New here.....Where to edit?

[AvasMom]

Hi!

Glad to have joined DPS. I think there are so many amazing pictures on here, Ive always been told I take good pictures and ive always thought my pictures were nice, until I come here and see I have ALOT to learn. My main question is what programs does everyone use to edit their photos? Everyones pictures look amazing from little or big tweaks and im so eager to learn where and how to do it. Thank everyone in advance for your help!!

[oldwolf]

In order of most expensive to least expensive

Photoshop: $600+

Photoshop Elements: ~$100

Paint Shop Pro: ~$80

GIMP: free


Photoshop Elements is a very basic version of Photoshop and can't do everything Photoshop can. Paint Shop Pro and GIMP can do just about anything Photoshop can do.

There are more programs out there but those are the 4 major ones I can think of off the top of my head.

[Japaslavian]

If you would like to get a bit of formal photography education, you could check to see if any community colleges in your area that have a photography program. That way, you will qualify as a student and can get a student license of the full version of Photoshop for far cheaper. Around $200.

A little more effort, but it could knock out two birds with one stone if you have the time to do so.

[DogHeadGod]

I use Photoshop Elements, as mentioned it doesn't do everything the full PS does, but you probably wouldn't use those features unless you were a pro. Elements lets you create websites and organise and tag your photos too, which photoshop itself doesn't.

I paid around £70 ($100) and got a free copy of Premier Elements which is their video editing software.

[Jim Bryant]

I use photomechanics....about $90.00 to edit my photos and then CS3 to fine tune them.

[tingeliM]

If you're a completely new to photo editing, I'd say something like Picasa would be easiest way to start. It's got basic stuff; focusing, adjusting light, shadows, converting to b&w, sepia etc. And it's completely freewear.

If you want to get more advanced, I definitely say, go with GIMP. It takes a while to learn stuff, but the interwebz is filled with great and easy tutorials. I use it all the time and I think there's no point in buying an expencive programme like PhotoShop and then upgrade it like annually and spend more money when you can get just about as good a programme for free (and legally). I've seen people here on DPS transfer from PS to GIMP so that should say something also.

[Doug Pardee]

Now that LightZone from LightCrafts is on sale, I finally took a look at it and I'm very impressed by how easy it is to add "pop" or "wow" or whatever you want to call it to a photo using LightZone. Be aware: it's a little slow on my dual-core 2.8GHz system—so it must be painfully slow on a laptop—and it's just an image processor and not a full-fledged photo editor (no pixel-level editing, no cutting pieces out and moving them around, no plugins with fancy filters and effects).

Check out the videos at their "learning center" and consider downloading the 30-day free trial. I bought mine after one day of fooling with it, and I haven't bought any post-processing software in years (still running Photoshop Elements 3!).

You'll probably eventually want a real photo editor, too. But if what you're mainly looking for is to make your pictures less "blah", LightZone may be the best there is right now (especially at the sale price). Caution: be sure that your monitor is calibrated before adjusting photos with LightZone or any other software.

By the way, LightZone is one of the few post-processing packages available for Linux as well as Windows and Mac, although a lot of Linux users would sell their souls before using commercial software. :-)

[douglas]

Agree with tingeliM, if you are just venturing into "editing' go to PICAS. It's free and you can do a lot with it. Play with that first. After that you can look at more programmes, many of which give you a free trial. For me I use Gimp, it does more than I need and again it's free.

[alex3410]

i use light-room and photoshop as my main 2 but also use the gimp regularly and tbh Gimp does most things you need and if i didnt have any software i would opt for Gimp as the extra cost for photoshop is not worth it imo

however light-room is worth every penny :P

[faeriegodess612]

I started out with Picasa, which is awesome, and I still use it right now. I just downloaded GIMP, and I've already learned a few things. Still trying to figure out some things tho, But it'll come in time. I'm happy to see that I don't really have to buy Photoshop in order to get the effects that I want. I can focus on saving for the D60 or D90 that I want.