Editing software ?

[Paullyfuzz]

Can anyone recommend some photo editing software,

Must haves,

Be free,
Easy to use,
Be able to handle Nikon RAW images

Im aware that with those wants im not going to be able to do a mass of editing, its just the basics really.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[MrEd]

google picassa, i think its still free. i used to use it

http://picasa.google.com/

 

[teflon]

An older copy of Photoshop could probably be had for little more than a few pounds. Even if you just want it for the basics, the support base is vast - which makes it priceless in real terms.

 

[nitrambur]

GIMP 2.6, not used it much but it's got lots of features and it's free

 

[TomBartlett]

Photoshop, Lightroom, Elements and Apple Aperture all (I think) offer free trials. You could just use and abuse then move on. If those listed have a month's free trial each, that's 4 month's worth of editing time

 

[TechGadgetSteve]

i always use gimp, there are plenty of tutorials on youtub and if you look around there are loads of addons.

 

[Large Sack]

Gimp is free and there is a free plugin called UFRaw which will enable you to handle Nikon RAW files http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/Install.html if Gimp hasn't yet built in Nikon RAW ability.
I have used Gimp a little and with each new release it gets better and better. As techgadgetsteve said there are loads of Gimp tutes on the net and should be easy to find out how to do what you want.
We use Photoshop at work and Gimp covers most of the stuff that the cut down version (Elements) has to offer. That said Corel now own the software for Paintshop and they do a cutdown version for £29 http://store1.corel.com/corel/category.jsp?cat=cat3600081&tagId= I don't know about Nikon RAW with this one but it might be worth doing a few searches. If you want any more info pm me and I will see what I can do.

Cheers

Sack

 

[xairbourne]

Adobe light room 3 has just been released. Define free?

 

[Large Sack]

Adobe light room 3 has just been released. Define free?

Gimp is an open source project and is free to dl in its entirety. If you wish to make a donation you are free to do so.

Personally Paullyfuzz, for a novice, I think Gimp is your best option.

 

[myotis]

I agree with the GIMP suggestion, its free, hundreds of tutorials on the web, a few books on it and its a fully featured professional bit map editor. As such probably more than most photographers actually need, but well worth learning if you want to start with a program you almost certainly won't outgrow.

You may find this interesting

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/03/8-handy-tweaks-to-make-gimp-replace-photoshop/

Graham