New to me photo software

B

bigdog

Senior member
 Walla Walla, Washington
Just down loaded two new programs yesterday from DxO. DxO optics pro 8 and DxO ViewPoint. Love it so far. Seems a lot easier to use than PS's endless layers for the non professional to correct problem areas. I have to admit that I only have used PS Elements 10. As I'm not a pro making money from photos. The fact that I can't garner any votes for the photo comp will attest to my amateur abilities. I refuse to pay $650 USD and having to take night courses to learn how to use PS CS6 just for fixing family photos. Here is a picture I fixed with DxO. It took only a few minutes and was the first time I used the program. The photo was taken in Nikon NEF Raw and saved as a 16 bit TIF.

Before DxO
DSC_3654.jpg

After DxO
DSC_3654_DxO.jpg
 
Difference is lens correction. Look at the way the trees bend into the center on the first photo. Also a bit of cloud detail.

Some lenses give quite a bit of distortion at the edges of photos (usually telephoto lenses), especially when taking pics of buildings. You can correct this with software. PS is good but Lightroom is way better for this type of thing. You can actually set the lens correction to the lens and camera you took the pic with. Lightroom is by far the best I've found to retouch photos. PS is still needed to do art type effects as Lightroom doesn't use layers.

That software looks quite good. Never heard of that one.
 
Adamski said:
I know nothing about photography..... I can't see the difference :?
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The trees are straight in person. But when using a wide angle lens. They lean in towards the center. Kind of like looking in a fishbowl. A related effect happens when photographing buildings with a wide angle lens (key-stoning). They appear to be leaning backwards.
 
Breaker said:
Difference is lens correction. Look at the way the trees bend into the center on the first photo. Also a bit of cloud detail.

Some lenses give quite a bit of distortion at the edges of photos (usually telephoto lenses), especially when taking pics of buildings. You can correct this with software. PS is good but Lightroom is way better for this type of thing. You can actually set the lens correction to the lens and camera you took the pic with. Lightroom is by far the best I've found to retouch photos. PS is still needed to do art type effects as Lightroom doesn't use layers.

That software looks quite good. Never heard of that one.
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While I will agree that PS is the best out there. I just think that it is overly complex and far to expensive for the hobbyist. I spent 151 Quid total for both programs. And it can be set for hands off processing. Or you can go a little deeper and mess about manually. DxO labs tests most every camera/lens combo not only for distortion. But also edge softness, chromatic aberrations, And other color issues. And provides automatic corrections. The software looks at the EXIF data and makes the corrections based on that. The user does not need to enter any correction plug-in or numbers at all.
 
Quite happy with a selection of free stuff - primarily gimp with UFRaw, stuff like Hugin for photostitching etc. pixlr is surprisingly powerful for completely free but I prefer to have something installed.
 
There are a lot of programs lots and lots of gimmicks. If in doubt get the best... lightroom. Want more get photoshop to use for more creative ability, to be used hand in hand :thumbsup:

Lightroom is a bargain for what it offers.
 
Breaker said:
I'm a big Lightroom convert myself. Amazing program. 8)
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if you love lightroom, try some of nik software plugins ,colour efex pro 4 and hdr are my favourites :)
 
tomscott said:
There are a lot of programs lots and lots of gimmicks. If in doubt get the best... lightroom. Want more get photoshop to use for more creative ability, to be used hand in hand :thumbsup:

Lightroom is a bargain for what it offers.
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+1 I have Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6 Extended. I use Lightroom 90%+ of the time
 
tomscott said:
There are a lot of programs lots and lots of gimmicks. If in doubt get the best... lightroom. Want more get photoshop to use for more creative ability, to be used hand in hand :thumbsup:

Lightroom is a bargain for what it offers.
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PS elements 10 works fine. But the drudgery and confusion of working on and keeping track of layer upon layer just seems a bit much for a hobbyist. I find that I do not want to muck around with layers. And PSE 10 lacks the ability to correct lens distortion and Chromatic aberrations. The cost of the DxO optic pro 8, Viewpoint and PSE 10 software was 230 Quid. So maybe another 80 Quid and a 15.6 gift card from B&H for LR4 maybe in order. I enjoy photography. I just don't want it to become a burdensome chore.
 
Taz x said:
Adamski said:
I know nothing about photography..... I can't see the difference :?
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ditto :rofl:
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Tax -a better illustration is to look at Bigdogs signature photo. See how it's auto corrected it from a coupe to a roof down roadster thus creating a much more pleasing picture...
 
dan yeates said:
Photoshop looks a bit complicated for me too!

I use Aperture 3 on my iMac.
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I to have an iMac core i5.
The DxO works great. But no one makes plug-ins for it. So if i want to do a bracketed HDR. I need to muck about in Photomatix and save to a folder then reopen the file in DxO/PSE 10 to edit colors and such in more detail. I would like something that can integrate plug-ins without being overly complex like CS6 is. LR 4 seems to do this.
 
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