Throwing this out there to the techie gurus.

I'd like to buy a top-notch photo and video editing software for Mr Wishes as a gift. I'm afraid freebie programs and Windows Movie Maker are not cutting it for the things he likes to do. He runs a laptop on Windows 10, if that makes a difference.

We have a variety of cameras, including a drone and a gopro, as well as point and shoot style and an underwater camera. Mr Wishes likes to take pictures and movies with all of them when we're on holiday, and then later edit and combine to make albums or movies. The problem is that most of the cheap programs we're finding can't handle the higher-res images and videos. They crash or seem to stutter.

My only other thought is aside from editing software, do we need certain bells and whistles on the computer as well as on our "smart" TV to make all the images and videos look nice?

Sorry, I'm clueless when it comes to this stuff but I know there are a lot of photography buffs on EF and I hope you can point me in the right direction.

I love the adobe software like Lightroom, photoshop, After effects and Premiere. But it doesn't come cheap (tho it does come very cheap on piratebay..)

video and photo are 2 different things, don't expect to to both in the same software. (I am not saying that there is no software doing both).

PHOTO:
lightroom, rawtherapie, OM1, fastrawview, Faststone image viewer, gimp
photoshop,

While it's a great idea to gather information and ideas here, I think this is the type of thing (as you're gonna go for top-notch = probably not cheap) to let Mr. Wishes in on this before you actually buy it, in order to REALLY make him happy in the end.

That may be down to your computer's performance.

However, some that may appear to stutter a bit during editing are fine at creating a flawless finished video.

There's a thread on editors here

I don't mind paying a fair price, but that raises another question - what sort of budget should I have in mind? Can I get something very good for 200-250 Francs?

I thought that might be the case. Ideally I'd like something that allows easy cropping and editing of photos, as well as something that does the same for videos. Then combine still shots and movies into a bigger movie with music added - that actually looks good and not like a hack job. If one program could do all of that, I'd be really happy. Movie Maker isn't awful, but it's not really amazing either. It's also not handling gopro very well. Even gopro's quik program keeps crashing.

Yes, I suppose that's true. I thought it might be good to have some ideas first and then I could either buy it if I'm sure it's what he would like, or narrow the field down for him. We've got some expensive kit so it seems silly to use cheap software that constantly frustrates him.

Thanks for that, also why I asked about our computer and telly. Looks like your recommendation on that thread is only 40 Euros, which is more along my line of thinking even though I could spend more.

With that budget you have two options when it comes to Adobe software, Download a pirated older version somewhere, or forget about everything Adobe.

And tbh they are overkill for the average hobby user.

Like I was saying and because I don't see the point to download risky (law & virus) illegal softwares.

Fastrawviewer (not just for raw) is 22.90CHF
Rawtherapee is free
Fastone is great viewer for simple jobs.
Gimp is a free photosho like.

also irfanview

I've been using CyberLink PowerDirector for a few years and it is very good. I also have Cyberlink ColorDirector that does colour grading. However, a colleague of mine uses DaVinci Resolve. It is professional software, but free to consumers. The paid for version is largely about collaboration. You can also spend $$$ on hardware that makes everything easier + training.

I've just started using it, and it's a steep learning curve simply because it is so powerful, but I'm please with the results so far. For photos, GIMP is brilliant. Paid for software isn't always the best. Because the artistic community is so up itself, professionals tend to use only paid for software. Strange really, since many huge multinationals now use Linux on their servers to save software costs.

My PC is with an Intel i9 9990k, with a 32GB memory and a GEFORCE GTX 1660 Ti graphics card.

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True, I got fireworks for Fr. 400.00 and that was 2012.
When OP mentioned top-notch I figured that wouldn't be good enough so I didn't mention ist.

I'm not even sure one can edit videos with it? I never needed to do that.

I guess my top-notch isn't so top after all! I don't want to spend 400 on a software. We're not doing professional videos, just for ourselves/friends/family after holidays.

I'm also wondering about the hardware perhaps being more of an issue. NaT says I don't know all the specs on Mr Wishes computer but at most it's an i7 something-or-other and I think only 8 GB RAM, because he's harping that the next computer he wants 16 or 32. He's got a GEFORCE graphics card though.

I do agree that you should take a different view when it's up to photo and video.
For photos I still recommend the "only" freebie Faststone image viewer. Can do the hole job, incl. batch jobs and is relatively easy to use.


As for video editing, you also should assume a readiness for a steeper learning curve, as those "able" programs aren't "light" stuff. And IMO there are not so many mid-range and still easy-to-use products available. The Abobe sort of things often drive toward overkill, what makes them not easier to use.

Fsv faststone is not the only one free.
IrfanView and xnview are also free.

I think VLC has a beta video editor.

As for a suggestion instead of buying software, you could get him a tablet for photo-editing like a Wacom.

I'm not impressed by free IrfanView. I only use it on my laptop to down-size fotos for EF and such.

But maybe I've not explored it enough.

I haven't used it for more than 10 years
I love FSV for browsing and simple modifications like image reduction or conversion.

As for this I think it is hardly an issue of the used software. Video editing usually HAS some stuttering, but every most advanced laptop will always be a weak comparison to every mid-range desktop device, especially on the graphic side, which is a major limitation factor on laptops due to the size.

You can't really beat Adobe, PhotoShop and Premier.. However they work best on MAC and on powerful MACs .. It would be silly to pay nearly 500chf on license cost and install it on an old windows laptop.
Same applies to free alternatives, you need decent RAM, fast storage and damn good GPU.

If you have the hardware.. Try GIMP for photos, it can do everything that photoshop can do but may lack in the intuitive interface. DaVinci Resolve is only second to Adobe premier in professional studios and has a limited free version, maybe worth a look.

But hardware, especially GPU is first.. Depends how serious you are i guess..

DaVinci Resolve for video editing (its free but state of the art stuff, probably overkill for you, see below).


Affinity Photo https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/ (48CHF) for a great photo editing piece of software.


But both seem overkill for what you want to do. I haven't found the perfect middle ground video editing software that is easy and "just works" for cutting and merging things together. Lately I've been using Kdenlive (https://kdenlive.org/en/) , it worked rather OK but I haven't tested it a lot. On the photoside, IrfanView really is a great piece of software imo, it just needs some getting used to.

For video, another vote for Cyberlink Power director, it's about chf100.