Photo Software

ichiro · Mar 4, 2007

Hi,

Just interested in the type of software available. Now I know of Adobe Photoshop being the best out there, but its 500 dollars. Could anyone give a short run down of these products, and maybe a recommendation. I am also starting out with a 35 mm SLR, so Im going to put my developed photos on a CD thn edit. Im on Mac by the way.

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Phtoshop Elements
Adobe Photo Lightroom
Apple Aperture
Iphoto ( I have this, though it seems basic)

Any recommendations for a beginner would be great!

Peacemaker636 · Mar 4, 2007

I've heard that Elements is plenty for editing to fix the levels, curves, etc.

Also try looking at the GIMP. It's amazing for a freeware.

denovo · Mar 4, 2007

Photoshop elements is all you need for most edits. I bought Microsoft digital image suite(or something like that!). Identical functions to the photoshop, just made by microsoft, and the staff at teh store said it was simpler to learn than photoshop, which for me was VERY important!

brighteyesphotos · Mar 4, 2007

iPhoto sucks!

Sorry. I have a regular customer in my store who uses iPhoto and she has had nothing but problems with it. She likes it for certain things such as mass editing (across the board red eye and basic color adjustments) and cataloging. But even then, the red eye feature in it doesn't always work. I hear a complaint about her iPhoto nearly every time she comes in.

kevin_c · Mar 4, 2007

Photoshop CS2 (soon to be v3) is just about the 'industry standard' but as you rightly state it's quite expensive, but once you have it you won't go back

For most people Photoshop Elements is more than adequate. I believe the new version 5 actually has 'curves' (?) so this make it even better value but I don't believe you can run 'actions' on it. (preset macro's).

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is new and I have just started using it, and i must say i am impressed with the majority of it, but I still think Capture One is a better (less noisey) RAW converter, but it's database structure and non-destructive editing of both RAW and jpeg/tif's is nothing short of amazing IMO.

I can't comment on Aperture because I've never used it but I believe it is similar to Lightroom (?) and seems to get gets good reviews.

I have also never used Iphoto, but I can't imagine it will compete with Photoshop/Elements.

Don't know if you have tried (or can run on your Mac) Corel's 'Paint Shop pro? - This is a fairly competent package but i believe it's RAW support is not that great...

Personally i use Phase Ones's 'Capture One' for RAW conversion and Adobe Photoshop CS2 for all other PP work, although as i stated earlier i am starting to use Lightroom, but I'm not sure about it's RAW capabilities just yet. If nothing else I'm using Lightroom as a library for cataloguing all my images.

stumpfoot · Mar 4, 2007

So for a hobbyist and or beginner Elements will do fine as opposed to a full blown version of Photoshop?

xfloggingkylex · Mar 4, 2007

if all you want to do is levels, curves, the normal stuff (saturation, contrast, all that jazz) and things like adding blur, and layer masks...

please do not pay for a program.

www.gimp.org

Torus34 · Mar 4, 2007

The Gimp is at the top of the short list for cost.

It's a free download.

agnew · Mar 4, 2007

If you're running Nero 7 Ultra burning (cd/dvd) software then in it's PhotoSnap area, it has quite a few simple photo editing tools eg. exposue, Lens Distort, Color Balance etc, etc, most with simple slider controls

stumpfoot · Mar 4, 2007

I went to the GIMP website and it was somewhat confusing, I would have to say the site itself and its instructions are not freindly to those of us who are not exactly techno savey. It seems you had to make two differnt downloads for it to work and some other things I didnt quite understand.

Torus34 · Mar 5, 2007

stumpfoot;

There's no such thing as a free lunch. What you don't want to pay for with money, you pay for with time.

kevin_c · Mar 5, 2007

stumpfoot said:
So for a hobbyist and or beginner Elements will do fine as opposed to a full blown version of Photoshop?

Yes!

JD in Socal · Mar 5, 2007

I'll put in another vote for Photoshop Elements. The current version (5) is very capable. It will likely be a long time, if ever, until you feel the need to upgrade to CS2. Also, the time you put into learning it will not be wasted if you do go to the pro version in the future. If you have questions, you can get help and answers from any Elements or CS2 user.

JD

stumpfoot · Mar 5, 2007

Torus34 said:
stumpfoot;

There's no such thing as a free lunch. What you don't want to pay for with money, you pay for with time.

I've been around long enough to know there's no free lunch. If you read my post I was concerned about: not time or money, but the fact I wasnt sure how to download and install this program. The site doesn not seem to be friendly to those of us who are not super techno literate.

Peacemaker636 · Mar 5, 2007

First download the runtime environment (NOT the actual program, the GIMP just uses this to enable itself to run). Install that. Then download the GIMP and install.

Now sit back, bring up Google, and search for some tutorials to get started. I'd say to begin, start with layers, levels, and curves.