Photo Editing Software
Photo-Brush
Photo-Brush, from Mediachance, has my overall recommendation for serious digital photographers. This low cost commercial software title has been developed over many years by Mediachance founder, Roman Voska.
For $45, this software does most of what Adobe Photoshop does, but with a more intuitive, user-friendly interface, and at a fraction of the price! Not only are all the powerful tools and filters of excellent quality, but, from my experience, the overall approach is more cohesive than that of Photoshop.
As well as the usual JPEG and TIFF formats, the program directly handles RAW files from most popular cameras and treats them the same way as it would a JPEG or TIFF. Adobe Photoshop requires an image to be processed in it's RAW converter where values are selected via a form and the file is output to TIFF or JPEG before you can edit it further - not so with Photo-Brush; you just open the RAW image and start editing! You can use all your usual tools and filters directly on the open RAW photo, and when you've finished editing save the image as a JPEG, TIFF, Adobe Photoshop PSD, PNG, and various other formats. I use PNG format for archival master edits.
One feature Photo-Brush doesn't have is layers. Personally, I've used Photo-Brush for so long that my workflow has progressed with it's tools, as the tools themselves have progressed with each version. And aside of the laborious digital grad filter technique of exposure combining, I have been somewhat bemused and dubious about the merits of "adjustment layers", especially when you compare the overall workflow. However, if you require, images can be combined using Mediachance's HDR software and then opened as one file in Photo-Brush for further tweaking.
Aside of brushes and artistic effects, Photo-Brush excels with its photographic editing features. There are some very clever tools and filter algorithms as well as levels, curves, masking, selection tools, and much more, including an exposure adjustment slider set in EVs and filter simulation based on the Kodac Wratten system. But what I consider essential to most photographic genres are barrel / pincushion distortion and perspective correction tools; these particular tools are typical of how Photo-Brush surpasses other editing software for ease of use. The screenshot below shows just how easy it is to correct converging lines in architectural photographs. This perspective editor can be used to creatively emphasise perspective too of course.
I believe this photo editing software to be not only excellent value for money, but amongst the best at any price!
As with all my low cost software recommendations, Photo-Brush comes as a "try before you buy" application, and you can download the latest version from the Mediachance website.
If you would like me to teach you how to use it and you live in Greater Manchester or Cheshire, I'd be more than happy to do so if. See my Computer Tuition section for more information including costs.
Dynamic Photo HDR
Dynamic Photo HDR from Mediachance, as the name suggests, is a dedicated application for creating high dynamic range (acronym HDR) images. HDR is a process where, typically, three or more images, taken at different exposure values, are combined to create one image. This high dynamic range image is then "tone mapped" to compresses the tones into a low dynamic range image which can be viewed on a monitor or printed.
In addition, where the actual dynamic range of the scene can be acceptably captured in one shot, you can tone map the one RAW file as part of your editing, increasing local contrast to a greater or lesser degree as a "pseudo HDR".
I'll be writing more about this software when I've used it more extensively.
PhotoFiltre
PhotoFiltre is a commercial freeware photo editing application and is very user friendly. It is a cut down promotional version of a low cost application (which is the norm with such freeware titles) called PhotoFiltre Studio.
I would thoroughly recommend Photofiltre to anyone wishing to do basic photo editing of JPEG (or TIFF) files. It has all the usual tools for cropping, rotating, straightening, rubber stamp cloning; lightness, colour and gamma adjustment, basic sharpening and more - there's even a barrel distortion correction plug-in! Most of the above tools are available as graphical shortcuts from the toolbar. The interface is clear, coherent and intuitive.
The program also has some drawing tools, although my personal preference is to use a proper vector application for the creation of drawings and graphics. File formats include JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, and Icon (.ICO).
This user-friendly software is written by Antonio Da Cruz, and you can download the latest version from the freeware section of the PhotoFiltre website. You can also download and install various plug-ins including the afore mentioned barrel distortion correction tool (listed as Fisheye Correction). Some of the website content and parts of the forum are written in French, but there's sufficient English content, including some tutorials.
