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What is the best freeware camera software?

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I used to use Irfanview a lot ... but nowadays I'd use Fastone or Picasa 2 instead if I felt I could not afford decent processing software.

For processing software I'd go CS2 in a heart beat, or Elements or Paint Shop Pro if budget was a big concern. Elements for sure if shooting RAW.

It is a curiosity to me how much money people will spend on camera after camera and then never spend a dime on the back end processing, which is where the image gets "developed" from the raw material the camera produces ...

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http://letkeman.net/Photos
 
The important feature of Picasa 2 (IMO) is it has the best and easiest keyword and caption management of all the free options. Just select the photos, hit ctrl-k, then type in keywords. Select all the photos with trees, then add a tree keyword; select all photos with a person and type his name in, etc... Captions are also easy to edit. You want this to be easy so you'll use it. Picasa also has a geotag feature which lets you use Google earth to mark photo location--the GPS metadata gets filled in with the coordinates.

This information is stored in the IPTC metadata in the photo file so it moves with the file whether you send it to others or upload it to a web gallery (some web galleries can use this information to organize photos.)

Other programs either keep the keywords in a database or require several keystrokes and button clicks to edit the IPTC data. Some of these also destroy existing IPTC data to overwrite their own.

Then of course, Picasa is legendary for it's speed when you want to find the photos. They let you search by the keywords and captions and filenames of course, but you can also search by several of the EXIF fields as well.

Bart
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http://www.pbase.com/zumbari
 
Haven't been able to solve how to get hold of HS-V2. The upgrade I downloaded is looking for a previous version. Initially it was supplied with the F710. I'll have to talk to a dealer.
HS-V2 even covers the E-550 which I used to have working.
Seems like silent sale software.
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Torch
 
Lightroom is still beta, this is more or less test software to let people try it out and report any bugs they find. Once the beta is over and it will expire after awhile, you'll have to pay some big bucks for this software. Most smart peopel do not risk screwing up their computer by trying out beta software. That's why I have not tried the new Photoshop CS3, I'm not willing on risking messing up my CS2.
JD
 
it is a superb piece of software. But unfortunately, it doesn't support certain Fuji files - meaning S9100 RAF files. But it does a bang-up job on other cameras. It has a wealth of settings and options. For example, here's a few indoor flash photos taken at ISY 640 (SB-800 flash) taken with the D80 that I converted with Lightroom:









Have a great day!



 
Kim Letkeman said:
It is a curiosity to me how much money people will spend on camera
after camera and then never spend a dime on the back end
processing, which is where the image gets "developed" from the raw
material the camera produces ...

--
http://letkeman.net/Photos
Click to expand...
Quite correct; if the user was interested in complex post-processing, which I am not. Just want to get photos to/from camera and have ability to tweak a few graphics like crop denoise which the free programs do well. Currently, after spending a few hours on the various softwares seems for my use that Faststone and Photofiltre are very adequate. The Fuji OEM software is inadequate, apart from file management area.
 
Alistair George said:
Kim Letkeman said:
It is a curiosity to me how much money people will spend on camera
after camera and then never spend a dime on the back end
processing, which is where the image gets "developed" from the raw
material the camera produces ...

--
http://letkeman.net/Photos
Click to expand...
Quite correct; if the user was interested in complex
post-processing, which I am not.
Click to expand...
Hmmm .... where exactly did I use the word complex?
Alistair George said:
Just want to get photos to/from
camera and have ability to tweak a few graphics like crop denoise
which the free programs do well.
Click to expand...
Denoising a photo is the most complex thing you can do. Because to do it well, you need a high quality filter (not the crappy ones you get with the freebee software) and you need to practice with it to get good at smoothing the photo while retaining lots of detail.

Contrast is usually a one shot deal, but only the better packages let you control it well enough to do a nice job. The freebees are heavy handed most of the time and you end up with a "digital" looking photo.
Alistair George said:
Currently, after spending a few
hours on the various softwares seems for my use that Faststone and
Photofiltre are very adequate. The Fuji OEM software is inadequate,
apart from file management area.
Click to expand...
Very adequate ... I presume you mean that you can get good snapshots with one click or something like that. Sounds good.

--
http://letkeman.net/Photos
 
I don't think so--I don't use Picasa for actually editing anything--just for organizing (and actually, I use an app called Imatch for the serious organizing stuff, but it's not free.)

Bart
--
http://www.pbase.com/zumbari
 
Hi,

There is no doubt that Photoshop is an excellent program. But as many will tell you it has a steep learning curve.

There is a free editing program that many perople might already have, but be unaware of. The program is called "Nero Photosnap" and it comes as part of the Nero 6 DVD software for burning DVDs. Nero 6 is often packaged with computers, or comes supplied with DVD burners purchased separately.

Photosnap offers Levels, Curves, Colour Balance, USM, Noise reduction, Lens distortion, Redeye correction, Resize, Hot pixel Fixer, ...to name a few. It has a very straight forward interface and is easy for the novice to start with.

If you have Nero 6, take a look at the programs included in it by clicking on the Windows Start button and finding Nero 6. I don't think Nero PhotoSnap was included in Nero 5.

Good Shooting,
Lins.
 
NimrodA said:
If you have Nero 6, take a look at the programs included in it by
clicking on the Windows Start button and finding Nero 6. I don't
think Nero PhotoSnap was included in Nero 5.

Good Shooting,
Lins.
Click to expand...
Thanks Lins. Yes I had forgotten about that as its on another PC which is not so constrained for space as my notebook. Agreed, Nero writes good stuff.
Cheers.
 
And Irfanview can use photoshop plugins. I use Smartcurve, which is free, to do my curves adjustment.

Anyone know if Picassa has curves support yet? Irfanview is a bit of an awkward customer compared to Picassa?
 
Picasa 2 is bad for PP. It adds lots af visible artfacts.
Paint Shop Pro doesn't. You get what you (don't) pay for.
RemcoR
 
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