Post processing JPEGs?

[Len-O]

If it hasn't been mentioned already, Adobe Photoshop CC works great with jpegs. That's all I use. It's free and works great on a computer.

How did you swing a free copy of Adobe Photoshop CC, or are you thinking of the Adobe mobile apps?

I subscribe to the Adobe CC Photography plan LR CCC/PS CC($9.99/month) + 1TB of Creative Cloud storage for an additional $4.99/month. I have also invested in many of the other options available which function as standalone apps, or as Adobe plugins.

 

[EMV]

Thank you everyone for your answers. I Will try out the softwares you suggested.

I will also try to play around with in camera settings to get good SOOC pictures.

What in camera settings (Sharpening, NR etc) do you use to shoot SOOC JPEGs?

I’m usually going with NR -4 and 0 for the rest (or NR -3 and Sharpening +1). I feel this gives me a little bit to flat images. Maybe it’s just lack of shooting skills

 

[KKJohn]

Why has everyone forgotten about Picasa? I've been using it for over 10 years and still using it, tho Google in it's stupidity is not supporting it any more. It is free and works for both PC and MAC. I'm pretty sure it is still available, tho I could be proven wrong. It is still the best IMHO for both storing photos, making albums and simple editing with some neat filters which I use all the time. The only problem is that one has to be careful to make sure it doesn't download all your photos and take over your hard drive. Make sure you only download those files you want and you have to choose which files you want Picasa to list. I must admit that I only use JPEGS, tho in the past I shot both JPGS + Raw. But left the Raws on my external drive and downloaded only the JPGs into Picasa.

I download my photo files (JPEGs + Raw) from my SD card onto my hard drive, usually an external drive, and then import the files I want into Picasa, usually just JPEGs. Then I make albums with the categories I choose, but make sure that these albums and any editing are saved into my external hard drive. Occasionally I use Lightroom, tho usually just for editing B&W, and import the Raws and process them into B&W using my NIK filters.

 

[Michel van Lint]

Didn’t find any straightening tool or vinjett on faststone (yet).

how about degrade in quality with those programs?

AFAIK any editing take away some info from the image, therefore degrade quality, in theory at least.

That's why I love Fuji X because its SOOC jpegs are so good, they require little to no PP

Okay.

yes i know and thats why i’m givning the JPEGs a try. But i feel like most of my JPEGs comes out a little bit to flat and need a boost in contrast (and some vinjettering is often nice).

I dont want to ruin the quality of the images though.

Unless I am mistaken: Every time you save a JPEG, you loose a bit of information. Therefore, you may want to keep the original if there is a chance of editing the same file multiple times.

 

[sluggy_warrior]

Didn’t find any straightening tool or vinjett on faststone (yet).

how about degrade in quality with those programs?

AFAIK any editing take away some info from the image, therefore degrade quality, in theory at least.

That's why I love Fuji X because its SOOC jpegs are so good, they require little to no PP

Okay.

yes i know and thats why i’m givning the JPEGs a try. But i feel like most of my JPEGs comes out a little bit to flat and need a boost in contrast (and some vinjettering is often nice).

I dont want to ruin the quality of the images though.

Unless I am mistaken: Every time you save a JPEG, you loose a bit of information. Therefore, you may want to keep the original if there is a chance of editing the same file multiple times.

Yes, that's why proper software such as darktable and LR are "non-destructive". They apply operations (exposure, cropping, rotating, ...) on top of your original image to create an output/export file, but never make changes to the original file. Those operations are saved to internal DB and external XMP sidecar file, so you can back them up as well. By re-applying the sidecar file on the original file, you'll come out with the same export again, or you can also modify the history stack of those operations anytime.

