should i get photoshop?

[vtf]

Why don't you take some photoshop courses at the nearest college so that you will know how to use it fully within a year. That way you can still get it cheap and can actually use it properly. Otherwise expect it to take quite awhile to get the understanding and by then you might just junk it because the learning curve is high.

 

[hawk232]

also good advice! put the money i save towards learning to use it!

 

[skieur]

I would get LR3 first.

No. LR3 is more a cataloguing program than a photo editor. Even Express Lab in Paint Shop Pro X3 at $49 has more editing features than LR3.

skieur

 

[PASM]

Try the latest release of FastStone Image Viewer. It's free.

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

Photoshop is not that difficult to learn the basics on. Most of the tools you already know how to use. ( levels, saturations, vibrance, B&W, exposure, contrast etc. ). The biggest things to grasp early on is how to paint masks and how to make selections. They both sort of go hand in hand. You can turn a mask into a selection and turn a selection into a mask. Once you get a grasp on how to paint using black and white on the mask, you will really progress much faster and atleast be able to make good use out of the software. It can also get confusing trying to wrap your head around how the different layers interact including the masks and all of that. Its really not that difficult though. A few books can help you greatly. I would recommend classes, but I would try to get the basics from books, magazines, and the internet so that you can learn the basics at your own speed first. Use the classes to learn all of the mind-numbing deeply involved stuff that is hard to grasp if you don't have crazy good reading comprehension abilities.

 

[o hey tyler]

Nah, just skip photo editing software all together. Use Picnik. :thumbup:

 

[itf]

i'm still a newbie at photography and I barely ever use photoshop. the only thing i use is to resize pics when i post them. i would rather spend that 200 dollars on something else.