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What do you use for editing photos and videos?

M

Mehta23

Android Expert
I've got a collection of pictures and some videos that I would like to edit, but seeing as there is a huge number of programs to choose from, I thought it would be good to ask you guys what you use.

ATM I have a trial of Photoshop and Vegas. They look quite daunting, but I hear Lightroom and other video programs are better/easier to use?
 
Adobe Photoshop and Sony Vegas are professional level tools, that are popular with professionals. But they do have steep learning curves. For the more casual user, there are plenty of good, easy to use programs out there that are more suitable in both ease of use and cost.

Since I'm nominally a video professional, I use several different FOSS and pay-for software tools to work on video files that I wouldn't recommend to non-professionals. My new video workstation arrived yesterday, and I'm finally taking the plunge and buying a costly ($1000+US) video editing suite for it. But that's because I'm working at a professional level, and have a real need for the features that the big pro suites provide.

By the same token, because I'm a video professional, I don't have any need for something as costly and complex as Photoshop. (Video professionals don't usually work on still photos as part of their jobs, and vice versa.) MOF it seems like 99% of what Photoshop is used for is adding pithy captions to photos of kitties. :rolleyes: That's a lot of overkill! I can do the same thing using MS Paint (comes with Windows) or its Linux equivalents, and not have to buy or steal Photoshop, or waste disk space on it. As a serious amateur photographer, I simply haven't found any actual need to spend much time retouching my photos.

IME the full versions of Nero, Roxio or similar "home user" multimedia suites are overwhelming enough for most amateur users. I'd go with the simplest (and least costly) product that gets the job done.

Here's a list of Windows-based video editing tools that I like, and are inexpensive and easy to use:

VideoReDo TVSuite <--I LOVE this! Cuts-only editing is often all I need.

Movavi Video Suite - Complete suite with CUDA and Intel CPU optimizations

VideoLAN VLC - It's a player, splitter, transcoder and more!
 
Cheers!

Even if money were no object, you'd still recommend those programs?

Even though I'll be using it for casual stuff, I'd quite like to get into photo or videography:-P
 
Mehta23 said:
Even if money were no object, you'd still recommend those programs?
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Absolutely! Even after I buy my "thousand dollar plus" pro software, I'm going to be using those little gems a lot. The advantage they have over the big pro suites is that they do certain tasks very well, and with less effort than if I used a big pro suite to do the same thing. The right tool for the job.
 
I use Paint.NET for my photo editing. Video editing, honestly, i just use the windows movie thing that came on my laptop. Works just as good, IMO, as others.
 
XplosiV said:
Anyone used Avid Liquid for video editing?
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I tried it a few years ago. IIRC it seemed to be great if all I did all day was edit video. But it was way too much for my needs at the time, and much too much to learn in order to do a simple dissolve, which was all I needed to do.

When I was at the pinnacle of my analog TV broadcasting career, Avid was a big name in studio automation systems. They're still a big name. If I was building a TV station or post house, I'd have them on speed dial. But as a lone wolf on a tight budget...not so much.
 
TBH before, I would've just stuck to PS and Vegas, thinking they were profesional grade software for a reason :P

But , because the other look much more simple, I think I might try out GIMP, seems pretty good, but apart from its learning curve, I quite like how Photoshop works too :P

Not sure about Vegas though. So I'll also have a look at Movavi.

Edit: just a quick question: would learning how to use Photoshop be seen as sort of a waste of time? Or will the things I can do in PS be very similar to what can be achieved in the cheaper programs/

Edit2: Would Lightroom still be considered overkill?
 
This cute side-fun project was done in GIMP, a dream game i would love to play being a CoD fan and nature lover.

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Slug said:
Lightroom is purely a photo post-processing solution, intended mainly for use with RAW images. It can do limited adjustment of JPG images but its real power and flexibility only becomes available with RAWs.
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Speaking of that, Darktable is a nice FOSS non-destructive raw image editor.
 
When I'm in Linux, I use Gimp to edit my photos. Now I'm not a professional editor, I use this mainly to resize pictures, because I really am no good at editing. For videos, I have used many in Linux, but find none that suit me. They are over complex, or lack many features that I look for. I am a better video editor than photo editor, so the thing that I use is Windows and use the Movie maker software. I like this because it's very easy to use and has an ecosystem with Microsoft. Something like that is nice to have.
 
ANother +1 for GIMP (Linux) on the MS Dark side I use Paint.net. Does the basics, that's all I want.
 
I've been using Adobe Premiere Elements 10 and Photoshop Elements 10 for my video and photo needs, they're the amateur versions, and quite cheap, the two as a package cost me about $150 Australian. My needs are quite simple, mainly cutting video and replacing the camera's audio with an externally recorded soundtrack (the on board mic on the Nikon is shite), and cropping and resizing of images. I do intend (one day, my middle name is Procrastination) to learn how to do some image manipulation but haven't yet got around to it...
 
That's the Photoshop from the advert with that woman dictating the family birthday shot, right? I had completely forgotten what software it was until I saw it on a youtube ad.
 
Can't answer that, don't take much notice of adverts, don't even watch any television because of 'em. (hence the inordinate amount of time I spend on the net...)
 
general eclect said:
Can't answer that, don't take much notice of adverts, don't even watch any television because of 'em. (hence the inordinate amount of time I spend on the net...)
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That's what DVRs are for! :D Seriously, I record anything/everything I think I might want to watch, then zap right through the annoying...endless...blocks of commercials.
 
I can use Gimp, but the commands for sizing an image throw me. I'm too used to Photoshop for that. I can crop an image to 4x6 dpi with one tool in PS. I can change the DPI to 72 if I wish to post on the internet. I can't figure that out in Gimp, and I bought a book!
I've had PS since it came out for Windows. I do have CS5, but I still find myself doing things the same way I did in 3.

Gimp reminds me of a European Photoshop. A lot of it seems to be geared to metric.I have no such problems with Inkster, and I'm looking at Digikam which does behave like Photoshop's Camera Raw. I didn't have much trouble trying to use that.
 
zuben el genub said:
I can use Gimp, but the commands for sizing an image throw me. I'm too used to Photoshop for that. I can crop an image to 4x6 dpi with one tool in PS. I can change the DPI to 72 if I wish to post on the internet. I can't figure that out in Gimp, and I bought a book!
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Don't get offended, okay? :) I'm just literally shaking my head in disbelief right now. I plunged in and started using the GIMP--with no book, no tutorial, nothing--and can easily do everything you've mentioned. It's not hard at all. If you'd like, I can walk you through doing some image resizing. There really is nothing to it.

Gimp reminds me of a European Photoshop. A lot of it seems to be geared to metric.
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Only if you have your options set that way. I don't. :D

I'm looking at Digikam which does behave like Photoshop's Camera Raw. I didn't have much trouble trying to use that.
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I use digiKam for downloading/organizing all my photos. I love it.
 
So what's being said is that both PS and GIMP can do similar things and it's a matter of learning how to do it? PS, I guess will be more complicated unless you're used to it....
 
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