Railfan Technology > Photo clarity

I want to enhance my photos. What software could I get and install on my computer to make my pictures more clear and crisp? Thanks for any answers.

SantaFeRuss

What type of camera are you using?  Nikon DSLR cameras come with software that will enhance, sharpen and adjust images.  Other camera manufacturers supply similar programs.  I use Nikon View NX 2.

Apple supplied thier computers with an excellent free program called iPhoto.  Unfortunately, it was recently discontinued and replaced by a slightly less effective program called Photos.

The best known photo software is Adobe Photoshop.  But it can be expensive and some amateurs find it has more features than they need.  Lightroom is an excellent program but again may be intimidating. 

There are striped down versions of photo editing software intended for amateur use that are very good.  Friend and TO member Lerchy recommends Photoshop Express.

KG

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/15 13:13 by kgmontreal.

Also what the end purpose will be, are you posting on TO or similar, Flicker or PBase style galleries. Or making prints, sending into magazines or for advertising?
This would help define cost and ability to handle large files or high resolution, color correction or camera raw files or something less complex.

A big part of web posting seems to be avoiding auto-compression or re-formatting by the site.

fwiw, I'm using PhotoShop Elements 12. Works just fine although they seem to add goofy menus every year.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/15 18:10 by TCnR.

try www.download.com, there might be some freebies there to try.  or irfanview.com   or faststone image viewer,  these are basic and simple programs.  Doug

Adobe Photoshop Elements (PSE) will do dang near anything that you want to do. Usually around $80. Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) is included in PSE to enhance and convert RAW files. If your camera has the ability to shoot RAW format, I would HIGHLY advise that you use it and learn to work with RAW files.

Old Bob out in Lost Wages

If you have a lot of photos to process and store I would recomend Lightroom 6.

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

I use a Canon EOS Rebel T3. And yes, I post to Trainorders.com. I just want higher quality images and better color saturation. Also the ability to edit / repair photos. Thanks to all for your recommendations.

SantaFeRuss

One of the more interesting and very effective tricks going around is to avoid the automatic compression that some of the websites use. For example with TO, use the file reduction for 'web posting' but enter a pixel size of less than 1000. For some reason this lets the file go into the TO system without further compression and makes a notable difference in sharp edges, perhaps color saturation as well.
Post 'em if you got 'em.