Railfan Technology > basic editing software

I am starting to scan some 50 year old slides.  I do not know if they are showing their age or what.  I would like to do simple edits (lighten)  I cannot afford anything fancy nor do I have the time to learn anything complex.

I am attacking three examples.  

Thanks
Dave Potter

David Potter
Other, CA

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They are certainly great looking slides
with interesting subject matter!  

 

I have been using Photoshop Elements for a while and it has a feature called "Auto Smart Fix" under enhancements.  I"m using 2020 right now and have ordered 2021 because Amazon had it at almost half price for two days.   It is a full featured (to me anyway) editing program.  I didn't want to mortgage the house to get the full version of Photoshop, which is way over my head in a lot of areas.
I've salvaged some pretty sad slides/negatives using Elements.
Image is a one click Smart Fix.    I don't know why I gravitated to that number. Additional tweaking could make it pop.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/21 07:23 by Frisco1522.

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Another endorsement for PhotoShop Elements, Amazon shows their price, Costco often has PSE at a good price as well. PSE is great for cleaning up typical sharpness and color issues as well as simple composition and typical old school darkroom techniques. I haven't tried to be more imaginitive with creating effects, I would think that may need the full PhotoShop.

Haven't tried the full blown data archiving, the arranging of images in a database, there are a number of software applications that do that. Haven't tried batch processing either. So far PSE has done everything I've needed and a lot of other clean up features as well. The color correction features are pretty amazing by themselves. The copy I have is from 2012 and I haven't seen any limitations for connectivity or updating as has been rumored.

+ the copy I have was on a disk, I notice Amazon has both a disk or a download over the internet, the download is $10 bucks cheaper. Hope that helps.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/21 08:47 by TCnR.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> Image is a one click Smart Fix. I don't know
> why I gravitated to that number. Additional
> tweaking could make it pop.

I can't possibly imagine why, either (tongue firmly in cheek as I type those words).

I will also endorse Photoshop Elements. I've been a user in various editions for a long time, and it does everything that I need to do without the many additional (and sometimes quite complex) bells and whistles of full Photoshop. I find it's just right for many tasks, and it's a good package for preparing images for posting here on Trainorders. Only rarely have I needed the additional feature set in full Photoshop. But that said, one image is pending for full Photoshop attention, a sweet one of Don's favorite engine with that certain number that he is so prone to gravitate to. So, guess I better get crackin' on that.....

Love the three images you posted, especially that Santa Fe switcher with the certain special number. Keep 'em coming! Good luck with your Photoshop Elements work and learning. Let us know if we can help. I think there are a fair number of folks here on TO who are users, and have developed some good technique with the software.

MC



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/21 10:49 by ironmtn.

You might want to check out Zoner Photo Studio X.    $4.99 per month or $49 per year plus they offer a trial download.  I use Zoner for basic editing. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/21 22:30 by exopr.

Elements 2021 was delivered by Amazon tonight.   It was $54 on Prime day, free delivery.   I'll install it tomorrow and play around with it.
I like 2020, used it to process all the photos in my book, plus colorized a couple just for grins, including the cover shot.  I find that keeping the colorizing more subtle works like a champ.  So far nobody has complained about it.

I have had good success  with Irfanview--a very reliable freeware program.
The extensions are most helpful,too.

I use it all the time for "lightening", that is taking an image and  "auto-adust colors" under the "image" tab.
Save the original, and try the tool, sometimes twice  or more, see what  you get. 

arrowspatial Wrote:
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> I have had good success  with Irfanview--a very
> reliable freeware program.
> The extensions are most helpful,too.
>
> I use it all the time for "lightening", that is
> taking an image and  "auto-adust colors" under
> the "image" tab.
> Save the original, and try the tool, sometimes
> twice  or more, see what  you get. 

I've used Irfan for a number of years, although I don't do that much editing of images as a rule. It sure helped when I scanned some color-shifted slides. I was amazed at how good they looked. There's another freeware program, GIMP (I think) that gets good marks, but I've never used it.
 

I agree with Frisco 1522. I've used a number of PSE versions and the newer versions have a 'Guided Edit' in it to walk you through the editing program. I find it easy to use and an older version on Amazon may cost $70 - 80. There's no subscription or anything like that. It works well on newer shots as well!

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

Third endorsement for Irfanview.  Been using it since 1999 with no issues.  Great little basic editor!