I currently use 5 different photo editing applications for different tasks. Here is my attempt to document which one is best for which task.
The applications:
Corel PaintShop Pro Photo X2 – this is an upgrade from PaintShop Pro 7, which I bought when I was looking for photo editing software and it looked easier to learn than Adobe Elements. I had another look at Elements before I upgraded, and it’s so big and still not as easy to learn. PaintShop Pro is just more intuitive.
- copy and paste from the web to create an image.
- cropping
Adobe Photoshop 7 – an old version I had for work some years ago. I can’t afford to upgrade it.
- resize to precise number of pixels for websites
- crop to precise size
- add text (citations of document images).
Picasa 3.5 – free software
- culling of new batch from the camera
- best for levelling a crooked photo
- face recognition (haven’t tried this yet)
- creating web albums (although I seem to put them in Facebook these days)
Faststone Image Viewer – free software. I know others swear by Irfan (?), but I liked this one better.
- batch renaming, resizing, compressing for the web.
Windows Photo Gallery – the one that comes with Vista.
- culling of new batch from camera
- simple fixes – crop to standard size, red-eye, brighten and auto-contrast. Has taken over from Picasa because it is the one that the photo automatically opens in.
I know there are other applications out there, but I’m happy with the ones I have, although it would be fantastic if I could just use one or two.
Which ones do you use? Have I left anything out, tasks or software?
