freewares for amateur photographers

[ManWearPants]

I am trying to compile a list of freewares that one can use for editing photos. Please share what other tools are available free or at a small fees. I am sure not a lot of us (amateurs) need to use expensive photoshop for post processing. And we should not use pirated softwares. Also if the below tools are worth it, please donate to the developers. Hopefully, they can keep these free if they have enough to keep their passion alive.

Please also share your experiences in using them. Also, do note that we are capturing freewares and not sharewares or trialwares. And do not recommend software that you have not used before, are buggy and contain adware/spyware or viruses. Also note that while this list is recommended by fellow CSer, as each computer has different specs and is setup differently, your experience may differ. So use at your own risks.

If you are recommending a software. Please use the below format to facilitate cut and paste.
[category] software title - url

List of freewares recommended by Csers:

Photo Management
My Photo Index - http://www.myphotoindex.com/
Cornice - http://wxglade.sourceforge.net/extra/cornice.html
Portable Cornice - http://portableapps.com/apps/graphic...rnice_portable
XnView - http://www.xnview.com/en/index.html
Portable XnView - http://portableapps.com/apps/graphic...nview_portable
Faststone Image Viewer - http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

Full fledge Editor - trying to replace Photoshop
Gimp - http://www.gimp.org/
Portable Gimp - http://portableapps.com/apps/graphic.../gimp_portable
Paint.net - http://www.getpaint.net/

Quick fix Photo Editors
Picasa - http://picasa.google.com/
Photoscape - http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php
Fotografix - http://lmadhavan.com/software/fotografix/

HDR
SNS-HDR Lite - http://www.sns-hdr.com/index.html
Picturenaut - http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/index.html
Luminance HDR (v2 is free but buggy) - http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/

Watermark
Fast Stone Photo Resizer - http://faststone.org/

Panorama
Hugin - http://hugin.sourceforge.net/
Microsoft ICE - http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/ :light:

Noise Reduction
Picture Cooler 2010 - http://denoiser.shorturl.com/

Portrait Retouch
CleanSkinFX - http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/cleanskin.htm

Eliminate Hotpixel
Hotpixel Eliminator - http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/hotpixels.htm

Dust Removal
Polaroid - http://web.archive.org/web/20020612...roid.com/service/software/poladsr/pdsr1_0.exe

Raw to Jpg convertor
Easy2Convert Raw to JPG - http://www.easy2convert.com/raw2jpg/
Instant Jpeg from RAW - http://www.rawworkflow.com/instant-j...m-raw-utility/
RawTherapee - http://www.rawtherapee.com/ {1 report of PC crash}

Data Recovery
Recuva - http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Fisheye to rectilinear conversion
Rectfish - http://www.acapixus.dk/software/rectfish/index.htm

Photoshop plugins - of course you must first have PS
Photoshop Action Exchange - http://www.atncentral.com/

Gimp plugins
G'MIC, noise reduction - http://gmic.sourceforge.net/gimp.shtml
UFraw, read raw - http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/

Data Backup - use at your own risk.
Allway Sync - http://allwaysync.com/, replication with another PC or usb storage.
Amanda -http://amanda.zmanda.com/, opensource server/client backup

Monitor calibration
Hex2Bit - http://www.hex2bit.com/products/product_mcw.asp

updated : 03/12/2011
key:
:light: newly added

 

[night86mare]

hdr - http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/

 

[jed091270]

I am trying to compile a list of freewares that one can use for editing photos. Please share what other tools are available free or at a small fees. I am sure not a lot of us (amateurs) need to use expensive photoshop for post processing. And we should not use pirated softwares.

Please also share your experiences in using them

Organizer

Editing
Gimp
Picasa

HDR
Picturenaut

Watermark
Fast Stone Image Viewer

Others

Picasa is a free software for editing and easy to use as well!!!

 

[dingaroo]

Organizer

Editing
Gimp
Picasa
Paint.net

HDR
Picturenaut
hdr - http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/

Watermark
Fast Stone Image Viewer

Others

 

[ManWearPants]

just drop the software name. I will update the original list. I think for editors may need to further categories into full fledge ones and quick fixes.

 

[night86mare]

just in case you want to include it in,

http://www.atncentral.com/

is a great stop for loads of free photoshop actions.

 

[jaRv1s]

Hugin for Panorama... http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

however, the installation might not be a clean one click installation... require to download separate software to create and link control points... the Control Points Creater is called Panomatic... unzip the zip file into Hugin folder, then need to set Panomatic to default control point detector in Hugin by clicking File -> Preferences (Control Points Detectors tab)...

Memory Cards / Harddisk Data Recovery Freeware

Recuva http://www.piriform.com/recuva

hope this helps...

 

[jaRv1s]

Can take this as raw converter but only convert the original unedited image

Instant Jpeg from RAW http://www.rawworkflow.com/instant-jpeg-from-raw-utility/

left this out... cos this won't show in the start menu... it would show when right click RAW file... it would pull the embedded Jpeg inside the RAW file (camera body always read Jpeg file if you notice the manual)...

