Recommendation needed for post production program

[LSI_CameraGuy]

I assumed this has caused endless discussion but could not find on this site.

I'm a beginner w/ A6000 and only shooting jpeg but want to start capture Raw and start learning about post production.  What program would you recommend based on ease-of-use and performance/output?  My only experience is editing photos on PhotoShop.  I'm sure there are lots of options, so to help guide, I'd be willing to trade-off performance for ease-of use.  So, if there's a program that rates a 10/10 for performance but difficulty is also a 10 and another that is a 7/10 performance and 7 for difficulty, I'd rather have the latter.  Of course, I'd like the 10 performance, 1 difficulty option, but I'm assuming that may not exist.

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

If you have the full version of PhotoShop and feel comfortable using it, that's your top bet. It's still the most powerful tool for editing images. The only thing you have to do to shoot raw is to get used to using Camera Raw to feed images to PS.

[steve of stonehenge]

I have used Adobe Lightroom for years and still like it. However, I do not like the subscription plan. I have recently moved to Affinity Photo and really like it. This single program does what Lightroom and Photoshop combined. And it is a one time purchase price of US $ 50 versus a monthly charge of US $10 forever for Lightroom and Photoshop. And the iPad version is almost as robust and cost US $20. Excellent free video tutorials too.

[LSI_CameraGuy]

I mis-spoke.  I do not have experience with Photoshop.  I actually meant the editing capabilities on a Mac iPhotos (that's how much of an amateur I am).

 

Not sure if this changes recommendations.  I believe Sony has a free program.  Has anyone used that and can share thoughts?

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

That's CaptureOne for Sony. It's very good but most people experience a learning curve with it. Luckily, the publisher PhaseOne has good instruction videos and webinars. If you're starting out, most software will have a learning curve, so you might as well start with the free CaptureOne, right?

[jamescooper]

The opinion on using post production program varies from person to person. I am using Adobe Photoshop from the very beginning of learning post production and to me its more flexible to use, you can start with Photoshop as well. Besides that you can consider Adobe Lightroom as well for your post production works.

[ph_LDA]

LIGHTROOM - great performances and easy to use. Very good at organizing your files too

 

Photoshop is the best, but the hardest.

 

 

If you don't want to spend money, I assume the bundle software that came with your camera are just as good as any other free software.