on how to speed things up--this is the first time that I have felt like my laptop (Dell Inspiron 6000 with a 1.6 Pentium M) needed more horsepower.

Any suggestions on how to pick up the tempo?

Not tried Elements yet (and yes, it is a monster and that is a little off putting in itself) but........ One possibility: When working with RAW images, you might want to convert them to DNG format first as I suspect this is how Elements works natively.

Depending on how tight your budget is, you might also look at Picasa (by Google) which is free, although it is pretty limited.

I'm a Photoshop user. Have been for year. I'm getting lazy in my old age, so I find myself using Picasa more and more.

It will do everything you want except cloning our dust

Hell, I do the "feeling lucky" option and 90+% of the time it does exactly what I want.

Also, the batch processing option is great, even saves originals.

I'm losing my PS skills:)

I just found in my mailbox my copy of CS3 Extended for $289 under their academic license, if $300 is in your price range and you qualify.


I bought CS2 about a year ago and am still on a very steep learning curve. Is CS3 sufficiently improved to spend the money on an upgrade?

How about a Mac with iPhoto? :)

I bought CS2 about a year ago and am still on a very steep learning curve. Is CS3 sufficiently improved to spend the money on an upgrade?

There are a few key improvements:

* RAW files can now be imported as Smart Objects, and the vast majority of filters can be run non-destructively on your pictures.
* Adobe Camera Raw has been improved with the Pixmantec acquisition - they've added highlight recovery and fill light sliders...both of them are handy. Also, some better color controls.
* HDR and Photomerge have been improved since CS2.
* Runs better - load time on my system is ~50% faster.
* Bridge CS3 is a huge improvement over CS2.

I thought it was well worth the upgrade.

Not tried Elements yet (and yes, it is a monster and that is a little off putting in itself) but........ One possibility: When working with RAW images, you might want to convert them to DNG format first as I suspect this is how Elements works natively.

Nope. DNG is a storage format. When you open an image, it's converted into the simple RGB data - a TIFF would probably be the closest file format to what Photoshop uses. If it's a RAW file, it gets run through the demosaicing routines and has transformations applied based on the Camera Raw settings. DNGs would follow the same path, just a different internal file structure. JPEGs would be decompressed, etc.

That said, I do convert all of my raw files (I shoot Nikon, so they're NEFs) to DNG, so that I can embed metadata and keep my images organized without having XMP sidecar files lying everywhere. Makes it easier to find files when you've got ~10,000 of them in Lightroom.

OK, I've now spent a couple weeks playing with this and for me the verdict is in - Capture NX (Nikon) will easily replace ACR/PS for a good 99% of my image manipulations.

I look back at the images I cooked with PS and the ones with NX, and there is a noticeable difference. Perhaps it's because as Nikon software, it understands NEF better. Perhaps it's also because all the cooking and baking I do with CNX isn't introducing any destructive edits. Anyway, I've found that this nifty little product will do virtually everything I seek to with an image in a very photography oriented, intuitive way, and more easily than with PS. I also like that it includes the sometimes handy option of providing a dust reference photo as input to make the correction.

My only complaints is that their selectioning tools aren't as robust as I'd like them to be, but I've worked around that. I've also found that using color control points, I don't need to do as much selectioning anyway.

I highly recommend this product if you shoot NEF with Nikon (it will also work with TIFF and JPEG, but unsurprisingly not with Canon RAW or DNG) and your needs are primarily photographic (not graphic art oriented) where your goal is simply to improve an image. It doesn't replace many specialty functions that PS will do, but I personally tend not to do those things very often.