Best PP program for beginner?

[slate mike]

Hi, all. I have a pretty good handle on lighting now, but have absolutely no clue abour post production. Camera is nikon D5000. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks and Season's Greetings!

 

[Overread35]

If you're on a very very tight budget you can edit for free (legally) using GIMP.

There up you can use photoshop elements for a decent amount of editing without breaking the bank.

Then there is lightroom - a little more in cost and whilst a fantastic organising software package it lacks some of the finer controls that elements or CS5 will have (so its a complimentary software program)

And finally you've the pick of the bunch that is photoshop CS5- however it costs a heck of a lot and will take time to learn how to use even a small portion of its features well.

 

[oldmacman]

Hi, all. I have a pretty good handle on lighting now, but have absolutely no clue abour post production. Camera is nikon D5000. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks and Season's Greetings!

Do you have a price in mind and a platform (mac or pc)? The only reason I ask is because I would suggest not getting Aperture if you are on a Mac. It starts out fine but the libraries get bloated and unmanageable. So far I really like LR3/PS combo (always used PS and have had LR3 for about 4 months). I have heard/seen others post images edited with gimp which is free, but I do not know what its limitations are. It does depend a little on what your needs are. PS can be a pixel editor if you need it to be, while LR is not.

 

[mrpink]

Hi, all. I have a pretty good handle on lighting now, but have absolutely no clue abour post production. Camera is nikon D5000. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks and Season's Greetings!

What level of post work are you looking to do?

I have found that Lightroom 3 with PSE 7 is a good setup. 90% of my editing and cataloging is done in LR3, while PSE 7 can handle the more extreme stuff.

Just a note. I do not do a lot of crazy editing that would require a program like CS5.

Tight budget? GIMP is free and can do a lot.


edit: Over and Mac can type faster than me.


p!nK

 

[Josh66]

I have heard/seen others post images edited with gimp which is free, but I do not know what its limitations are.

Mostly user friendliness. You can do a lot with GIMP, but some things are tricky to do.

There is a ton of information on it online though - so if you run into problems, the answer is out there.

It is pretty good though, especially considering that it's free.

 

[ann]

why not start with the program that came with the camera?

 

[Boomn4x4]

Gimp is AWEFUL for most of your post processing tasks, and for it to even open a RAW file you have to download and install a mediocre, at best, plugin for it. But it does have its place.

RawTherapee is the best open source (free) post processing application I have found. News. If you choose to download it, make sure you use the latest stable version and not the current "beta" version. The beta version was very unstable the last time I used it.

I use RawTherapee exclusivly for the post processing and AFTER I have the image processed for exposure, sharpness, color, white balance, etc I'll export it to Gimp to do editing, such as dodging, buring, and cloning.

 

[Josh66]

I've never tried RawTherapee ... installing it now.


edit
It does seem a lot faster than UFRaw, and easier to work with.

 

[Hannah2]

You can get three months of FREE editing:

first month - download Adobe's free Lightroom trial
second month - download Adobe's free Photoshop Elements trial
third month - download Adobe's free Photoshop CS trial

The trouble with this is that you'll probably want to buy one of these after you've tried them. If you are able to get a student/faculty discount anywhere, it becomes much more affordable.

If you're super-busy over the holidays, you might wait until January so you can get full use out of the 30 days.