Advice on purchasing Lightroom and...

Canadagoose · Oct 3, 2013

I'm going to buy Lightroom but I need advice on two things. Though I would love to have Photoshop I can't afford it. Is there another more affordable program that would work? The problem I want to solve is removing rain drops showing up on my shots. Here in the Great Pacific Northwest I can't seem to avoid them.

The other item I would love to have is a view finder that one can look down through from the top rather than having your face planted to the back of the camera. A lot of shots that I want to take are at ground level.

Thanks in advance.

GDHLEWIS · Oct 3, 2013

Photoshop Elements is cheap as chips, there is also Corel Paintshop Pro series which is very good for the price and I do believe there is a few free programs as well.
You can get various view finders throw the following in to Amazon: dslr angle viewfinder

cbarnard7 · Oct 3, 2013

I use GIMP and it's pretty good...and free! There's a healing/cloning tool there that can help with the rain drop spots.

lambertpix · Oct 3, 2013

Photoshop Elements is likely good enough for you. I've seen offers that bundle LR and PS-E in the past, but I haven't seen for a while.

As far as the rain drops go, your best bet is always to avoid them in the first place. I understand that's more difficult than it sounds, though. Are you using a hood of some sort on your lens, at least?

Re: the viewfinder, I'm not sure what sort of camera you've got (this would be helpful information for equipment recommendations, btw), but have you considered something like this? Live View Wired Remote

KmH · Oct 3, 2013

DR-6 Rectangular Right Angle Viewfinder from Nikon

GIMP.org or Photoscape.org are both free open source applications that can do most of what consumer grade Photoshop Elements can do.

Lightroom has 7 modules, and is designed for photographers that make a lot of images that are intended to be monetized.
Lightroom's Develop module is Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), a parametric Raw converter. Parametric means edits do not alter any of the original pixels and instead the edits are XML line commands that change how ACR's algorithms render the image.
Elements has a consumer grade version of the same ACR LR's Develop module uses.

The professional grade of Photoshop, now called Photoshop CC, is no longer offered (sold) for $699 with a perpetual use license, and can only be rented on a monthly basis.

CC stands for Creative Suite, and single CC applications can be rented by yearly subscription for $19.99 a month. The entire CC collection of applications can be rented for $49.99 a month. A benefit of the new pricing and subscription is that Photoshop CC also now includes all the video, 3D, and sciientific features that were only available in the $999 Photoshop CS 3, 4, 5, 6 Extended.
Download Photoshop CC by joining Creative Cloud today | Adobe Photoshop CC

CaptainNapalm · Oct 3, 2013

I would recommend Photoshop Elements, you can get it for $80 and it will handle all the tasks you need. I tried Gimp but wasn't fond of the user interface so I dropped it. Adobe Lightroom is also great but costs more than Elements however at the extra cost it gives you an excellent photo organizer. Lightroom though, might pose to be a bit more of a learning curve for you when compared to Elements. Good news is you can download a free, fully functioning, 30 day trial of both and see which one you prefer.

Canadagoose · Oct 4, 2013

I want to thank everyone for their responses. It has helped me a lot.

Dao · Oct 4, 2013

I am a Lightroom user. My only regret after I bought and use LR for a little while was ....... "Not using it sooner".
It can do most of the stuff I need. 98% of time I did not even need to launch PS (from within LR).

KmH · Oct 4, 2013

I use both Photoshop and Lightroom, because LR can't do a lot of the editing things I need and want to do.

Since Photoshop had Camera Raw well before Lightroom appeared on the market (the current Ps Camera Raw is essentially the same as LR 5's Develop module) I still do my initial edits in Camera Raw.

Edsport · Oct 5, 2013

Photoshop CS2 is free...

KmH · Oct 5, 2013

You keep posting that, but it seems it isn't true.
No, You Can't Download Adobe CS2 Applications For Free - Forbes
Photoshop CS2: is Adobe offering a free download? (UPDATE) | Digital Camera World

Edsport · Oct 6, 2013

Adobe offering Creative Suite 2 for free, but they didn't mean to - TechSpot

Snyder462 · Oct 6, 2013

i do alot of digital art and hang about fx forums a bit ive seen some gimp users give ps users a real run for their money it makes a great little brother to ps

KmH · Oct 6, 2013

Edsport said:
Adobe offering Creative Suite 2 for free, but they didn't mean to - TechSpot

Yep! That link confirms CS 2 is not free.

Adobe later clarified that in order to legally use CS2 users still require a purchased license, and that the move was just meant to assist its existing customers.

And TPF prohibits the advocacy of pirating software - Photography Forum & Digital Photography Forum FAQ

* We do not condone the sharing of illegally acquired software, nor do we tolerate discussions regarding the distribution of same. Such posts will be removed or edited.

snerd · Oct 6, 2013

I started using Lightroom a few months ago and love it! I've probably not tried or know how to use 99% of it's features, but who cares?! I also have Elements 10, but have never use it in conjunction with Lightroom. I'm just not at that advanced stage in my photography. Good luck and have fun!!