32 Free Software Solutions For Photographers
A while back I was contracted by Francois Auradon, he asked me if there is a frugal photographers SW list somewhere on the site.
That was a good point as software can sometimes be a big expense. Gladly Francois picked the glove up and started the ball rolling list going. This list is only the beginning, with your help it can expand to include more stuff to make photographers lives easier. if you know iof a good piece of photography software, hit us in the comments.
So here goes 32 pieces of software for the frugal photographer:
Raw workflow applications |
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The Unidentified Flying Raw (UFRaw) is a utility to read and manipulate raw images from digital cameras. It can be used on its own or as a Gimp plug-in. It reads raw images using Dave Coffin's raw z conversionutility - DCRaw. UFRaw supports color management workflow based on Little CMS, allowing the user to apply ICC color profiles. For Nikon users UFRaw has the advantage that it can read the camera's tone curves. Even if you don't own a Nikon, you can still apply a Nikon curve to your images. |
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So here is my mission: Write and maintain an ANSI C program that decodes any raw image from any digital camera on any computer running any operating system. That program is called dcraw (pronounced "dee-see-raw"), and it's become a standard tool within and without the Open Source world. It's small (about 8000 lines), portable (standard Clibraries only), free (both "gratis" and "libre"), and |
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RawTherapee http://www.rawtherapee.com/ |
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Raw Therapee is a free RAWconverter and digital photo processing software. |
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Raw |
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A Raw converter for Mac OS X (10.4,10.5 and 10.6 only), supporting almost all available digital Raw formats made for photographers by a photographer-software engineer with unmeasurable amount of help and tutoring from my friend, professional photographer Iliah Borg. We just got fed up with those converters made by programmers for their upper management :) |
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DCRaw with added user interface. It allows some very very basic raw manipulations, like whilte balance (camera, auto, none), and sRGB conversion. |
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Image editing |
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Gimp http://www.gimp.org/ |
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GIMP is a versatile graphics manipulation package. This page should help you get a taste of what GIMP is capable of. You can also have a look at our introduction page or browse through the tutorials. |
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Helicon |
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Helicon Filter is a complete photo editing solution for the digital photographer. Its easy and intuitive interface, live preview feature, and contextual help ensure an easy start in photo editing for beginners. The program is built as step by step workflow guiding you through all post processing stages of photo editing. |
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Photoscape http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php |
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Photoscape is a fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos. |
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Paint.net http://www.getpaint.net/index.html |
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Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins. |
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Photo Pos Pro http://www.photopos.com/Photo-Pos-Pro-Image-Editor.asp |
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Photo Pos Pro Photo Editor is a free photo editor offers users a wide variety of possibilities in the fields of Image Enhancing and Image Editing and in the field of Computer Graphics Design. Using the editor you can perform various tasks, from simple basic tasks to complex tasks; you can edit existing images, create new works based on existing images, create new works from scratch and more. |
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Photobie http://www.photobie.com/index.php |
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Photobie is image editing software that combines features amateurs can use with advanced tools professionals will appreciate. Photobie is free for personal use with no Pro upgrade to pay for -- all features are free. |
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Active Pixels http://idea-systems.net/ |
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Active Pixels is a unique Image and Computer Graphics editor offering users a wide variety of possibilities in the fields of Image Enhancing and Image Editing and in the field of Computer Graphics. |
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Evan's Image Editor (EIE) is a free image editor that allows for editing and creation of animated or still images. It contains several GPU-powered image modifiers that take advantage of modern graphics hardware, giving you an instant preview of the effect while you adjust parameters. It also has a non-binary selection system, allowing you to "partially select" pixels and apply drawing tool and modification actions that perform weighted averages based on the selection value |
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VCW |
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VCW VicMan's Photo Editor is a versatile image editor with an intuitive interface and a wide variety of features. This powerful application is user friendly, offering simple image editing, high productivity and easy customization. |
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Image Manipulation |
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CleanSkinFX http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/cleanskin.htm |
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CleanSkinFX is the most powerful automatic retouch for portraits. It smooths the skin of the object while preserving all the details and crispness of hair, eyes or background. This procedure was exclusively developed by mediachance.com |
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Light Artist http://www.vicman.net/lightartist/ |
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Light Artist is a program that allows you to add realistic lighting effects to your photos. |
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PhotoFiltre http://photofiltre.free.fr/frames_en.htm |
