Good editing program

hyg71886 · Jun 23, 2008

High everyone, I have my Nikon d40 w/ stock lens now and took about 600 shots last weekend (naturally i thought most of them sucked and through out over 400 lol). I have the new photo shop but it is EXTREMELY complicated to use. Is there another good program you all would recommend? Also I am considering whether to purchase a 55-200mm or 75-300mm nikkon lens because every time I tried to get a good shot of a bird the freaking thing was to far on the stock lenses (and man was I pissed).

Big Mike · Jun 23, 2008

Photoshop Elements can do most of what a photographer would want and it's more 'user friendly'.

Of course, you could always learn more about Photoshop...take a class, but some books etc.

hyg71886 · Jun 23, 2008

I'll get photo shop elements and try it, cs3 is just to complicated

Alpha · Jun 23, 2008

Photoshop will make you work for it, but learning how to use it well will pay back the time and energy investment many times over.

scot711 · Jun 23, 2008

Lightroom!

Fantastic application, very easy to work with. You can do a lot in it, then switch to PS for the more detailed stuff.

But with Lightroom I get through editing WAY faster than I ever did with Bridge. And it's non destructive editing.

Good luck.

hyg71886 · Jun 23, 2008

I'm gonna try lightroom and elements. I'm also waiting on my military money so I can get the 75-300mm lens for bird arrial shots, etc

prodigy2k7 · Jun 23, 2008

hyg71886 said:
I'm gonna try lightroom and elements. I'm also waiting on my military money so I can get the 75-300mm lens for bird arrial shots, etc

Hey, whats ur budget for that lens anyway? Which specific lens are u talking about?

EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III

If you are talking about that lens, i have it and am generally displeased with its quality.

I suggest looking into a lens in the same zoom range, but better quality.
EF 70-200mm series ($550-$1600; 4 different lenses; "L" Quality)
EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM ($550)

hyg71886 · Jun 23, 2008

I meant the Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6D ED AF lol. I don't want to spend over 500

Chewbecca · Jun 23, 2008

hm...I've got the 55-200mm AF-S VR lens on the way, and I'm not sure how far away you are wanting to take pictures from.
This might be a decision you really want to think about since there is such a price difference in the 55-200 and 70-300mm lens. I would normally say that there is no doubt what you should get, but I've used the 70-300mm and was set on buying it until...a few days ago. I was going to use it for my son's baseball games. But I realized that A.) I don't have to take over 400 pictures everytime he plays a game and B.) I don't need to zoom in at 300mm because I was cutting off body parts and stuff like that. And I sit pretty far away at his games.

Having said that, I have NO idea how far away these birds are that you want to take pictures of. I'm not a bird shooter.:mrgreen:

So, I opted for the 55-200mm and am also getting the Sigma 10-20mm lens (OH GOD, I CANNOT WAIT! Distorted people pictures waiting to be taken-HERE I COME EEEEEEEKKKK, cannot wait!).

So...if you decide that you can get away with using the 55-200mm nikon lens, you can possibly use the extra money you saved from not buying the 70-300mm lens, and maybe put it towards another lens for a completely different purpose.:mrgreen:

Chewbecca · Jun 23, 2008

crap, I forgot to mention.

I use GIMP and Bibble Pro for my post work.:mrgreen:

AgentDrex · Jun 23, 2008

Photoshop CS3 is hard??? How so? Its like one of the most user-friendly applications I've seen and used. I am a puter geek though.

AgentDrex · Jun 23, 2008

GNU Image Manipulation Program is awesome as well. Just as easy to script in there as it is in PS CS3.

hyg71886 · Jun 23, 2008

AgentDrex said:
Photoshop CS3 is hard??? How so? Its like one of the most user-friendly applications I've seen and used. I am a puter geek though.

Ya as am I but I guess i havent really tried delving into it yet i am now. It also doesnt help that my main rig is down because of another raptor malfunction :grumpy:

this is the 3rd 1 jesus

ponyboy4130 · Jun 23, 2008

I use lightroom too, sorting and quick changes is soooo easy, and the library features are great. Im not quite a computer geek, (well not talented geek that is)