what software do i get?

[jrizo1]

i went to best buy to buy i program to edit and ordenase my pictures, but i got lost too much to chose from .what can you recomend me?
thanks for yor help guys.

 

[DavidSR]

What's your budget? GIMP is available free online or you can go with Photoshop..I have Photoshop CS3 extended and couldn't be happier! If you don't have the money for CS3 you can always buy an older version for a lot less money.

 

[usayit]

Personally, I'm really liking lightroom 2 but before you spend that much money you really should try Picassa. I continuously hear good things about it and my wife likes it as well. Its a free download. My only complaint is that they don't support Mac.

http://picasa.google.com/

 

[Josh66]

How much editing do you like to do?

I love Lightroom, I don't have a real need for anything more than that (Photoshop CS3, CS4), and honestly - I can't justify spending almost $1000 on a photo editing program.

If you're shooting RAW you'll need some type of RAW converter. I used the free one that came with my camera (Canon's Digital Photo Professional) for a while, but after using Lightroom I wouldn't go back to DPP.

If you just want RAW conversion and organization Lightroom or Photoshop Elements (Elements handles RAW, right?) should be all you need.

If you really need Photoshop, I guess that's what you'll have to get - not too many other choices with the same capabilities. CS3 is way more than I'll ever need though...

I guess it depends on what you want to do with the pictures.

 

[maulrat]

I started out with photoshop; an old version of course PS6. Since then, I've messed with other programs like paintshop pro, PS elements, and some MAC programs that was installed on their laptops last year. Since then, I've still not come across a program I liked more than the real deal: Photoshop. I currently use CS2 and it works great with handling my RAWs. You can get it pretty cheap on Craigslist or Ebay.

 

[usayit]

The problem with photoshop is that it isn't geared towards organizing and managing a photo collection.

 

[Resin42]

I'm not sure there's really one program to do it all, Lightroom's good for organising and tweaking shots to see if they work but you really need something more powerful for your actual bread and butter editing. If your budget allows then I'd recommend Lightroom and CS3 but you can do very well with RAWshooter and something like Gimp both of which are free.

 

[mrodgers]

There is some type of organizer from Adobe that is free to download and use. I can't remember the exact name of it, Adobe Album or something like that. I have it and tried it. It's on my computer at home and I'd have to wait until this evening when I'm on the computer, but I will look to post what it is.

It is something similar to Picassa (also free).

I personally don't like the way organizers work. I like to physically move the photos and organize them in a windows explorer type interface. I use thumbnail viewer type software for this and have Thumbsplus. There is also Irfanview which is another excellent completely free program. They run much like WinExplorer. Of course, if you shoot RAW, that is different as I don't know if these thumbnail viewers handle RAW (doubtful). I come from the experience of not having the capability of RAW in my camera.

I just wouldn't do any editing with the thumbnail viewers. I have tested resizing and resaving a copy of the same original photo in Thumbsplus, Irfanview, PaintShop Pro, and Photoshop. PaintShop Pro and Photoshop resized much better quality images than the thumbnail viewers. PaintShop Pro is an excellent cheaper alternative to Photoshop for photo development, editing, and manipulation. As good as PaintShop Pro is (excellent), Photoshop exceeds it by a very large margin in that the tools are much easier to understand and use.

I've never tried Gimp (free). I will some day just to try it out. I'd also like to try out Photoshop Elements, but haven't downloaded it yet.

 

[ann]

check out photoscape, it is free and will do most of the basic things

 

[DavidSR]

The problem with photoshop is that it isn't geared towards organizing and managing a photo collection.

I thought that's what Adobe Bridge was for?

 

[Josh66]

I used to have Photoshop Elements (new computer, lost the CD..., not sure if it would have worked on Vista anyway).
Elements has an organization thing built in - I forget what it's called, but it's very similar to the way Lightroom organizes your photos.

 

[dEARlEADER]

I use Light Room 2 for 90% and Paint Shop Pro X2 for the remaining 3%.... I love the combination...

 

[Josh66]

The other 7% just happens by magic?