Basic Photo Editing Software, Preferably Free

[DavidTaylor]

A friend of mine who's a single mom on a fixed income is looking for some photo editing software to do some basic stuff with (cropping, light/level adjustment, etc., convert to B&W, etc.). Free would be the preference, but very low cost would be considered. She's tried the Picasa stuff but can never get it to print the way it views on screen, and not being overly tech saavy she's ruined a number of pictures and can't recover them. She had the Kodak EasyShare stuff but hates it as it took over everything regarding her photos and screwed up a bunch of stuff on her system (has seince uninstalled it and banished the disc to the bottom of a drawer somewhere).

Something like MS Office Picture Manager would probably suffice (she doesn't have Office installed). I use Photoshop so I've never even researched other options. Any opinions/advice/pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[andy]

try picasa from google. Free and basic. And actually not too bad, plus it is a very good photo organizer

[dglenn1]

http://www.irfanview.com/
A lot of good features.
Dan

[strsout]

http://www.irfanview.com/
A lot of good features.
Dan


One more vote to Irfanview. But still Picasa is good for very basic. Irfanview is amazing. I can't understand how that product still free...
I do have Photoshop and Fireworks and I consider my self a quite knowledgeable with pictures edition, but 70% of my photo needs I can do with irfanview.

[Jim]

Yep, Irfanview should do it.

Although to get the full feature version now I think there is a slight charge.

[DavidTaylor]

Thanks , everyone! I'll pass the info along!

[Gino]

photo editing software to do some basic stuff with (cropping, light/level adjustment, etc., convert to B&W, etc.). Free would be the preference

Here's another one... http://www.getpaint.net/

I use it on a "daily" basis... good and free.

[MickS]

Quote "She's tried the Picasa stuff but can never get it to print the way it views on screen, and not being overly tech saavy she's ruined a number of pictures and can't recover them."

If prints "don't come out like they look on the monitor" it's most often because their monitor is not calibrated correctly.

Best Way:
Monitors should be calibrated with special software such as Eye One Match with a puck that attaches to monitor screen to set it to standard.
Then if your photo lab is calibrated also, your prints will be very close.
Problem is many photo labs (unless pro lab) don't bother calibrating either and if using an ink jet printer at home it should have a profile to use to match standard.

Option #2... since software and puck cost money is to get just calibration software like the old Adobe Gamma etc. that was used to calibrate monitor just using software. Not as good as puck and Eye One but better than nothing.

Option #3... and cheapest route but works if you only use one printer such as a home printer is to make test print with range of density and color and then adjust your monitor till it looks as close to print as possible no matter how your monitor looks after adjusting. You have to have them look the same.
If you turn up your monitor brightness till it looks great to view, it usually means your prints will come out dark, so turn down monitor and adjust image then prints will be closer. Hope this makes sense a little.

A corrected calibrated monitor is not set real bright and this is where most go wrong. Prints come out dark on over bright monitor. Also some monitors are so old or bad that they just can't get to standard.

So BOTTOM LINE, it is not the programs fault whether Picasa, Photoshop or whatever but an uncalibrated monitor causing "prints to not look like monitor" (Other common cause is un-profiled printer)

Also be sure to save an un-adjusted original of your images before tweaking in any program because adjusting color and density in many of these programs will cause banding or other problems if overdone and you may not see it on your monitor till too late unless studied at 100% view.

Sorry to be so long winded but this is a problem I deal with in my work everyday. Correctly calibrated monitor solves these problems.

[PATTERSON]

This sounds very interesting......what's a puck? An icon?

Pat

[DavidTaylor]

Quote "She's tried the Picasa stuff but can never get it to print the way it views on screen, and not being overly tech saavy she's ruined a number of pictures and can't recover them."

If prints "don't come out like they look on the monitor" it's most often because their monitor is not calibrated correctly.

Best Way:
Monitors should be calibrated with special software such as Eye One Match with a puck that attaches to monitor screen to set it to standard.
Then if your photo lab is calibrated also, your prints will be very close.
Problem is many photo labs (unless pro lab) don't bother calibrating either and if using an ink jet printer at home it should have a profile to use to match standard.

Option #2... since software and puck cost money is to get just calibration software like the old Adobe Gamma etc. that was used to calibrate monitor just using software. Not as good as puck and Eye One but better than nothing.

Option #3... and cheapest route but works if you only use one printer such as a home printer is to make test print with range of density and color and then adjust your monitor till it looks as close to print as possible no matter how your monitor looks after adjusting. You have to have them look the same.
If you turn up your monitor brightness till it looks great to view, it usually means your prints will come out dark, so turn down monitor and adjust image then prints will be closer. Hope this makes sense a little.

A corrected calibrated monitor is not set real bright and this is where most go wrong. Prints come out dark on over bright monitor. Also some monitors are so old or bad that they just can't get to standard.

So BOTTOM LINE, it is not the programs fault whether Picasa, Photoshop or whatever but an uncalibrated monitor causing "prints to not look like monitor" (Other common cause is un-profiled printer)

Also be sure to save an un-adjusted original of your images before tweaking in any program because adjusting color and density in many of these programs will cause banding or other problems if overdone and you may not see it on your monitor till too late unless studied at 100% view.

Sorry to be so long winded but this is a problem I deal with in my work everyday. Correctly calibrated monitor solves these problems.


Not color, cropping and such. She ran into a number of cases where she cropped a pic toa certain size, took it to be printed or printed on her local printer, and it came out looking completely different (heads chopped off, etc.). Given, she's 3000 miles away and I can't sit down and see what she's doing, so some of it may be user error and some of it software. I figure if I can help resolve this it's one less frustration point in her day, and I eventually get to do much less long distance tech support. :D

[bob_menton]

Yep, Irfanview should do it.

Although to get the full feature version now I think there is a slight charge.



I just updated to the latest version of IrfanView - no charge. Amazing piece of software for free.

- Bob

[Jim]

I just updated to the latest version of IrfanView - no charge. Amazing piece of software for free.

- Bob

That's good news. I know for a few versions, the resizing function was limited on the freeware. Even then, he was only looking for ten bucks or so.

[40miledesertrat]

Try using Gimp. Has a lot of horsepower and its stable and free.


http://www.gimp.org/windows/

or.. a less confusing link

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

Cheers,

40mile...