Popular Post Production Software
Last week’s reader question was Which Post Production Software do you use?
The discussion that happened as a result of asking it was fascinating with all manner of post production products mentioned by close to 200 readers. The software mentioned ranged from professional grade photo editing packages, through to free online photo sharing and organizational tools.
With DPS readers using such an array of tools it was difficult to make any big trend observations (not made any easier by the spread of operating systems and software versions. However I did pull together a Top 13 from the responses. I’ve listed them below (and graphed it here):
- Lightroom
- Photoshop CS2
- Photoshop CS3
- The Gimp
- Picasa
- Apple’s Aperture
- Photoshop Elements
- Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo
- iPhoto
- Adobe Photoshop 7.0
- Noise Ninja
- Bibble Pro
- ACDSee
By no means is this a full list. Around 40 different tools were mentioned in the comments of the previous post - but the above were those that featured more often than others.
It would be also unfair to compare all in the list above as they are not all products aiming to fullfill the same tasks - however these (and others suggested) would make a good starting place for those looking into choosing a photo editing and organization software tool/s.
37 Responses to “Popular Post Production Software”
May 29th, 2007 at 1:19 am
Very interesting. I missed the original discussion, but I myself use three of the above: PhotoShop CS2, GIMP, and Picasa. (I also use a cheesey scrapbooking program.)
May 29th, 2007 at 2:14 am
As an avid Aperture user I’m a bit disappoint/surprised that is is so far behind Lightroom. Looks like LR has about twice the market share among users of this site. I sure hope Aperture doesn’t die and Apple stop developing it.
Also, may I suggest adding another bar to the graph for all the different versions of Photoshop? Combined CS2/3, 7 and Elements are by far the most used program.
May 29th, 2007 at 2:44 am
Have you tried LightRoom? It’s streets ahead of Aperture in both performance and in functionality. With LightRoom, apart from the totally broken sharpening tool (it’s been announced that 1.1 is supposed to fix this), LightRoom allows one to perform very useful processing which previously required Photoshop. As soon as the sharpener is fixed, I’d guess that about 80% of pro-am photographers won’t need Photoshop at all.
The performance delta, even on high-end hardware, is also amazing. As someone who started out with Aperture 1.0 and persevered through the various upgrades until finally giving up, I can tell you that if you haven’t tried LightRoom, you’re really missing out.
May 29th, 2007 at 2:57 am
Wow, I did not expect so many to become CS3 converts so quickly.
@Graeme:
Maybe its because Aperture is Mac only?
May 29th, 2007 at 3:01 am
It’s a dud link for Picassa; why show an Amazon page for the no longer released boxed version when you can download it for free at http://picasa.google.com/
May 29th, 2007 at 3:15 am
It’s wonderful to see an open source application (GIMP) on the 4th place.
May 29th, 2007 at 4:05 am
In response to Graeme Smith; I really like Aperture as well, but as Koh Jun Lin said - I’m not using it because I’m limited due to the platform I use.
I’m not on the biggest budget hardware-wise and can’t justify buying a mac when I can get a PC that packs more processing power for the same price - however, that’s not really the point here.
Lightroom is the closest to Aperture I could find and therefore I use it, and as I also stated in the previous comments; whenever I have to chance to use Aperture at a friends place, I do so, because I fell the product is more polished and improves my workflow.
May 29th, 2007 at 5:43 am
Aperture ahs a long life ahead of it, the problem is the platform, and I agree with Peter, the extra price is just not worth the money for amateurs, this is why we stick to other software (I used CS3, would like to try lightroom)
May 29th, 2007 at 8:13 am
I am also surprised to see Gimp up there with the big boys. I use a mixture of PaintShop Pro (came with my laptop), Gimp and Picasa here. Better on the wallet overall is my policy… lol
May 29th, 2007 at 9:35 am
keep in mind with Aperture and Lightroom that Lightroom is something that is available for both Mac and PC whereas Aperture is just a Mac product.
May 29th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Maybe you should also have a graph to show the distribution of operating systems. Mac vs Win vs Linux, etc.
May 29th, 2007 at 9:49 am
I would have thought that Photoshop CS2 would have been more popular than Lightroom, nice to see Lightroom at the top thought.
I moved from Aperture to Lightroom due database problems in Aperture. Lightroom is brilliant and all the photographers I know love using it, glad to read that your readers agree.
May 29th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
My guess is right. Picasa is in top 5. It is so easy to use and get excellent results
May 29th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Usabilty, pricing, platform choice - typical questions. Summarized the chart - an really good starting point. Well keep an eye on it.
May 29th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
I’ve just swapped from a PC to a Mac. One of the things I miss is Picasa. I can’t understand why they haven’t brought it out for the Mac yet.
May 29th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
This was definitely an interesting graph, I was a little disappointed for Paint Shop Pro as well, I personally use a mixture of PSP XI, Photoshop CS2 and Nikon NX. Graeme stated PS should have separate version categories that would also go for PSP as well.
May 30th, 2007 at 12:56 am
i use photoshop 7 and picasa besides sometimes ACDsee and kodak too. but the fastness is provided by picasa is unmatched.
