Media editing software

[Yukonica]

As we ponder the demise of DSLR (in another thread) I began thinking about photo editing.
My MacBook Pro crapped out a couple months ago so I bought a MacBook Air as an interim solution. It really isn't much more than  glorified iPad with a key board. I've decided to break away from Apple's closed environment.

What PC based editing software are you using?
I'd prefer software I can buy and load on my own machines rather than be tethered to the whims of a monthly agreement in the cloud. Not saying the vendor would write a clause in the user agreement saying they can up the price any time they have a bad quarter.
I have used Aperture for years and really liked it. It had a couple DXO plug-ins that would lead me to 'buy' if DXO offered a full platform.

Any thoughts or preferences for full featured editing tools? I have similar questions for video editing software.
Final Cut Pro or current iteration is not on the list. nice software: wrong machinery.

 

[rodekyll]

Light Room and Photoshop LE are good.

[nick949]

I got hooked on Corel products back in the 18th century and have been using them ever since:

Coreldraw suite: Paint (image editing), Draw (vector drawing and illustration)
Corel VideoStudio: video editing 

They may not be the best but I'm so familiar with them that they work for me.

And to prove I'm truly a digital dinosaur, I still use WordPerfect which, although it has lost market share is still a far better program than Microvile Word.

Nick

[Yukonica]

I got hooked on Corel products back in the 18th century and have been using them ever since:

I was cleaning old stuff out of my well-house last fall. I tossed a CDR of Corel Draw, a copy of Encarta, and Borland C
(left me non-plussed why I still had that). Also dumped Adobe Creative suite for Mac (ver 3) on disc.
And about 20 pounds of other miscellaneous software; all on disc or 3.5 floppy.
You'd have had a field day ;)

Need  a Iomega Zip drive? I think there are still 10 disks on the shelf.
Don't know why I didn't recycle those as well.

[Yukonica]

Light Room and Photoshop LE are good.

They both work in RAW and I believe Lightroom is the better for archiving libraries. Do you need both?
Most of my post is exposure/white-balance/cropping and other simple stuff.
I do did use plug-ins for dealing with wide angle lenses when I shot daylight landscapes.
I don't need sharpening because I never blow a focus (I'm also offering the Teslin Bridge for sale or lease).
 

[rodekyll]

No, not both.  They have a fair amount of overlap at the functional editing level.  I use photoshop LE for my simple cropping and balancing type stuff.  I don't do photo manipulation, so the more advanced products are wasted on me.

[averb]

https://www.irfanview.com/
Free for non-commercial use, excellent app that I sue all the time

Steve

[Yukonica]

No, not both.  They have a fair amount of overlap at the functional editing level.  I use photoshop LE for my simple cropping and balancing type stuff.  I don't do photo manipulation, so the more advanced products are wasted on me.

I'm not interested in working with High Dynamic Range stuff but stitching a panorama or layering an occasional image isn't off my radar. A quick read through Adobe's website lists Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements as the only non-cloud components.
They look like they are targeted at the FaceBook crowd.  I'm really going to miss Aperture.

[Yukonica]

https://www.irfanview.com/
Free for non-commercial use, excellent app that I sue all the time

Steve

I know the app quite well. You are right; it is a good app. Actually, I knew the app well about ten years ago so it may have changed a bit. I think there is still a copy on an Acer netbook that lives at my workbench in the shop. The Acer has all the PDF's of V7 manuals etc. And, I don't care if it dirty fingers or WD40 gets on it.

[ITSec]

I use the Corel products, including one not already mentioned here that does the Photoshop work with RAW that PhotoPaint can't do.

AfterShot Pro is the library manager and RAW file manipulator that includes things like camera and lens profiles, etc.

PhotoPaint is the high-power bitmap editor that gets down and dirty with the image.

VideoStudio does what its name says.

CorelDRAW is the vector illustration tool, not that suitable for image work, but good for taking images and using them to create more complex projects.

If you buy the Corel Suite, you usually get all these plus several more useful tools. I've used Corel since the days when Adobe products were Mac only, and I've always thought CorelDRAW at least was notably better than Adobe Illustrator.

The Corel tools are all traditionally licensed at this point, although Corel is in the middle of changes to their model that will lead to a blend of traditional licensing and subscription updates.

Although I am generally opposed to subscription licensing, one thing I will point out is that many subscription licenses include the ability to load the software onto multiple machines (i.e., a home system and a laptop, or your machine and your kid's) for a single user fee. If this may apply to you, read the license carefully and see if it works better for you. As an example, my small business license for MS Office allows me to install it on as many as five machines  for $10 a month / $100 a year

[wittangamo]

Been using Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements for years after several pro photog friends told me there’s hidden horsepower under the hood.

I was a multimedia and web editor for a medium-sized newspaper, and found that once I skipped the beginner mode and templates, the “expert” mode allowed me to do almost anything I could think of. A much beter bargain than the subscription model, IMHO.

[Yukonica]

Been using Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements for years after several pro photog friends told me there�s hidden horsepower under the hood.

I was a multimedia and web editor for a medium-sized newspaper, and found that once I skipped the beginner mode and templates, the �expert� mode allowed me to do almost anything I could think of. A much beter bargain than the subscription model, IMHO.

I followed up on ITSec's Corel suggestion and it looks close to what I'd use but I'm not locked into a given software yet. (still haven't bought a PC). Does the hidden horsepower include batch edits? If I blow an exposure by a stop or two can I apply an across the board fix for that set of images?

[wittangamo]

I followed up on ITSec's Corel suggestion and it looks close to what I'd use but I'm not locked into a given software yet. (still haven't bought a PC). Does the hidden horsepower include batch edits? If I blow an exposure by a stop or two can I apply an across the board fix for that set of images?

Sure. Here’s a how-to video.
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/how-to/batch-edit.html