Photo editing software for a beginner

[tostaky]

Hi !

I'm a newbie on this forum and the same can be said about photography in general. I'v buy a Nikon d90 last year and now i'm taking photography lessons. I want to start shooting raw pictrures (for now i do Raw + jpeg fine). I Also want to learn abouit editing my pictures. What is the best software to start with ? Elements ? Lightroom 3 ? anything else ?

Thanks !

 

[KmH]

Start with GIMP and/or Photoscape. Both are free. You'll also need a Raw converter like IrfanView and/or Rawtherapee.

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

www.photoscape.org

IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide

www.Rawtherapee.com

 

[tostaky]

Thanks for those suggestions. I know they are free but I don,t care about investing in a software. I would like to take the time to learn well a software without having to change. I don't want to be professional with this thing but I want to have the more intuitive/complete software.

 

[Big Mike]

I'd suggest Photoshop Elements. It's a lighter, easier version of Photoshop and it costs much less.

I really like Lightroom, but it's not so much an 'image editing' software, as a 'workflow' software.

 

[edinchez]

Agree with Big Mike. Photoshop Elements was much easier than Photoshop. You can try editing in that.

 

[clanthar]

I would normally agree and recommend Elements to someone starting out. However you noted a couple items in asking you question that raise flags for me. You said you want to shoot RAW and that you're taking lessons. Both those items suggest an above average serious interest.

Elements is Adobe's consumer market product. It's overriding design philosophy is "don't worry, be happy." Happy features sell Elements. I've watched Elements for years now as it's gone through numerous version iterations. With each new version they manage to remove functionality and add more happy features.

Your interest in RAW and lessons leads me to worry that you could soon become unhappy with happy features.

GIMP doesn't have the elegant interface that you find in Elements, but it is in fact much more capable as an image editor. GIMP's 8 bit file limitation however will eventually clash with your interest in RAW files.

If you're going to go the distance and see yourself sticking with this then Photoshop proper is where you're going to wind up. It's expensive. The way to beat that expense is to take a cheap 1 credit class at your local community college (you're already taking lessons?) and buy Photoshop at the deeply discounted student rate.

Joe

 

[noodles]

If you're going to go the distance with this... as I have.. then I would highly recommend LR3 + Photoshop.

I use LR3 as my work flow for all my RAW files. There are many video tuts on LR3. Anything I that I need more PP, I can directly edit it in Photoshop CS5 straight from L3, and when I'm done, the new edited version is in my LR library. With this two you can do all your editing, cropping, color correction and even do backups of all your images as well as exporting for clients/web and high res. But do some research, and see what fits you the best. I hear Aperture is good too, but have never used it. I have also not used Adobe Camera RAW.

 

[KmH]

Lightroom 3's main function is image database/catalog management, not image editing.

Unless you consistantly make A LOT of photos you don't need Lightroom 3, because most of the same workflow options are also included with CS5 in the form of Bridge and Camera Raw.

Lightroom's Develope module is ACR 6. CS5's Camera Raw is also ACR 6.

 

[Proteus617]

Thanks for those suggestions. I know they are free but I don,t care about investing in a software. I would like to take the time to learn well a software without having to change. I don't want to be professional with this thing but I want to have the more intuitive/complete software.

Well, learning the concepts are more important than learning the interface and Gimp is pretty powerful. For example, Gimp has layer masks and Lightroom does not. Check out Gimp. It will give you a very good idea of what you can do in post and help inform your decision when you shell out the big bucks for Adobe. Also, when it comes to these programs powerful and intuitive are mutually exclusive.

 

[trizzo]

I would suggest to try rawtherapee at the beginning. It will help you to see how to work with raw files from your D90 (color temp, histogram, distortion correction..., etc.). It is free and easy to use.

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