Digital Photography: Photo Editing?I am an amateur photographer and am now looking into photo editing, and I just have questions, some of which hopefully you can help me with. Many people are telling me to get Adobe Elements because there is no major difference between that and Adobe Photoshop CS3. But i was also looking into Adobe Lightroom which also looked helpful but what I read seemed like with Lightroom, you need CS3. And then there's Apature. What's a good software? I want to get something good without paying an arm and a leg. I have no idea what to do. I've been watching videos, reading reviews, looking through tutorials and asking friends, yet I still have no clue. Can someone please aid an upcoming professional-yet-serious photographer with useful advice?
Adobe Elements - $ 100
Adobe Photoshop CS3- $ 650
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom- $ 300
Apature 2- $ 200
PS: I'm on a Mac
I have a Nikon D60 & Nikon D40x
Thank you :-)
Lorraine [Vampy's Girl]
Well I use Adobe Photoshop CS3 to edit my pics. I have no idea it costs so much since it was my boyfriend that installed it in my laptop. I don't think this opinion matters to you anyway cause I'm not a photographer just a kid with a camera.
Dr. Sam
If you want to explore the world of Adobe Photoshop without spending the big money for the full product, get Photoshop Elements. It is a tremendously powerful program and it only sells for $ 99.00. You can get it at http://www.adobe.com or any of the usual places you buy software. I am still using Photoshop Elements 5.0, but PE 6.0 is now out and Adobe claims that it has enhanced Brightness/Contrast tools, Clone tool and Black and White Conversion tool. The other enhancements seem to deal with merging photos (panoramic stitching) and organizing your photos.
You can use it practically right out of the box with the "Quick Fix" option and then you can advance into the full program, learning TONS about the Photoshop world as you go. Frankly, I think most casual users would never explore the full capabilities of Photoshop Elements. If you are ever ready for more, you will already know much of what you need to know about using "real" Photoshop.
Just go here http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/ and click "Free Trial" for a 30-day free trial.
Almost every single image on my Flickr site was processed with Photoshop Elements 5.0. Some have from zero to barely any post-processing at all and others have considerable amount of perspective alterations, saturation changes, etc., and these are specified under the picture most of the time.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/
Check out this question. Look at the image linked in the question. There is not a lot the photographer could have done at the scene to make it better. I mean, when the sun sets - there are shadows. Then look at the "after" version in my answer. This is not a "great" job, but it shows that Photoshop Elements is not just a toy.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080113212714AAC2e6R&r=w#QcYvXTPoBzJbHwGQRPpEMiEuf4oRXTQLxBFKf6yeHQiiq3.igf9r
Steve P
I certainly do not have all these programs, so some of what I tell you will also just be based on what I have read. I do, however, have a friend who has both CS3 and Lightroom. His experience with Lightroom is pretty much as I have read. It uses the "darkroom" aspects of Photoshop, while skipping the ability to do all the tricks and graphic stuff. In other words, Lightroom gives you all the tools you need to do terrific editing to photos such as exposure, levels, curves, b/w conversions, etc. He says he is using it more and more instead of CS3. So I suppose it depends on just how far you want to go with your photos. If you want to just enhance the photo to make it the best it can be, then Lightroom will be all you need. If you desire to get into some serious manipulation or graphic creations, then you probably need CS3. Personally, I would think having both is a waste of money, but this friend of mine is a software junkie!
I would forget Elements. Just reading your question tells me you are beyond it and / or would soon outgrow it.
I also use a Mac, but have just not seen enough advantage to Aperture to download it. Maybe I don't know what I am missing, but I have also read reviews, and am just not impressed with it over the Photoshop I have now.
Oh, by the way, I thought Lightroom would not run on a Mac? Or do they have a version for Mac now? Or... perhaps it only runs on the Intel Macs, which mine is not.
So, anyway, there is some more info to ponder! :-)
steve
Orignal From: Digital Photography: Photo Editing?
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