Post-Processing

Image editing (post-processing) software has replaced the darkroom of yesteryear.  Up to this point we have not really worked with this, shooting in high-resolution jpeg mode and using the images as the come from the camera other than to rotate or resize them.

In October 2013 we participated in a 4-day workshop put on by Lou Petkus of the SKP Photographers BOF.  As a result we currently have the following editing software installed on one or more computers:

  • Faststone Image Viewer (FIV) is a free program with a good set of image editing tools.  It is currently our “go to” tool for adjusting the levels and lighting, cropping, sharpening, and re-sizing.
  • Photoscape is a free program with a more limited set of capabilities than FIV, but a few features that FIV does not have.
  • PIXresizer is a free program that quickly and easily resizes a single image or a group of images.
  • Sony Image Data Converter is the software that came with the Sony alpha 100 digital SLR camera for converting RAW image files to other formats.  We recently updated this to version 1.2.
  • Sony Picture Motion Browser is the software that came with the Sony alpha 100 digital SLR camera for importing, organizing, and managing image files.  We recently updated this to version 4.
  • Luminance HDR (32 bit ver.) is a free program that is used to create High Dynamic Range images by combining multiple images of the same exact scene with different exposures to create a single image with at least some detail from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights.
  • Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) is a free program that is used to create a single panoramic image by stitching together multiple overlapping images shot from a tripod.
  • IrfanView is a free image viewer with image manipulation tools.

Software tools we learned about, and are considering getting, include:

  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Photoshop Elements
  • Adobe Lightroom
  • Topaz Photoshop Plug-ins
  • A program that allows the use of Topaz plug-ins without having the main Adobe products

We also learned about a program for easily converting a set of still images to an animated “slide show” with a sound track.