Photography software

[hoopdriver]

For anyone who is into photography I just noticed that Nik Software - now owned by Google - are offering their complete suite of software for $149, down to $126 if you use one of several promotional codes that seem to be floating around. (hdrsoftware15 worked for me) Normal price for all six software packages is about $500 so it is a pretty good deal.

Nik stuff is really good - most particularly their Silver Efex Pro which is about the best black-and-white developing software out there. It is used as a plug in with Lightroom, Photoshop or Aperture - it is NOT a stand alone thing, you need the other software to use it, but if you already have Lightroom, PS or Aperture these are brilliant plug-ins.

 

[Doseone]

Yes Nik software is meant to be excellent - but a word of caution, my laptop isn't that old and the graphics card wasn't good enough to run itFortunately I found out by downloading the free trial and hadn't shelled out. Shame, cos I would really like to get it.

 

[hoopdriver]

Nik has a compatability page on its website (under the Support menu)

In general it is good with mac OS 10.6.8 to 10.8
Or Microsoft Vista, and Windows 7 and 8

The other requirement details - memory etc - are spelled out on the page.

Sorry it didn't work out for you, Doseone. It is great software

 

[hoopdriver]

[QUOTE 2388016, member: 9609"]buy an early edition of something like Paint Shop Pro (PSP 8) of ebay for a fiver. On a modern PC everything works instantaneously and it will do everything you need.[/quote]
That's not in the same league as the Nik Software stuff, not even remotely close

 

[swee'pea99]

It's horses for courses innit. I found even paint shop pro way over my head, with its gamma curves and wotnot. I just want to resize, crop, adjust brightness and contrast...that's about it. I use freeware called photofiltre, and it works for me. It's probably as far behind PSP as PSP is behind Nik - but it is $126 cheaper.

 

[on the road]

Adobe Photoshop CS2 (version 9) is now free

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/

 

[swee'pea99]

Adobe Photoshop CS2 (version 9) is now free

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/

"Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software." No, really? Gracious. Who'da thunkit?

 

[coffeejo]

The Gimp. Open source, free.

 

[hoopdriver]

Hmmm. I was just pointing out a bargain for people who might be a bit more into photography than seems to be the case on this forum...

 

[Danny]

Hmmm. I was just pointing out a bargain for people who might be a bit more into photography than seems to be the case on this forum...

A bargain in cycling circles is something that costs less than a quid. Cyclists will go miles out of their way just to save 10p on a cup of tea, and you can find numerous thread here about ingenious ways to convert £5 Tescos' torches into front lights

Actually I was quite interested in your link, as I would like some better photo editing software. However I concluded that the Nik package is probably too sophisticated for my likely uses.

 

[P.H]

Hmmm. I was just pointing out a bargain for people who might be a bit more into photography than seems to be the case on this forum...

Well you know what a diverse bunch cyclists are, why would it be any different, we can't even agree on cycling stuff, why would we agree on anything else? I appreciated your link, I'm a Lightroom user and did consider it, however I'm still at the stage where I've not even scratched the surface of LR's potentia,l so adding to it may confuse rather than help. I've seen the B&W images processed with NIK, I haven't seen anything else that comes as close to looking like film, I can see myself going for that at some point, just not yet.

 

[hoopdriver]

Well you know what a diverse bunch cyclists are, why would it be any different, we can't even agree on cycling stuff, why would we agree on anything else? I appreciated your link, I'm a Lightroom user and did consider it, however I'm still at the stage where I've not even scratched the surface of LR's potentia,l so adding to it may confuse rather than help. I've seen the B&W images processed with NIK, I haven't seen anything else that comes as close to looking like film, I can see myself going for that at some point, just not yet.

I think the thing that sets the Nik software apart is its almost unbelievable ease of use - almost point and click. I am nobody's idea of a software genius. In fact post processing is definitely the weakest part of my game, but with these plug-ins I can leapfrog a lot of hard-slog learning and turn out stuff that makes me look like a Lightroom or Photoshop boffin. It is very gratifying.

And yes, Silver Efex Pro is just beautiful for black-and-white.