Photoshop

[Tighearnach]

Photoshop, Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw - Are these all parts of one large program or are they all seperate and if so does that mean to really process photos to a professional level you need to do some processing in each program.

Sorry if this is stupid question but have only just started using GIMP and am thinking i might buy a processing/editing program

What about photoshop elements? any thoughts on this...

Thanks
T

 

[tirediron]

No, they're separate programs, however Adobe Camera Raw is normally a plug-in for Photoshop. Both Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Lightroom are RAW handlers; meant spefically to deal with the RAW files that your camera can produce. Lightroom is the heavy-duty version, giving you amazing control over your RAW images, Camera Raw allows you to do the basic corrections/adjustments.
Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard image-editing applicationm and will more than you're ever likely to need in your lifetime unless you're a hard-core pro. Unfortunatley, it'll chew at least $700 out of your wallet to buy. The GIMP is an excellent tool with much of the same functionality of Adobe Photoshop.
The two main commercial, consumer-grade applications are Photoshop Elements and PaintShopPro. Both of these are essentially 'light' versions of Adobe Photoshop and are priced more reasonably at between $80 - 120. Of the two, I belive that PaintShopPro has more verstaility and features for the money. Free trials of all (except I believe Adobe Photoshop itself) can be downloaded for trial purposes. Play with them, see which you like and go with it, IF you're not happy with the GIMP.