Fuxinggang, Taiwan. A photograph with absolutely no relevance to the post below.

It goes without saying that software plays a big part in photography today and there are a number of different packages you can use to assist you in creating final images that work the way you want them to. Adobe Photoshop is probably the most widely known amongst the general public but there are a lot of other choices you can use as well, whether as alternatives for what you can do in Photoshop, or to further enhance your images and create a particular look and feel. Let’s take a look at a few. Some of the choices below can fit into more than one category depending on your needs.

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General Image Editing

• Adobe Photoshop CS5 – industry standard photography and design software that does it all.
• Adobe Photoshop Elements – consumer version of Photoshop aimed at hobbyist users.
• Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro X3 – Windows only editing software for the budget conscious.
• iphoto – Mac only photo software.

RAW Converting

• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom – Photography-specific software than works as both a RAW converter and a cataloging database.
• Apple Aperture – Mac only Raw editing and management software similar in function to Lightroom
• Capture One – RAW workflow software from Phase One

There are also camera-specific titles such as Canon’s Digital Photo Pro and Nikon’s Capture NX. These only work with cameras from the relevant manufacturer.

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

• Extensis Portfolio – cataloging and asset management software
• Expression Media – This DAM software has just been sold by Microsoft to Phase One.

Another from Fuxinggang, Taiwan.

High Dynamic Range – HDR

• Photomatix Pro – If there’s an industry standard for this relatively new area of photography, it’s probably Photomatix Pro.
• Dynamic Photo HDR – A useful alternative to Photomatix that often gives a slightly different look which many prefer.

Noise Reduction

One of the curses of digital photography, particularly at high ISO is digital noise. The following titles all offer different alternatives for the photographer looking to deal with unwanted noise.

• Nik Dfine
• Neat Image
• Imagenonic Noiseware
• Noise Ninja

Plugins

• Imagenomic – portrait, noise and grain plugins

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• Nik – color effects, black and white conversions, noise, sharpening and more. A comprehensive range of different plugins.
• Topaz – image adjustment, sharpening, masking and more.
• On One – framing, masking, resizing, color correcting and more.

Pricing and Studio Management

• fotoQuote Pro 6 – Industry standard pricing guide for stock and assignment photography. Photoshelter users have this integrated in their accounts.
• Hindsight – An alternative that offers a number of different features.
• ShootQ – Cloud based software designed to automate your studio business.

Slideshow

• Sounslides Plus – easy to use slideshow software created for journalists on a deadline.
• Slideshow Pro – photo and video slideshow media player.

Video

• Final Cut Pro – industry standard video editing suite.
• Adobe Premiere Pro – Adobe’s video editing suite.
• Sony Vegas Pro
  
• Corel Video Studio Pro X3

What have I left out? Got any favorites that should be included? Drop me a note in the comments below.

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