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PhotoFiltre is a complete image retouching program. It allows you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a vast range of filters on it. It is simple and intuitive to use, and has an easy learning curve. The toolbar, giving you access to the standard filters with just a few clicks, gives PhotoFiltre a robust look. |
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Pho.to http://pho.to/editor/ |
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Photo! Editor is powerful multifunctional software offering a complete set of image editing tools. It contains anything a digital camera owner might need to correct or enhance their photos. You will enjoy the ultimate convenience and professional approach provided by each of the tools |
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Phantasmagoria http://www.develderby.com/phantasmagoria/ |
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Phantasmagoria is a fun, light-weight image editing application. The main focus is to apply effects to images, along with the basic editing that might be required after a sub-par shoot. In other words, what most of us actually need. The image below is an example of the graphics functionality in Phantasmagoria: |
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Image analyzer http://logicnet.dk/Analyzer/ |
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Advanced image editing, enhancement and analysis software. The program contains both most image enhancement features found in conventional image editors plus a number of advanced features not even available in professional photo suites. |
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ImageMagick http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php |
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ImageMagick® is a software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats (over 100) including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PDF, PhotoCD, PNG, Postscript, SVG, and TIFF. Use ImageMagick to translate, flip, mirror, rotate, scale, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves. |
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Free Morphing http://www.filesguard.com/ |
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Free Morphing creates a sequence of frames which are the transformation of the source image to target image, giving the appearance that the source image "becomes" the target. Images must be true color (24 bit) and have the same size. In the program you can create lines (the same number in Source and Target) which describe the transformation. You should create line objects in the same order on boths images. There are various viewing tools for preview morphing. |
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Image Tricks http://www.belightsoft.com/products/imagetricks/overview.php |
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Image Tricks is a freeware application for editing your photos and images using Mac OS X Core Image filters and Quartz Compositions that unimaginably transform your photos. This program also contains a powerful random image generator for creating unique backgrounds and abstract images for business cards, web design, print materials and more |
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Hugin Panorama photo stitcher http://hugin.sourceforge.net/ |
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With Hugin you can assemble a mosaic of photographs into a complete immersive panorama, stitch any series of overlapping pictures and much more |
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Image Management |
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Helicon photo safe http://www.heliconsoft.com/safe.html |
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Helicon Photo Safe is all-in-one solution for image management. |
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Picasa is free photo editing software from Google that makes your pictures look great. Sharing your best photos with friends and family is as easy as pressing a button! |
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IrfanView http://www.irfanview.com/ |
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IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 , 2008, Vista, Windows 7. |
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Visual Lightbox http://visuallightbox.com/ |
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Visual LightBox JS is a free wizard program that helps you easily generate web photo galleries with a nice Lightbox-style overlay effect, in a few clicks without writing a single line of code. Just drag&drop your photos into Visual LightBox window, press "Publish" and your own web gallery with beautiful LightBox 2 effects will open in the browser instantly! |
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STOIK Imagic 5 http://www.stoik.com/ |
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STOIK Imagic is powerful and very easy-to-use combination of photo album, organizer, media viewer, image and video editor with exhaustive set of tools for all your media needs and tasks. It has unique list of modern desired features: convenient organizing and cataloging through fast media indexing; browsing by folders, calendar, tags; powerful search by file and EXIF attributes; automatic batch enhancement; panorama and HDR stitching; RAW file conversion; video authoring; creation of games and paint-by-numbers and many more… |
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Visions http://www.twins-solutions.com/ |
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Visions lets you easily view and search photos, fix flaws, apply effects, create albums and calendars, share your favorites through e-mail, prints and online sharing websites and much more, all in a cool & fun 3D interface. |
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Tools |
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AnyFound Free Photo Recovery Software supports recovery of photos, images, pictures and snap shots photographs by accidentally deleted, lost or missed from Windows hard disk partitions and removable storage devices. |
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Exif image viewer http://home.pacbell.net/michal_k/ |
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ExifPro is an application meant to display, manipulate and browse photographs. One can create HTML albums or slide show applications using built-in generators, print images, append descriptions and tags. Standalone viewer window offers zooming and panning, image color and aspect correction, magnifier tool, light table pane and a slide show mode. |
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Comments
Noise Ninja
Not free, but Noise Ninja has improved my images more than any other $30 or so, that I have spent on something photography related.