 

[chaimav]

Why has everyone forgotten about Picasa? I've been using it for over 10 years and still using it, tho Google in it's stupidity is not supporting it any more. It is free and works for both PC and MAC. I'm pretty sure it is still available, tho I could be proven wrong. It is still the best IMHO for both storing photos, making albums and simple editing with some neat filters which I use all the time. The only problem is that one has to be careful to make sure it doesn't download all your photos and take over your hard drive. Make sure you only download those files you want and you have to choose which files you want Picasa to list. I must admit that I only use JPEGS, tho in the past I shot both JPGS + Raw. But left the Raws on my external drive and downloaded only the JPGs into Picasa.

I download my photo files (JPEGs + Raw) from my SD card onto my hard drive, usually an external drive, and then import the files I want into Picasa, usually just JPEGs. Then I make albums with the categories I choose, but make sure that these albums and any editing are saved into my external hard drive. Occasionally I use Lightroom, tho usually just for editing B&W, and import the Raws and process them into B&W using my NIK filters.

Picasa was great, but Google killed it. You need to get a copy of the install from somewhere. Luckily, I still have it and can share if needed. As it was free when it was available, can I assume it is legal to share it? (I am not trying to break any forum rules by pirating software)

 

[DarnGoodPhotos]

Didn’t find any straightening tool or vinjett on faststone (yet).

how about degrade in quality with those programs?

AFAIK any editing take away some info from the image, therefore degrade quality, in theory at least.

That's why I love Fuji X because its SOOC jpegs are so good, they require little to no PP

Okay.

yes i know and thats why i’m givning the JPEGs a try. But i feel like most of my JPEGs comes out a little bit to flat and need a boost in contrast (and some vinjettering is often nice).

I dont want to ruin the quality of the images though.

Unless I am mistaken: Every time you save a JPEG, you loose a bit of information. Therefore, you may want to keep the original if there is a chance of editing the same file multiple times.

There are non-destructive JPG editors as well. You can just as easily use Lightroom for JPG editing as a Raw

 

[krassphoto]

Didn’t find any straightening tool or vinjett on faststone (yet).

how about degrade in quality with those programs?

AFAIK any editing take away some info from the image, therefore degrade quality, in theory at least.

That's why I love Fuji X because its SOOC jpegs are so good, they require little to no PP

Okay.

yes i know and thats why i’m givning the JPEGs a try. But i feel like most of my JPEGs comes out a little bit to flat and need a boost in contrast (and some vinjettering is often nice).

I dont want to ruin the quality of the images though.

Unless I am mistaken: Every time you save a JPEG, you loose a bit of information. Therefore, you may want to keep the original if there is a chance of editing the same file multiple times.

There are non-destructive JPG editors as well. You can just as easily use Lightroom for JPG editing as a Raw

I may be a dinosaur, but I'm still using an ancient PSE7, but loaded with plugins including full Nik and Alien Skin collection. More than enough for me. I love taking pictures, but hate PP.

 

[BK78]

Not sure about degradation. I'm only post on Instagram or for computer use, not large prints. As someone else mentioned, you can download Lightroom for your PC and use it without a subscription and you can use it to organize your photos and for basic exposure and cropping tools. Lightroom mobile works well enough for me that I'd rather eliminate the computer from the process.

 

[Len-O]

Didn’t find any straightening tool or vinjett on faststone (yet).

how about degrade in quality with those programs?

AFAIK any editing take away some info from the image, therefore degrade quality, in theory at least.

That's why I love Fuji X because its SOOC jpegs are so good, they require little to no PP

Okay.

yes i know and thats why i’m givning the JPEGs a try. But i feel like most of my JPEGs comes out a little bit to flat and need a boost in contrast (and some vinjettering is often nice).

I dont want to ruin the quality of the images though.

Unless I am mistaken: Every time you save a JPEG, you loose a bit of information. Therefore, you may want to keep the original if there is a chance of editing the same file multiple times.

Yup! Never edit, or adjust an original JPEG, always work on a copy of the original, or an original converted to a lossless format such as TIF.

