Which editing program to purchase?

[nursemandalyn]

I'm learning to shoot in manual. I want to shoot in RAW but need an editing program to do so. I can't afford full photoshop, thats just too darn expensive, lol. Which would be better for a beginner to start with? Photoshop Elements or Lightroom?


And I just remembered that in a little over a month I will be a student again, so I can buy Photoshop at the student rate. This is worth doing? It looks like it would be $190. Can you buy older versions cheaper, or does this only work towards the newest version?


Since I'm a beginner, I'm thinking using the discount to get Photoshop Elements and Lightroom may be better than going all out for the full Photoshop? Since it's not eligible for an upgrade when it's a student version? My best friends husband is a teacher, so if I did want to purchase the full one later once I know what I'm doing, he'd probably buy it for me.

[cyber3d]

I say start with Lightroom, learn it then move up to Photoshop CS5 Extended. But you can download a trial version of Lightroom, Elements and even CS5 extended from the adobe site.

I've tried Lightroom and Aperture but find no real benefit when I have CS5 and Bridge. They do it all for me.

I can say that if you are never going to do intense editing (layers, selections, compositing, text, etc.) then Lightroom may be all you need.

You know, when you get your student ID you can register at Adobe and have access to their learning center.

Yeah $190 is the going rate for the educational discount. Be sure you get Photoshop CS5 Extended version.

[Doug Sundseth]

I have Photoshop (CS4 Extended) and Lightroom 3. I spend the vast majority of my time in Lightroom.

There are many things that Lightroom can't do but Photoshop can. I seldom want to spend the time to do those things. (Panoramas, compositing, and heavy cloning need PS, but I do that on only a tiny percentage of my photos.) Frankly, I could get away with LR and PS Elements for nearly every task.

[Tstandiford]

I wouldn't recommend spending any money on photo editing software at all. There is a fantastic and free photo editing program called Gimp. With the UFRaw add on you can edit raw photos.

Gimpe and UFRaw combined will do more than pselements and almost the exact amount that photoshop has to offer for you, since you're new to all of this, it is not likely that you'll even notice a difference in the minuscule amount of value that is added to photoshop over gimp.

It is kind of like buying your first guitar, why spend thousands of dollars on a guitar when you don't know enough about them to understand why people spend the money on it?

I do gimp and UFRaw tutorials and would be happy to help you out more. Feel free to check out some of my tutorials on how to use gimp to see just what gimp can do for you.

I hope this helps, and if you have any questions about the program do not hesitate to ask me. I will Happily help you out.

[mrteacherdude]

I'm "cheap" when it comes to software (of any kind) and don't spend a whole lot of money on it unless it is something that I need to use for my livelihood. There's a lot of quality free stuff available, and "cheap" outdated versions that are perfectly useable from my perspective. Come to think of it, I've never spent much money on software. I'm a big fan of quality open source software.

I think Tstandiford has good advice about buying photo editing software if you are not accustomed to editing. I've tried the GIMP and found that it is a very capable program and does a good job. I've never tried UFRaw. I'm a Canon shooter and have used the DPP software supplied with my camera to process my RAW photos. That software does a good job as well.

That said, I do use commercial software; PSE 9 and Lightroom 3. If interested in why, keep reading. Otherwise, skip to the next post

Even though I've tried using GIMP, I'm a PSE user since version 3 came out as it was available on the computers at my work site. I'm currently using version 9 and I actually bought that one (other previous were on work computers or were gifts). This version (9) does everything I wish previous versions could do. It does everything I want and need in terms of "heavy editing." No - it doesn't do some of the real cool things you can do with the full-blown Photoshop versions do, but it does plenty for my needs at this time. I end up staying with Elements primarily because of my familiarity with it and because I perceive it to be friendlier to use than GIMP (most likely because of familiarity). If you haven't done much in the way of editing though, you won't notice any difference because you won't have that previous experience.

I just recently purchased Lightroom 3. I'm an educator so I got a good price on it (there's that cheap thing coming through). I've heard numerous people rave about how great it is so I decided to do the free trial version. Yea - it's really nice and once I started using it, I realized I had to buy it. As Doug Sundseth noted, I find myself using it for almost all my editing tasks now. I should note though that I do shoot in RAW and it's the RAW photos I am adjusting with Lightroom. Anything that needs more intense work (cloning, layer work, etc.), I work on in PSE. Once I started using Lightroom, I never went back to DPP. For me it was kind of like switching from skiing to snowboarding. Skiiing was fun, but once I figured out how to make a snowboard work without breaking my neck, I never looked back to skiiing.

[ErikUngerPhotography]

I was using PS for years and knew my way around it pretty well. Layers and layer masking make it incredible. However, I have since found myself moving around LR much better and have discovered ways to get the image I want while only working in LR. I still jump into PS from time to time, but only for very specific needs.

[nursemandalyn]

Thanks for the help. I have used Gimp before. I always found it hard to navigate though. Maybe if I tried some tutorials on it that would help. I will probably be a student for the next 5 years atleast, as I plan on finishing my bachelors and then will be getting my Masters. So I will have the option for that student discount for quite a few years.

I read some more of the boards last night, and saw a lot of people seem to use lightroom the most. I know nothing about layers, besides they look cool haha. I think I may just go ahead and pick up lightroom, and then if I want Elements later, I can pick that up. If I do feel I need the full Photoshop in a few years, than I can get that.

[JFSanders]

Lightroom will be your easiest route into a full featured image post processor. CS5 and the free types do the job but there is a steep learning curve to the heavy pixel editors. And if you look to the plug ins for LR3 you can do an amazing amount of changes with it. Although I use NX2 I still recommend LR3 for people.

Jim