It is fast, easy to use and removes noise while retaining detail better than anything else I have tried. I would not be without it.
www.picturecode.com/
Qtpfsgui
Qtpfsgui is a free application for assembling multiple exposures into .hdr images. It supports standard hdr assembly, .hdr cropping and has a great many tone-mapping options.
It and Noise Ninja, mentioned above, are both available for Linux, Mac and Windows.
http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/
Luminance HDR and digiKam
Amazing list
Thanks for putting together this software list. It's really useful for those who cannot afford expensive sofware.
Cheers from Argentina.
Digikam
Full photo management and editing suite. Handles raw files, has extensive image editing tools and a also has a light table that makes "keeping only the best ones" a simple task. Also, it has support for many different camera models and color management.
This is the photo app I use the most.
http://www.digikam.org/
Free.
Written originally for Linux but can be made to work under Mac and Windows.
See here: http://www.digikam.org/node/418
and here: http://www.digikam.org/drupal/node/378
Thanks
Thanks for this list. I'm a massive Open Source fan and have used the Gimp for many years. I also use UFRaw and used Irfanview for many years too. We also use it at work - scripted via the command-line option.
The others are good though - the more specialised items. I'm going to enjoy playing with them to see what happens. And as someone else has said - NoiseNinja is fantastic.
More free programs
Instant Jpeg from Raw which create jpeg images from almost all raw files. Very fast. windows
http://www.rawworkflow.com/instant-jpeg-from-raw-utility/
wire pilot allow you to remove wires from jpeg images. (windows)
http://www.colorpilot.com/wire.html
Niels Henriksen
Instant Jpeg from Raw which
Instant Jpeg from Raw which create jpeg images from almost all raw files. Very fast. (windows)
http://www.rawworkflow.com/instant-jpeg-from-raw-utility/
Wire Pilot allow you to remove wires from jpeg images. (windows)
http://www.colorpilot.com/wire.html
Niels Henriksen
Quick and Easy Pano Stitching
Here's a link for a quick and easy pano stitcher. Ran across this a few years back. I've found that it works as well as the high priced programs.
http://cvlab.epfl.ch/~brown/autostitch/autostitch.html
Recovery Software
I don't know how it compares to Anyfound, but PhotoRec is an excellent program for recovering files from problematic media cards. Saved my butt just recently...
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
Great Pano stitching software
Here's a link to a fantastic program for stitching together images. Its free and pretty powerful. I ran across it a few years ago and use it for stitching as much as I use photoshop.
http://cvlab.epfl.ch/~brown/autostitch/autostitch.html
More free programs
Raw workflow applications
Rawstudio : http://rawstudio.org/
Rawstudio is an open-source program to read and manipulate RAW images from most digital cameras.
Linux
jdlRaw : http://jdlraw.sourceforge.net/
jdlRaw manipulates raw images from digital cameras and is based on dcraw and imagemagick. It does exposure correction, curve application in RGB/CIELAB space and USM/Refocus sharpening. Includes also lensfun and noise reduction algorithms.
Linux
Image Management
Fotoxx : http://kornelix.squarespace.com/fotoxx
Navigate a large image collection using a thumbnail browser. Import camera RAW files and edit with 16-bit color. Save edited images as TIFF-8/16, PNG or JPEG with adjustable compression. Edit the whole image or a selected area, with adjustable edge-blending. Edit functions have live feedback using the full window. Undo/redo up to 99 edits. Add tags, dates, and star-ratings to images and search using these criteria and (wildcard) file names. Fotoxx does not use filters, layers, and masks - the edit functions work directly on the image.