 

[yardcoyote]

I find FastStone does everything I need very effectively, and it allows me to use my own file structure, which I much prefer to letting software sort my images automatically.

 

[Len-O]

Unless I am mistaken: Every time you save a JPEG, you loose a bit of information. Therefore, you may want to keep the original if there is a chance of editing the same file multiple times.

There are non-destructive JPG editors as well. You can just as easily use Lightroom for JPG editing as a Raw

When using LR to edit JPEGs it is worth using virtual copies when making edits/adjustments. Also when using external editor plugins such as NIK, Exposure X(x), On1, and others it is also best to work on "a copy with Lightroom adjustments".

 

[Charles2]

Didn’t find any straightening tool or vinjett on faststone (yet).

Alt-R in FastStone to straighten.

Raw Therapee, a donation-only program, will do these things on a JPG, too. Its vignetting is very good - and you can save a preset (.pp3) file from which start the vignette each time.

Save the result as a .tif file if you think you might want to post-process more later. You can, of course, also save a .jpg in the same session.

 

[Craig268]

If it hasn't been mentioned already, Adobe Photoshop CC works great with jpegs. That's all I use. It's free and works great on a computer.

How did you swing a free copy of Adobe Photoshop CC, or are you thinking of the Adobe mobile apps?

I subscribe to the Adobe CC Photography plan LR CCC/PS CC($9.99/month) + 1TB of Creative Cloud storage for an additional $4.99/month. I have also invested in many of the other options available which function as standalone apps, or as Adobe plugins.

Well, don't know. It's on my laptop. I guess it's a basic version as there's no add ons or plug ins.

 

[Jerry-astro]

Not sure about degradation. I'm only post on Instagram or for computer use, not large prints. As someone else mentioned, you can download Lightroom for your PC and use it without a subscription and you can use it to organize your photos and for basic exposure and cropping tools. Lightroom mobile works well enough for me that I'd rather eliminate the computer from the process.

How about providing with a link to a *legal* and free download of Lightroom for PC or Mac, not a "cracked" version, which is neither legitimate nor legal. I suspect I'm not the only one confused about this, so it might be helpful to provide some additional information. I do understand that the mobile apps are free, however, as far as I know, there is a cost associated with any of the PC/Mac versions.

 

[GodSpeaks]

And also, will this kind of post process degrade the image quality of JPEGs. If so, how much?

Yes. How much depends on how much you adjust the jpg and on the settings you use when saving.

 

[sluggy_warrior]

And also, will this kind of post process degrade the image quality of JPEGs. If so, how much?

Yes. How much depends on how much you adjust the jpg and on the settings you use when saving.

A good read with samples on JPG generation loss:

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cloudinary.com

 

[cute_girl_emily]

Assuming you have a compatible camera (GFX 50S, X-H1, X-T2, X-T20, X-Pro2, X100F), you could shoot RAW and process them in Fujifilm X Raw Studio, which is free. The adjustments are all very basic and easy, and the outputs are nice since it's using the camera JPEG engine.

 

[rokphish]

If you already have Blue Stack, you could use Snapseed on your PC.

Otherwise, give Polarr a try. As mentioned before above, it's not totally free (unlike Snapseed), but the free one has enough stuff for light editing. Polarr could be used on phones, tablets, computers.

Both are very easy to use for simpleton like me.

 

[EMV]

Assuming you have a compatible camera (GFX 50S, X-H1, X-T2, X-T20, X-Pro2, X100F), you could shoot RAW and process them in Fujifilm X Raw Studio, which is free. The adjustments are all very basic and easy, and the outputs are nice since it's using the camera JPEG engine.

I do, but can you crop and straighten in this program? Other wise i willl still need to crop the jpeg afterwards.

it would be the best choice to try to stick with this one and only make adjustment to the pictures that really needs it.

does anyone know if you can Edit a raw in lightroom or faststone and than open the edited raw in x raw studio and Apply filters and the other adjustments?