Software for editing

[Brian Yarvin]

John, there's more to it than that. I'm just not as happy with commercial software as I am with open source. It just doesn't deliver in the same way. 

[Chuck Nacke]

9 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

So sorry to hear about the Bridge collapse in Boston overnight. Loss of life is small, thank heavens, but this will only add to traffic woes for a long time.

Betty,

 

Yes, the Bridge, not an Adobe product, collapse is a sad story, BUT it was not even close to Boston, that bridge is in Baltimore, Maryland. 400 miles (644km in the rest of the world) to the South.

 

Chuck

[Betty LaRue]

44 minutes ago, Chuck Nacke said:

Betty,

 

Yes, the Bridge, not an Adobe product, collapse is a sad story, BUT it was not even close to Boston, that bridge is in Baltimore, Maryland. 400 miles (644km in the rest of the world) to the South.

 

Chuck

Sorry, my mistake, Chuck. The Bs got me, all east.

[Martin L]

14 hours ago, Brian Yarvin said:

John, there's more to it than that. I'm just not as happy with commercial software as I am with open source. It just doesn't deliver in the same way. 

My brother from another mother.

Have been totally open source for a while now (although not for everyone I agree). There is some fabulous image processing software available written by some talented people.........

 

.........I'm going to whisper this for fear of upsetting the Adobe tub thumpers, in my view and for my use, much, much better than the pricey behemoth commercial products

[Michael Ventura]

9 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Sorry, my mistake, Chuck. The Bs got me, all east.

 

Yep, closer to me. I live about 40 mins from that bridge and have been over it many times.  Yes, it could have been a lot worse, thankfully traffic was stopped just in the nick of time.   It will cause all sorts of problems for months and years to come.   Traffic for sure but also supply chain issues, since the Baltimore port will be inaccessible for some time and it is a super important port for the eastern USA.  It is the largest U.S. port for importing cars and farm equipment, among other things.

[Brian Yarvin]

I'm a tiny bit farther away from the bridge, but only a few minutes from New Holland - a major exporter of farm equipment. The closure of the port will create big problems for them.

 

Baltimore can't get a break.

 

[Michael Ventura]

25 minutes ago, Brian Yarvin said:

I'm a tiny bit farther away from the bridge, but only a few minutes from New Holland - a major exporter of farm equipment. The closure of the port will create big problems for them.

 

Baltimore can't get a break.

 

Yes, I should have said importing and exporting of things like cars and farm equipment.

[IanDavidson]

On 26/03/2024 at 13:13, Phil said:

 

I've used Photo Mechanic for a number of years. 

 

However, be aware - Photo Mechanic is going down the subscription path  😯

 

https://home.camerabits.com/2023/11/12/changes-coming-to-photo-mechanic/

 

 

Thank you for this information.  While understandable it is somewhat annoying.  I use PM a lot so I guess I will just have to suck it up.

[Phil]

23 hours ago, Brian Yarvin said:

There's no way I'm going to spring for anything in the Windows ecosystem at this moment. Every time I boot up my computer, I can hear my motherboard crying "why do you keep doing this to me?"

 

I see similar comments fairly frequently.  I've used Windows since the earlier single digit versions, as well as MacOS with 3 iMacs, and even played a couple times with Linux on couple older PC's.  Not a MS fanboy but have now been 100% Windows for several years.  It just works and has the most choices of software. 

 

I've never understood the dislike of Windows nor the reports of it's updates/new versions causing havoc.  I've always kept my systems current with latest upgrades, etc. and I've never had any upgrades or new Win versions break anything I can recall.

 

In today's personal computing hardware/software environment I believe that a hardware system refresh every several years is part of the price of admissions to the benefits of using a personal computer.   Hanging onto and trying to keep old hardware/software systems running properly is not the route to a smooth reduced stress personal computing experience.  Especially given the advances with newer software versions and their system requirements.  We only have to look at the AI imaging tools now available as an example.

Edited March 27 by Phil

[Brian Yarvin]

I don't really dislike Windows and Mac OS, it's just that they aren't worth what's they're asking. Linux asks a bit more in terms of the skills you need to learn, but in exchange, you get software that doesn't ask you too many personal questions and gives you the chance to have the discussions you really need. 

 

Windows and Linux are moving in two different directions; Windows is becoming more intrusive and Linux is becoming more expert. I would much rather have my hardware refreshes because the equipment becomes better, not because some software company is demanding more from me for the very same functionality.

 

And no, my choices have little to do with my computer hardware either. Camera gear makes more of a difference. I won't be able to use Capture1 without a subscription if I upgrade to mirrorless - that's a hardware change that might become necessary if clients demand file quality my older camera bodies can't deliver. I'll do whatever I have to for as long as I can. And as of now, that means the slow transition to open source.

[M.Chapman]

9 hours ago, Martin L said:

........I'm going to whisper this for fear of upsetting the Adobe tub thumpers, in my view and for my use, much, much better than the pricey behemoth commercial products

 

Care to whisper some package names?

 

Mark

[Martin L]

geeqie - for initial culling

darktable - raw processing and a bit of artistic fiddling

gimp - spot removal, some stubborn ca removal

gthumb - adding keys and metadata

gsync - backing up

Ubuntu 22.04 - OS

 

 

Don't get me wrong, Adobe products are very good, I used to use them from the late 80s just that for me other apps suit me better and for me I can get equivalent and sometimes better results without huge investment in equipment and subscriptions.