Linux
Geeqie : http://geeqie.sourceforge.net/
Geeqie is a lightweight image viewer. It was forked from GQview. The development is focused on features for photo collection maintenance: raw format, Exif/IPTC/XMP metadata and integration with programs like UFraw, ImageMagick, Gimp, gPhoto or ExifTool.
Linux
Mapivi : http://mapivi.sourceforge.net/mapivi.shtml
Mapivi is a photo management tool with focus on JPEG pictures. Mapivi supports adding, editing and searching of IPTC/IIM, EXIF data and JPEG comments. The pictures are managed in place (in your folder structure), so you are able to use other tools like file managers or other viewers together with Mapivi.
Linux, Mac and Windows
Tools
PhotoPrint : http://blackfiveimaging.co.uk/index.php?article=02Software%2F01PhotoPrint
PhotoPrint is a utility designed to assist in the process of printing digital photographs.
Linux and Windows.
LPROF : http://lprof.sourceforge.net/
LPROF is the only open source ICC profiler with a graphical user interface. It can be used to create ICC version 2 compliant profiles for cameras, scanners and monitors. As such it fills a necessary niche in the emerging open source color management effort. Windows, Mac, Linux
ExifTool : http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
ExifTool is a platform-independent Perl library plus a command-line application for reading, writing and editing meta information in a wide variety of files. ExifTool supports many different metadata formats including EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP and ID3, as well as the maker notes of many digital cameras by Canon, Casio, FujiFilm, HP, JVC/Victor, Kodak, Leaf, Minolta/Konica-Minolta, Nikon, Olympus/Epson, Panasonic/Leica, Pentax/Asahi, Ricoh, Samsung, Sanyo, Sigma/Foveon and Sony.
Linux, Windows, Mac
Exiv2 : http://www.exiv2.org/
Exiv2 is a C++ library and a command line utility to manage image metadata . It provides fast and easy read and write access to the Exif , IPTC and XMP metadata of images in various formats . Exiv2 is available as free software and with a commercial license, and is used in many projects .
Linux and Windows
...
I can't believe you didn't include...
...Steven Trainor's The Photographer's Ephemeris.
http://photoephemeris.com/
Plan your shoot.
How about Geotagging software?
I got heavily into geotagging a few years ago... (and don't use it as much as I should today). But, after a LOT of trial and error, I settled in on http://www.geosetter.de/en/ (Geosetter). There just isn't anything out there that is as easy to use.
Don't get me wrong, Geotagging from a list of points to a photo is a dark art. This one just makes it more accessible. :-)
Free Pano Stitching Software
Autostitch (the best, mentioned previously)
http://cvlab.epfl.ch/~brown/autostitch/autostitch.html
Clevr
http://www.clevr.com/
Hugin
http://hugin.sourceforge.net/
Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor)
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/
You should check out ICE, it's kind of 3D panos, very cool technology.
Geotagging
Digikam have geotagging capabilities too (and many others features using kipi-plugins)
Don't forget searching for
Don't forget searching for your geotagged pictures using the map in digiKam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zuByR9IGIE
Picasa is also available in
Picasa is also available in Linux version.
a little bit different
is PocketDOF, a windows mobile and android app to know the hyperfocal and depth-of-field at any time (http://caketuzz.com)
I also like QTR RIP, to make quality black and white prints.
Nice but not free
I tried to restrict the list to completely free applications. I know there a ton of great shareware and low cost apps out there but that would make the list way too long.
free focus stacking
Focus stacking freeware for still and motion images. CombineZP is the most recent version.
www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
pdf-jpeg
I know this is a little OT but is on a similar vein - does anyone know of a good PDF-jpeg converter that produces good quality decent-sized jpegs? Need it for a soft-proofing project. Command line option esential for the workflow. We have one at present which is ok at £30 a pop. Just wondered if there's anything else out there we've missed.
Well... I think You should
Well... I think You should give Imagemagick a chance.
I did, it's in the list...