May 30th, 2007 at 1:42 am
Was it just me that has never heard of Lightroom?
Will be something I will be looking into. CS2 user here.
May 30th, 2007 at 3:38 am
Interesting results - I’m surprised that the Gimp ranked so high, esp relative to Picasa. Nothing against Gimp; just not what I would have expected.
May 30th, 2007 at 5:42 am
Very informative! I’m a mac user who as been strugling with the Lightroom vs Aperture debate for a while now. I own Aperture, but have been really impressed with the functionality of Lightroom of late. I kept thinking that I just wasn’t seeing all that there was to see in Aperture, but this poll helps to validate my findings.
May 31st, 2007 at 2:38 am
Gimp FTW! Well, almost…
June 1st, 2007 at 4:33 am
I’m in the process of buying a new mac. The price of Adobe’s Creative Suites that I want is priced higher than the computers purchase price. I’ll likely try out GIMP mostly due to Adobe prices.
June 1st, 2007 at 6:03 am
As for OSs, I run Ubuntu 6.10 Linux and use GIMP for all my editing. It’s powerful, modular, expandable, and FREE. It’s not a Photoshop replacement (there goes the main criticism of it by people who don’t know better), but for a free alternative, it sure does a lot of what Photoshop does. For those of us that aren’t designers or pro photographers, GIMP does everything we could want.
GIMP is available for all OSs: Windows, Mac, and Linux. There is even a portable version that runs off a USB flashdrive so it can store all its settings and add-ons.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:47 pm
It would have been interesting to see which OS was used. A lot of Linux users gravitate to Gimp because that’s what’s easily available on their systems. Apple users and Windows users may show different results.
June 1st, 2007 at 1:00 pm
After wrestling with the choice between Aperture and Lightroom for about a month, I have to say after seeing the results, that I feel validated about ultimately choosing Lightroom…although as I said before, I am very interested to see what Aperture 2.0 has in store. Both are excellent applications.
June 1st, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Before LR came to the market I tried very hard to use IDmager, but eventually came away kind of frustrated because IDmager is not very user friendly and requires a lot of software experience, which I am lacking.
I then considered purchasing Peter Krogh’s DAM book to first of all learn more about DAM, but then LR was made available and there was on my part no need any more for digging in DAM theories. LR is very user friendly and requires no wrestling with software applications. I am very pleased with LR!
June 2nd, 2007 at 2:55 am
Any chance we can see the full list? Even if they are the minority, I still believe they are just as important if not more so.
I recently heard of an app called Capture One by Phase One for a RAW workflow. Tried it out, and wasn’t thoroughly impressed, but did appreciate its sharpening tool as well as a couple other features.
Would be great to see any other tools like that one out there that the selected few in the big houses may use and us small guys may not have heard of.
June 3rd, 2007 at 1:31 am
I use GIMP and CS3 - GIMP when it’s simple stuff like cropping and resizing, particularly for web, and Photoshop for more advanced operations as I find GIMP doesn’t go as far there. I tried Picasa, but found the software introduced a few conflicts on my system (possibly with the firewall - not sure) and was buggy.
After the discussion here I might take a look at Lightroom.
June 4th, 2007 at 7:45 am
I currently use Photoshop, CS2, CS, and 7. I also use Picasa,
and Photoshop Elements once in awhile.
I plan to start using CS3 this Fall.
I’M a PRO photographer, and a part time teacher at the local college.
June 7th, 2007 at 2:10 am
I use Picasa, Capture NX and Photoshop 7, in that order.
I like that Picasa will do non destructive edits and will give me an instant result of changes which is quite extensive for a free program. You can go back and cancil the edits and try other ones. Some of the edit are cumulative.
I’ll use Capture NX if I shoot RAW and want to change white balance masked levels etc..
I’ll use Photshop if I need some creative changes like cloning.
Joe
June 15th, 2007 at 12:47 am
i am using adobe photoshop cs3
June 15th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Lightroom for every picture almost, Photoshop for occasional major surgery.
June 18th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I have a question about Picasa. I tried it a bit and found that when I manipulate images in it the size of the image drops about 5 times. For example, an image of 5MB got to 1MB. Can someone comment on why this is happening?
July 13th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
I am not using Lightroom yet,but planning on getting it. For now it’s photoshop CS2. I am a wedding photographer,here in Toronto and Photoshop and Bridge lacking in terms of organizational benefits. Can’t wait to switch!
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I am quite surprised. I do use GIMP all through out: for Web, Photography, and Print. Yes its true, GIMP is not Photoshop, but it’s surely has it’s own way of making things possible. Check out the bleeding edge of GIMP 2.4, it’s promising and would be more capable than ever. Thanks for the post really.
July 5th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Lightroom has the most number of users??? I can’t believe this information. I thought the #1 production software is Adobe Photoshop…whatever. Still, Lightroom is an Adobe product.
I guess PhotoShop is better than Lightroom. Do you agree with me?
April 28th, 2009 at 1:12 am
Lightroom 2 for its superb Library’as Organizer function, and Elements 7 for its great Editing modes–all three of them.
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