Nikon SLR Cameras

What Photo Suite do i need for Nikon camera?

Guest
Guest

I have just purchased a Nikon D5100 camera and along with the standard lens have also purchased a super wide angle lens (fish eye)
I'm not a professional photograper, just a guy who wants to take some decent pics and put them on my web site and Ipad2 for promotional purposes for my business. I draw architectural drawings and would like to be able to show before and after images of the jobs I get involved with.
I need a simple to use photo suite that can be used fairly easily so I can demonstrate the images.
What photo suite would you recommend.
Any help in this matter will be greatly appreciated.

Andrew
Andrew

1) It doesn't have to be specifically for Nikon.

2) If your fisheye is a screw-in adapter you will find the results disappointing.

I use Picasa (a free download from Google) but it has its critics. No doubt others will soon be around to tell you what they prefer.

fhotoace
fhotoace

You are investing in software for your business.

That means that you would usually be buying Adobe Lightroom ($299) to manage your photos and process all your RAW image files.

But I see that you also want to do a lot of retouching, so instead, you may want to buy Photoshop- CS5, Extended ($999).

The reason for buying Adobe products as a business investment, is because all the printing companies you will be dealing with need not only high resolution images (which your camera can easily produce, but image files which have been colour managed using the standard photo program of the industry.

NOTE:

As an architect, I'm surprised you wanted to use a "fisheye" lens. All my architect clients require that I use a wide angle lens like my 14-24 mm so I can prevent distortion of the walls and ceilings of their buildings. You may want to look further into how fisheye lenses are actually used.

When shooting interiors of buildings, I make sure that my camera is mounted on a tripod, positioned exactly half the height of the walls being shot and use a level to assure that my camera is parallel to the floor or perpendicular to the walls.

Shooting interiors is a very precise process and I know that I would lose clients if I were to use a fisheye to shoot any building or other architectural edifice

Sample of an interior shot with super wide angle lens (NOT a fisheye)

Trixie
Trixie

Return the fish eye lens. You want a tilt shift lens for architecture photography. I bought a cheap Arsat one to play with. Nikon makes some better ones but they'll cost a lot more. The tilt shift and a wide angle should give you some good things to work with. Pick up a book on architectural photography to learn how to use it.

Here's a good illustration of how a tilt shift improves architecture photography:
image

As for photo suites there are several. Most publications use Photo Mechanic because it's fast at processing a ton of photos. Lightroom is great too coupled with Photoshop for editing. I user Aperture because 1) I have a Mac and 2) It has more support for my camera than Lightroom. If you only need something simple, the iPhoto suite that comes free with Mac computers is a great organizer for small batches of photos and Photoshop Elements (about $100) should handle all your editing needs.

Richard N
Richard N

There are many Photo suites out there from free to some that costs hundreds of pounds, it just depends what you wish to do with said photos, if you just wish to crop them (and guessing you are using Microsoft on your computer) then MS paint should be on your computer already, and that can do many simple things with that, I have had a copy of Paint Shop Pro (now by Corel) for a few years now, this has many capabilities that I use that are easy to use, from changing the size and format of a picture (e.g. From 10Mb BMP down to a 500Kb JPG) so as to allow it to be posted on the various internet sites to brightening an underexposed or darkening an over exposed photo, there are also many more functions that I have yet to use, and there are plenty of easy to follow on-line tutorials available. There are plenty of reviews out there and most seem to have Corel near the top if not at the top for ease of use. I have 3 friends that are professional photographers and they all have MAC's and use Photo Shop, but as you said "I'm not a professional photographer" I think it would be well over the top. Check the on-line reviews out, then got to the company website of the ones you like the look of and see if the do a free trial and see how you get on with each of them
Hope this helps