I whispered it because some partisan Adobe users can get very offended if people dare suggest alternatives.😊 

 

PS: I got my first Mac in about 91 that must have been the time I started using PS not the late 80s as i previously said. Where does the time go?

Edited March 28 by Martin L
Added os

[John Mitchell]

1 hour ago, Martin L said:

geeqie - for initial culling

darktable - raw processing and a bit of artistic fiddling

gimp - spot removal, some stubborn ca removal

gthumb - adding keys and metadata

gsync - backing up

Ubuntu 22.04 - OS

 

 

Don't get me wrong, Adobe products are very good, I used to use them from the late 80s just that for me other apps suit me better and for me I can get equivalent and sometimes better results without huge investment in equipment and subscriptions.

I whispered it because some partisan Adobe users can get very offended if people dare suggest alternatives.😊

 

Useful list. Thanks very much for posting.

 

 

[Martin L]

8 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Useful list. Thanks very much for posting.

 

 

This is just what I like to use of course, other products are available 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 28 by Martin L

[M.Chapman]

12 hours ago, Martin L said:

geeqie - for initial culling

darktable - raw processing and a bit of artistic fiddling

gimp - spot removal, some stubborn ca removal

gthumb - adding keys and metadata

gsync - backing up

Ubuntu 22.04 - OS

Thanks for posting.

 

I just tried Geeqie (nice and fast) and gthumb (neat but slower). I think I'll stick with XnViewMP.

My favourite was BreezeBrowser but that's Windows only, (although it does run under Crossover).

I use FreeFileSync to keep my drives in Sync

 

Mark

 

[M.Chapman]

On 25/03/2024 at 14:13, geogphotos said:

Editing as in selecting which pics to process from a batch of similars.

 

Is there a piece of software that allows you to move thumbnails around into order, to select and reject, to mix and sort them , to compare one with another close up - software to reduce say 50 pictures down to the best 5.

 

ISTR you're on a Mac so this new App (Nitro Photo) from the guy that used to work for Apple on Aperture Software might be of interest. There'a a 7 day free trial from the App store.

https://www.gentlemencoders.com/nitro-for-macos/index.html

 

Mark

[MDM]

1 hour ago, M.Chapman said:

ISTR you're on a Mac so this new App (Nitro Photo) from the guy that used to work for Apple on Aperture Software might be of interest. There'a a 7 day free trial from the App store.

https://www.gentlemencoders.com/nitro-for-macos/index.html

 

Mark

 

That looks interesting Mark. The Gentlemen Coders seem to know what they are doing on macOS. 

[M.Chapman]

19 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

That looks interesting Mark. The Gentlemen Coders seem to know what they are doing on macOS. 

Yes, I had a brief go with it. As expected, because it uses Apple's processing engine, adjustments are fast, fluid and interactive. But I didn't find those adjustments to be as refined as LR/ACR and some of the terminology used is different. There's no Auto CA removal that I could find (manual only) which is a big timesaver for me in LR/ACR. I also didn't spot a "solo mode" for the adjustment panels which is something I like In LR. But, Nitro is a very capable package (more features than the previous Raw Power package). It's very reasonably priced, with monthly or yearly subscription and perpetual option.  I'll be sticking with my Adobe Photo subscription (bought with Black Friday discount) as PS/LR/ACR tools/results are class leading IMO. I do need to upgrade my hardware though.

 

Mark

[MDM]

8 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

Yes, I had a brief go with it. As expected, because it uses Apple's processing engine, adjustments are fast, fluid and interactive. But I didn't find those adjustments to be as refined as LR/ACR and some of the terminology used is different. There's no Auto CA removal that I could find (manual only) which is a big timesaver for me in LR/ACR. I also didn't spot a "solo mode" for the adjustment panels which is something I like In LR. But, Nitro is a very capable package (more features than the previous Raw Power package). It's very reasonably priced, with monthly or yearly subscription and perpetual option.  I'll be sticking with my Adobe Photo subscription (bought with Black Friday discount) as PS/LR/ACR tools/results are class leading IMO. I do need to upgrade my hardware though.

 

Mark

 

I agree but the L word is beyond the scope of the present discussion by request of the OP so Nitro could be a very good option with its stated integration with the Finder and Photos app. Certainly worth checking out. 

[M.Chapman]

2 hours ago, MDM said:

Nitro could be a very good option with its stated integration with the Finder and Photos app. Certainly worth checking out. 

 

I just gave Nitro Photo (https://www.gentlemencoders.com/nitro-for-macos/index.html) another spin.

OP (Ian) might find it very useful for ranking & culling. There's no need to import images into a catalog first (just open existing folders and it possibly builds a catalogue as it goes) I was able to zoom and pan up to 12 images simultaneously and star rate each one. Very impressive. Runs very smoothly on my 2017 iMac, must be lightning fast on an M series Mac.

 

Mark

Edited March 28 by M.Chapman

[geogphotos]

Thanks for all the help and discussion.

 

In the end I worked through each image methodically and kept what I considered best overwriting any saved image with a better one as it came along. 

 

I felt that having quite a lot from this set was warranted given that there was nothing of this particular ship on Alamy. 

 

It is unusual for me to have so many images of one subject. 

 

Hopefully everybody found the thread useful.