I did, it's in the list...
image manipulation
Not free - just there's a trial option - but i found these two very useful:
- Portrait Professional Max www.portraitprofessional.com
(well customizable automated retouch sw)
and
- DxO optics Pro http://www.dxo.com/intl/photo/dxo_optics_pro/
it can correct the optical distortion of many lenses, especially of the exact one used to take the shot (reading out exif to know what lense to correct)
Image watermarks and Compression
waterMark V2 is a versatile and very easy to use application for adding "watermark" images to your photos.http://www.photo-freeware.net/watermark-v2.php
Free Photo Resizing Software - PhotoRazor. Easy to use, very high image quality, fast with realtime preview, tinting, file size & EXIF display
http://www.stormdance.net/software/photorazor/software%20overview.htm
Thanks for the feedback
Hello,
Thanks all for the feedback, this list is really getting bigger.
don't hesitate to suggest other titles and areas.
I will be updating my copy for the next roundup.
Keep'em coming.
Francois
F-spot
F-Spot is missing in the list of photo management software. It's quite full-featured and mature. Linux only, though. Link: http://f-spot.org/Main_Page
I never realized that
I never realized that Irfanview was free, I always thought it was a fee based product with an evaluation version.
FastStone Image Viewer Rocks and is FREE!
FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments. Its innovative but intuitive full-screen mode provides quick access to EXIF information, thumbnail browser and major functionalities via hidden toolbars that pop up when your mouse touches the four edges of the screen. Other features include a high quality magnifier and a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram and much more. It supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF, SRF and DNG).
Faststone
I have been using Faststone for a couple of years now and have shared it with a number of friends and IT IS FANTASTIC. It is wonderful for downloading images from camera and controlling where they go - renaming in the process, basic editing, file comparison, emailing...
Helicon Filter and etc.
Helicon Filter is ShareWare
VCW VicMan's Photo Editor is very old ;-(
see also http://fotosizer.com/, http://www.grazer.de/, http://fotosizer.com/, http://sf.net/projects/gpicsync/, http://myphotoindex.com/, http://www.getphotology.com/, http://www.photojoy.com/,
Picturenaut HDR
This is donation ware, and a terrific HDR program:
http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/index.html
Picasa is available for Mac
http://picasa.google.com/mac/
I'm also surprised not to see Sofortbild for tethering
http://www.sofortbildapp.com/
not to be forgotten: Darktable (linux/mac)
"darktable is a virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers: it manages your digital negatives in a database and lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable. it also enables you to develop raw images and enhance them."
http://darktable.sourceforge.net/
xnview
You should consider adding XNView to your list. This an all-purpose software much like IrfanView, with a ton of features and it's still evolving. Great for photo manipulation but also file operations (renames based on Exif), bulk edits, screencapping, etc. Recently I used it to create a downsized version of _all_ of my photos (that's over 15,000 pictures) to put them on my photo frame's SD card. It did the job alright.
FastStone also is very nice btw.
raw therapee mac version
hi there.
actually there is a mac version of rawtherapee out there:
http://digitalcave.ca/resources/computer/rawtherapee.jsp
cheers
rasda
other software
Darktable to reveal raw
Thanks for this!!! Been
Thanks for this!!! Been looking for a few of these softwares!!
You are welcome. That's why I
You are welcome. That's why I do it: I've spent my share of time looking for some of these myself and I though I could share my discoveries.
lens distortion
Just inherited a new Tamron 10-24 WA lens. Am happy with it but in some cases it distorts picts at the wide end. A friend suggested DXO to fix picts, but I can't afford it. Is there a cheaper way to do the same thing?
Scott
Found on the web: Lens
Found on the web:
Lens Distortion is also a very common problem emerging especially when using cheaper lens or expensive lens pushed to their limits. It is also known as "barrel distortion" and "vignetting". GIMP now provides a brand new filter to compensate for both problems.
Hasselblad Phocus 2.5
Try Hasselblad Phocus 2.5 (Mac version, Windows don support 3rd party raw formats).
BatchPurifier LITE
Free tool to remove metadata from JPEG. Useful when one wants to remove potentially privacy compromising metadata, such as serial number and GPS coordinates, before publishing his photos. Can remove exif, xmp, iptc, and others.
Photography Business Software
Here is a free photography business software solution that works on mac and pc. http://studiocloud.com. It has invoicing, in-studio proofing, client tracking, calendaring, etc.
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