which software to use?

lilmomma · March 7, 2009

I'm really new at this and am trying some trials...I'm not experienced enough to justify spending a lot of money on photoshop cs3 or 4 (?), but I was thinking about Photoshop elements..does anyone use this and what are the biggest differences? I'm trying to learn all about this and I have also played with Paint Shop Pro. Is that comparable more to elements or cs3?

Any advice is appreciated, I am literally starting from scratch. I have been lurking for a few weeks and am very inspired, very eager to learn but also still so clueless!:D

Art Scott · March 7, 2009

Since you are just begining.........I presume you shoot in jpeg mode only......if it were me I would get a copy of Scott Kelby's book.......Lightroom for Digital Photographers and I would work thru it with Lightroom and learn to shoot in raw.........I have 3 versions of Photoshop and I nave Lightroom 2.......99.9% of all my work is performed in Lightroom.......I also use it as my library for keeping my photos where I know where they are and accessable......but any and all of Scott Kelby's books are useful and very helpful and they are written with ease of use in mind...................So my vote would be top start with Lightroom 2............To get the most out of your photos you really need to shoot in raw mode.......if you do not want to spend the money on LR2 then use the raw converter that came with your camera..........BTW Elements isa very fine piece of software.......I used it once in a class back in its infancy but I was already trying to learn photoshop 5 at the time...........

jeffreaux2 · March 7, 2009

Art made some great points.

I too do 99% of my work in Adobe Lightroom. Whats left could easily be done in Elements....most of the time.

Richard · March 7, 2009

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Art made some great points.

I too do 99% of my work in Adobe Lightroom. Whats left could easily be done in Elements....most of the time.

I would just start with Elements. Much of what LR does in terms of processing pics can be done with ACR (Adobe Camera Raw), which comes with Elements. If you expect to shoot and keep thousands of pics or do a lot of batch printing, then LR will be worth the extra bucks.

digidrone · March 7, 2009

I have used Lightroom for 18 months, I have only had still equipment for 12.
Listen to these two fellers, It is the way to go!
Then if you want a real fancy program but your budget only allows so much check out the "photoplus" program from "serif.com". It will do anything "photoshop" would do for me, and it is way under the cost of PS.
You will NEVER regret your investment in LightRoom!
Just my .02's worth!
Royce

aj986s · March 7, 2009

Another vote for LR. Makes the organization of lots of photos much simpler, including exporting to different sizes for sharing/emailing/uploading purposes. I, too, do the vast majority of my edits in LR; but can seamlessly jump into PS for the hard(fun!) stuff. Although Elements would suffice for lots of purposes.

Whatever software package you decide on, look into the Academic discounts available if you can meet the qualifications.

catspaw · March 7, 2009

for Lightroom as well! It's a great tool and more than powerful enough for most photo needs. The 30-day trial makes it easy to spend time in it and see if it's worth your $$.

lilmomma · March 7, 2009

Thanks for all the responses! Lightroom sounds like a popular choice! One thing i'm trying to figure out is layers, I can't seem to understand that to save my life. I am determined though. Does lightroom have that?

Richard · March 7, 2009

lilmomma wrote:

Thanks for all the responses! Lightroom sounds like a popular choice! One thing i'm trying to figure out is layers, I can't seem to understand that to save my life. I am determined though. Does lightroom have that?

No. Elements has a simplified version of layers (no masks), while Photoshop has the whole nine yards. Another program you might want to consider is GIMP. It has much of the same functionality as Photoshop and is free, open-source software. Some people don't like the user interface, though. Google it and see for yourself.

colourbox · March 7, 2009

lilmomma wrote:

One thing i'm trying to figure out is layers, I can't seem to understand that to save my life. I am determined though. Does lightroom have that?

What Lightroom has is a way to do some popular layer techniques, without needing layers. For example, if you want to paint different exposure or sharpening on some parts of a photo, in Photoshop you make some layers and masks. In Lightroom you brush in the differences with the Adjustment Brush, which creates masks without layers. Same result, no layers.

If you are talking about using layers for combining multiple images into one, well that's a layer function Lightroom can't replicate.

So Lightroom's lack of layers is not necessarily a disadvantage, depending on your purpose for using layers.

paddler4 · March 7, 2009

I've recently started using lightroom, and I agree with the others--it's a very powerful and useful program. A few things that might help:
--if you are a student or teacher, you can get an academic price from authorized Adobe dealers. Saves a bundle.
--Lightroom has one flaw, in my opinion: the curve tool for adjusting contrast is a toy--very hard to control. I end up exporting images from LR to adjust contrast, even if I don't need the other stuff (like layers) that LR lacks.
--If you don't want to spend a lot of money for your pixel editing software, I suggest you try Corel Paint Shop Pro. I think you can download a free demo. It can do most of what Photoshop (not elements) can do, for a fraction of the cost. It has layers, masks, etc. I think it retails for around $70. That's what I use.

lilmomma wrote:

I'm really new at this and am trying some trials...I'm not experienced enough to justify spending a lot of money on photoshop cs3 or 4 (?), but I was thinking about Photoshop elements..does anyone use this and what are the biggest differences? I'm trying to learn all about this and I have also played with Paint Shop Pro. Is that comparable more to elements or cs3?

Any advice is appreciated, I am literally starting from scratch. I have been lurking for a few weeks and am very inspired, very eager to learn but also still so clueless!:D

paddler4 · March 15, 2009

You say you have played with Paint Shop Pro and asked whether that is more like Elements or the full Photoshop. It's closer to the real photoshop and more powerful than Elements. If you paint shop already, you don't need to spend more money to start. Paint shop pro is a very capable editor. others suggest you shoot in raw, which I agree with, but you don't have to lay out the $$ for lightroom to do that. I don't know what your camera is, but Digital Photo Professional, which is free with Canon cameras, is a fine if basic raw postprocessing package. You do the basics there, then export it and load into paint shop. thenewest version of paint shop can read some raw files, but it is limited in that respect.

I personally use both Lightroom and Paint Shop Pro, but you don't need to spring for LR to get a lot done. In fact, while Lightroom has a lot of nifty features, it is in some respects not as competent an editor as Paint Shop Pro--e.g., in my opinion, it offers much inferior control over contrast. Even when I use LR for editing, I often export the images to paint shop for contrast adjustment.

There are good Lynda.com tutorials for paint shop. I also found Ken McMahon's "Paint shop pro photo X2 for Photography" a useful guide to many of the features of the software.

egiesker · March 17, 2009

My vote is for "Gimp". The price is right, it's free!!!!! It has layers and masking. Give it a try, Ernie:D:D

which software to use?

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