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The Digital Darkroom The In-Computer editing forum.

Free processing software?

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  #1  
Old 31-05-16, 12:36
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Default Free processing software?

Morning, a mate of mine has bought my 2nd hand Canon 600D, I am looking for recommendations of free software for him to process his images (cannot currently afford to but likes of PS or Lightroom)

Anyone used the likes of Pixlr Editor or Gimp 2.8 which are both free and do you know if these work with Google Nik collection which as we know is now free.

Any advice or other suggestions gratefully received
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Old 31-05-16, 16:10
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FastStone Image Viewer is very good: it has levels, curves, clone & heal, cropping, resizing, lighting adjustments, colour adjustments and a few more. It's also a very good file browser for photos. It's for Windows only, and I really miss it on my Mac - there's nothing to touch it really.
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Old 31-05-16, 16:48
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Paint.net is a very good choice, but you do need to install a raw plugin.

http://www.getpaint.net/index.html
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Old 01-06-16, 07:56
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Thanks guys, I think my pal has windows, Faststone looks like an excellent free program & I'm guessing Google Nik will work with this using 'edit with external program'.

Cheers
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Old 06-06-16, 02:20
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The retired, older photoshop CS2 was offered for free or something similar (If you have been ever a user of Adobe). Though this is a 13-14 years old software, it misses nothing form the muscle side and all that is not there is skin and nice facial touch ups. Have a google searh and let your friend to figure out if he can use that version for free, if eligible, and I am confident that it is fully Google Nik Colection compatible.
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Old 06-06-16, 15:55
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Just to answer your original query, it seems from the comments of users on dPreview that the Nik collection does work with GIMP 2.1.14. Also the stand alone versions of the various elements of Nik can be used with Picasa which makes sense as that is also a Google product.
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Old 06-06-16, 19:06
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Graham. Nik Collection will work as a stand-alone product, but may be a little difficult for some. Also you have to be very careful and make sure you use a copy. Do not use the original,otherwise it will be lost when you click on save.

To do this you need to go into File Explorer, find the Google folder containing the Nik software. Then drag the file you want to use on top of the executable file entry line. This will open the Nik program with your image ready to edit. However be careful, make sure you are using a copy of your image, otherwise you will lose the original.
I can confirm HDR does not work in stand-alone Win 10.

Harry

If anyone wants a more detailed explanation of how to use Nik as stand-alone, just let me know.

Last edited by wolfie; 06-06-16 at 19:10.
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Old 10-06-16, 08:14
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FastStone is my preferred general editing tool, with Niks, Microsoft ICE (Panoramic stitching) & CombineZP (focus stacking) to expand it for less routine operations. All are now free
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Old 10-06-16, 09:01
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RawTherepee for a great free RAW converter.
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