Photo Editor

I need advice on what's a good free Windows base photo editor. I have to resize pictures to download them. Some simple retouching would be helpful as well. Someone gave me a site that works well, but posts the website address in the picture.

For the very basics, I suggest Irfanview. It works quite well for cropping and color adjustments. It is also a great image viewer program.

For more advanced editing, there is Gimp. It has most of the capabilities of Photoshop. Naturally, a more complex program takes a bit of time to learn. Everything is available online, including tutorials. It is open-source / freeware.

DavyRay said:

For the very basics, I suggest Irfanview. It works quite well for cropping and color adjustments. It is also a great image viewer program.

For more advanced editing, there is Gimp. It has most of the capabilities of Photoshop. Naturally, a more complex program takes a bit of time to learn. Everything is available online, including tutorials. It is open-source / freeware.

Click to expand...

+1 on all counts. I use Gimp for nearly all of my photo/graphic editing now. I like it a lot. Best part is that is freeware & open source.

Thanks I'll try Irfanview.

Picasa can do simple stuff. Aviary (http://www.aviary.com) is a browser-based tool that can do some of the things Photoshop does.

Irfanview is good software. I own Photoshop, but still use Irfanview for some of my work. Especially, when I want to batch rename files or batch manipulate pictures, and especially when I want to convert formats or resolutions, I use Irfanview.

An example is my wife, who uses a N-i-k-o-n and who frequently takes pictures in the N-i-k-o-n raw format which produces a very big file. No problem so far, but she never does anything with these raw pictures. But, then complains when viewing them (using a special picture viewer) because they take so long to load for viewing.

Arrrgh!

But, I've quit my complaining. She takes 200 pictures in the NEF (raw) format, and I immediately convert them all into JPGs at about 30% dumbed down resolution. She can't tell the difference, even on a high resolution screen, or when printing. Once or twice a year she wants to print a large photo, and I find the big original picture.

Why am I telling everyone all of this? Oh, yea! Irfanview does very well at batch manipulation of photos.

LarryAndro said:

Irfanview is good software. I own Photoshop, but still use Irfanview for some of my work. Especially, when I want to batch rename files or batch manipulate pictures, and especially when I want to convert formats or resolutions, I use Irfanview.

An example is my wife, who uses a N-i-k-o-n and who frequently takes pictures in the N-i-k-o-n raw format which produces a very big file. No problem so far, but she never does anything with these raw pictures. But, then complains when viewing them (using a special picture viewer) because they take so long to load for viewing.

Arrrgh!

But, I've quit my complaining. She takes 200 pictures in the NEF (raw) format, and I immediately convert them all into JPGs at about 30% dumbed down resolution. She can't tell the difference, even on a high resolution screen, or when printing. Once or twice a year she wants to print a large photo, and I find the big original picture.

Why am I telling everyone all of this? Oh, yea! Irfanview does very well at batch manipulation of photos.

Click to expand...

How do I batch manipulate the size? That's what I need it for.

I am using Irfanview v4.20. Click on File, Batch Conversion/Rename, and you will see the first capture I uploaded. Under Batch Conversion Settings, click on Options button and you will see my second uploaded view. Select the Advanced check box and click on the Advanced button and you will see the third screen shot I've uploaded.

I suspect this will point you in the direction needed. If not, ask more questions here, or via PM or email to [email protected].

Thanks. I'll give it a shot on the next batch.