Looking for photo editing software recommendation

[aphalo]

I switched about 2 years ago from Lightroom to Capture One. I was using LumaRiver for making profiles for Lightroom, I updated to the next higher license for LumaRiver and then made ICC profiles for Capture One from the same old RAW photographs I had used to make the profiles for Lightroom (winter in Finland at the time I switched). I am very happy with LumaRiver. Capture One has nowadays what I think is very good support for masks. It can white balance UV RAW files by picking a white point, even if the adjustment goes off-range in the sliders, but it has a problem: you cannot copy and paste these off-scale white balance values from one file to the next. Anyway, there is a fully-functional free trial for one month, so you can play with it. For those in Academia, they have a discount, that differently to what used to be with Adobe is the same % for new licenses and for updates. They have both options, subscription and "eternal" licenses. I use CaptureOne, RawDigger and HeliconFocus. I do have Adobe CS6, but lately I have not used for photo-editing. This maybe be closer to a usable "one" program set up. When I switched I found that I needed to spend significantly less time editing than with Lightroom. This is quite personal, I think, and Lightroom is likely to have improved meanwhile. Depending on the camera brand you have tethering support and for Fuji the film simulations similar to in-camera. Downside, it is not cheap.

[ulf]

As mentioned above. Photoshop is non-subscription up to CS6. CS5 is almost as good, but a bit less pricey. One advantage is the vast numbers of third-party plugins and add-ons that have been written for it for various purposes--no other platform can match it for this. I have mixed experience with GIMP--the interface has been clunky as hell in the past, and annoying to deal with. I have not checked the latest version, but I understand it is more capable than the earlier ones, which seemed somewhat limited.

 

There is also an online editor called Photopea which I have investigated.To me, it is slow and a bit limited; however, it costs nothing to try.

 

If you are on a Mac with later OS version the CS6 will not work as parts of CS6 run 32-bit code.

I really hate that they are so eager to drop 32-bit support so fast.

[nfoto]

Affinity for me was not quite intuitive. You would need to follow a tutorial to get started with it. They do layers but not quite the same way as we are all used to. But learning curves are good for us! Heh-heh....

 

Affinity immediately bombs out on Z NEFs.

[dabateman]

 

 

Affinity immediately bombs out on Z NEFs.

 

Did it crash or just has the worst demosicing pattern.

Old version of Affinity was horrible for Sigma X3f files, but later versions seem better.

I had concluded to import Tiff to Affinity. But maybe its gotten better.

 

 

[nfoto]

Affinity crashed in a split second.

[Andrea B.]

Odd that they have not incorporated Z NEFs yet into the software. When I was following Affinity a couple of years ago, they seemed to update quite regularly.

[nfoto]

A thumbnail was briefly shown before the program bombed out.

[dabateman]

I just read that Affinity 1.9 beta does support the Z5. Version 1.7 should work with your Z6 files.

 

Birna is it true that the Z5 doesn't have focus bracket mode? I just read its only in z6 and z7 cameras.

 

[nfoto]

Need to get back to that question Dave, as I'm away from my computers as well as my cameras at present (yes, this unthinkable situation arises from time to time).

[nfoto]

OK. back to base: the Affinity version installed is 1.8.5 so should cater for Z6. It certainly didn't.

 

Nikon Z5 has focus stacking, but as I only use the camera with manual lenses, the feature is of no interest to me. Besides, I would rather use the precise control of camera by external devices (macro rail such as Stackshot, and a programmable controller) for this kind of photography.

[dabateman]

Great I had the crazy idea of using the Megadap manual lens to autofocus adapter as a cheap rail for a Z5 or z7 camera.

However, read in Fred Miranda website that it fires off but doesn't refocus between each shot. So useless for focus bracketing currently.

I guess if I really want Automatic focus for my manual lens the Stackshot would best purchase. Also would work for any camera.

 

Iam not running around in the field, just macro or close up most in my basement so it does make sense.