 

[ManWearPants]

Can take this as raw converter but only convert the original unedited image

Instant Jpeg from RAW http://www.rawworkflow.com/instant-jpeg-from-raw-utility/

left this out... cos this won't show in the start menu... it would show when right click RAW file... it would pull the embedded Jpeg inside the RAW file (camera body always read Jpeg file if you notice the manual)...

I will leave this out for now as the download requires registration. I would think a batch raw to jpg convertor should be more useful.

 

[Myselves]

Another simple quick fix editor, Photoscape

http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php

It has more functions and control than what is offered by Picasa, including some nice presets/effects, RAW converter, animated gif maker etc. Good for beginners. However, it takes up heaps of memory space too.

 

[jaRv1s]

I will leave this out for now as the download requires registration. I would think a batch raw to jpg convertor should be more useful.

can do batch too... just highlight all the raw files you want embedded Jpegs to be pulled out and it would goes into a folder in the same folder you put your raw...

 

[madmartian]

Any good free prog that reduce noise?
TIA

 

[ManWearPants]

can do batch too... just highlight all the raw files you want embedded Jpegs to be pulled out and it would goes into a folder in the same folder you put your raw...

ok. I have added it in the list since it is free. I just didn't understand the need to register before downloading a freeware.

Any good free prog that reduce noise?
TIA

You know what. Found one. Please download, try and revert if it is usable. TIA.

 

[Numnumball]

Any good free prog that reduce noise?
TIA

Bro, gd things doesnt come free, Thought Noise Ninja is good

 

[Squid]

I propose following open source or freeware software to be included in the list

-- Cornice and Portable Cornice for Photo Management
-- Portable Gimp (since GIMP already made it to the list) for full fledged Editor
-- XnView and Portable XnView for photo management, basic photo editing and conversion
-- Rawtherapee for full fledged Raw to Jpeg converter
-- G'MIC as a GIMP's noise reduction plug-in

Portable software means the software can operate from USB thumb drive without installing software into the computer. Additional available freeware software listing available at Wikipedia includes

-- Fotografix for photo editing
-- Artweaver
-- Faststone Image Viewer
-- IrfanView for photo management and conversion

 

[madmartian]

Bro, gd things doesnt come free, Thought Noise Ninja is good

All that they mentioned are good & free wor.........................

 

[jaRv1s]

ok. I have added it in the list since it is free. I just didn't understand the need to register before downloading a freeware.

hahaha beats me... but now i'm starting to hate this thread... i just downloaded 3 software for my already slow computer... how slow my computer is? i can type faster than the screen could disply.... -_-'''

Thanks for Sharing guys... Thanks ManWearPants for bringing up this thread...

Cheers...

 

[sfoto100]

hi MWP

i have 2 contributions here.


1)

http://www.cinepaint.org/

some of the features:
Support for 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit color channels of deep paint.
Color Management System. CinePaint uses LittleCMS.


GIMP does not do 16 bit editing now, the FAQ said gimp 3.0 will do 16 bit editing, so it is still far away.



2)

http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/

This allows GIMP to open raw files. But whether using this with GIMP means 16 bit editing or not I am not sure.




there are others but i have not use them before, but i will just list them here:

http://www.koffice.org/krita/
http://seashore.sourceforge.net/
http://kornelix.squarespace.com/fotoxx/
http://f-spot.org/Features



tks alot to all those who contribute and especially MWP

 

[bayusuputra]

i believe there is a portable version of photoscape (i am using now) so u can install it in ur thumbdrive and it won't take a single bit of space in ur PC...haha!can use in other PC as well, just plug in the thumbdrive...can be downloaded from softonic.com just search for photoscape portable (it is free! if not wrong ver.3.4?)

btw, kudos to TS! this is definitely useful, especially for no money-er like me...heheh!

 

[ManWearPants]

I propose following open source or freeware software to be included in the list

-- Cornice and Portable Cornice for Photo Management
-- Portable Gimp (since GIMP already made it to the list) for full fledged Editor
-- XnView and Portable XnView for photo management, basic photo editing and conversion
-- Rawtherapee for full fledged Raw to Jpeg converter
-- G'MIC as a GIMP's noise reduction plug-in

Portable software means the software can operate from USB thumb drive without installing software into the computer. Additional available freeware software listing available at Wikipedia includes

-- Fotografix for photo editing
-- Artweaver
-- Faststone Image Viewer
-- IrfanView for photo management and conversion

Can you use the below format to facilitate cut and paste.
Name - URL

Are these good or simply because there is a portable version? I don't think much of IrfanView as a photo management or conversion tool. I think it is just a slightly better image editor compared to MS Paint.

Also where do you classify Artweaver? It does not look like an editor but a software similiar to a art filters.