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ANY ADVICE ON SOFTWARE TO USE……
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Hello there, i’m a total beginner to photography & would really love if someone could give me a bit of advice on what software to use…..there is so much out there and I feel so confused…..any advice please…thanks in advance. Helen
Hmmm tough to estimate how far you want to go with it. I guess if you expect to stick around at it the Photoshop is the way to go. It’s like a skillset that you’ll have forever more. It is expensive but there’s a bit of a trick to buying it ligit… look for an old licensed second hand copy and then buy an upgrade.
Watering that down there’s photoshop elements. These are probably your best choices because all the Photog magazines will do their demostrations with either of these.Hi pinky25,
Photoshop Elements is an excellent program which is not too
difficult to use and it isn’t too expensive.It is currently on version 7 and you can download a full version
for a trial period from Adobe website.There are plenty of video tutorials available on the web and I learned
quite a bit from the video tutorials disc available with each copy
of Digital Photo magazine.As Ray said the full version of Photoshop is expensive and probably a
little harder to learn.I would download the trial version of Elements 7 and give it a go.
You have nothing to lose.Best of luck.
John.
Hi Pinky25. I used to use Photoshop elements but got rid of it. Instead I now use Corel Paintshop pro. It is not expensive and is much easier to use than elements (well it is for me anyway). There are also free software programmes such as Picasa 3 which are basic but are good to try out. If you really want the best of the best though, you will have to pay. It really depends on how much you want to get into it.
I use Photoshop CS3 and Corel Paintshop Pro .
Each have their uses, but for the total beginner that just want to learn/do the basics i recommend Paint Shop pro or Elements
I have Photoshop Elements 7 and Lightroom and I find Lightroom the easiest to use by far. Very very user friendly (I find anyway). Loads of free presets to be found online.
Hope this helps,
Janine
I would go with John’s idea and try a couple of trial versions, after all it gives you 30 days to evaluate the software and see if it meets your needs.
I have Photoshop Elements and CS3 on my Mac. Because I have them both there I tend to use CS3 however I must admit that I probably don’t use any/many features that aren’t in Elements. Elements is in my opinion an excellent editing tool and given the price difference between it and CS3 (or now CS4) you will probably be able to achieve similar results.
Back in my Windows 98 days I used to use Paint Shop Pro, although I think it was owned by Jasc then rather than Coral. It was very good and excellent value for money, but the fact is I find it easier to get advice, info and tutorials for Photoshop. I am sure Coral do a trial version as well though so would be worth trying, you could get a few months of using software for free here ;)
If you are looking for a program to organise and edit your photos, without going as full tilt at the editing as Photoshop, then take a look at Adobe Lightroom. Version 2 is currently out, although I am using version 1. It really is excellent, again very good value for money considering what it allows you to do – and guess what, theres a trial version of it on the Adobe website :) If you are running a Mac then take a look at Apple Aperture, similar program but I believe slightly cheaper to purchase.
Finally, I would consider buying a good book at the same time as your software. I spent ages fiddling around with PS not really knowing what I was doing, just changing things here and there. Problem was I could never replicate what I was doing, because I didn’t really know what I was doing. And my workflow was terribly convoluted. There are loads of tutorials on the web if thats more your type of thing, but I find having a good book to read through is a good way to learn.
suspectmonkey wrote:
I would go with John’s idea and try a couple of trial versions, after all it gives you 30 days to evaluate the software and see if it meets your needs.
I think downloading the 30 day trial is really a good idea and it’s full versions.
I use Phootoshop Elements 4 myself and find it good although it is getting a
little dated now when compared to the facilities available in the newer
versions.I had tried Lightroom some time ago when it was a Beta version.
I followed my own advice this morning and downloaded Lightroom 2 as
a 30 day trial.
I have only messed about with it for an hour or so but I am already
impressed with the possibilities.
I haven’t found it as easy as Elements but then I have used elements since
version 2 and I am very familiar with it.
The help in Lightroom brings you back to the Adobe site hwre there is a good
selection of video tutorials to get you started.So I would really suggest that you download Elements 7 and Lightroom 2 for the
30 trials and you will see for yourself what they can do.I would also suggest that you download one them, try it for the 30 days and then
try the other on for the next 30 days.
You will be able to fully concentrate on just 1 program then rather than trying
2 at the same time.Paintshop Pro probably has a trial option too.
If it has I will definitely be giving that a go too.Good luck.
John.
Hi pinky25,
Just a little update to my post on Saturday.
As I mentioned I downloaded Lightroom 2 to try it out and
am quite impressed.The only thing I noticed on the downside (for me) is that my laptop
really struggled with the processing.
It struggled so much that the program is not worth using with my present setup.I have had no problems at all using Elements 4.
Cheers.
John.
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