Software You Use?

Because my training is in computers, my slant in the past two blog entries has been toward computers and their use in photography.

Continuing along that line I thought I might start a discussion about what software I use in the area of photography and ask you to do that same.

The first piece of software I bought many years ago and still use today was from a small outfit down in North Carolina called Cerious Software, Inc. Cerious produces a organizational tool called Thumbs Plus Pro. It has so many useful functions, including macro capabilities that it still makes a great tool particularly when preparing photos for the web. By now, some 15 years later, there are many other competitors that are as good I'm sure. They still seem to be going strong.

Two years ago I finally purchased Adobe's Lightroom. So far it has become my tool of choice for organizing my photos as well as doing basic touch up work. I'm still using the version 1.4 but 2.x has recently been released. I understand, listening to an Adobe representative, that most of the photographic specific features present in Photoshop will eventually end up in Lightroom. We'll see. I've alway found Adobe's line of software a bit redundant and confusing, which may be my lack of understanding rather then any fault on their part.

The only tool that I have to do some deep clean up and modification of any graphics at all is Paint Shop Pro much like Adobe's Photoshop Elements which I also have but don't use as much. Both of these products lack the reals strenght of Photo Shop.

What do you have and what are your thoughts on photographic computer software? Don't be afraid to speak up, you can sign the note with your initials.

Tom