Photo editing software

Hi Everyone, Beginner here. Going through empty nest syndrome and have gotten back into photography again. I want to buy some photo editing software but don't know where to begin. I have tried to research the pros / cons of the various types. Everything that I read says Photoshop CS3 is really hard to learn (but as I understand it is the best) I thought about Elements 6 but I feel like I may would eventually want to learn CS3 and don't want to have to "re-learn" a different system. Can I learn Elements and then transfer that knowledge later to CS3 or would I be better off to just begin to try to learn CS3. Also I have looked at Paint Shop Pro X2. For now I want to be able to basic editing but definitely want to be able to do more advanced techniques as I progress. What do you folks recommend?

It seems that right now one of the more popular programs many pro's are using is Adobe Lightroom. This is for PC, but it's equivelent is Aperture if you're using a Mac. I think it's about $100 which is considerably less than CS3 which runs more than $600.

I use CS3 but I cheated and got it for $89 on a student discount. CS3 is way cool but it's very complex and is full of things you may never use, or at least if you're using it strictly for photography. Plus, learning it has been a real challenge for a simpleton like me.

Personally, I would take a look at Lightroom. You can get a beta version from Adobe's website for free to try it out. My understanding is that Lightroom is geared for photographers as CS3 is more for graphic designers. A lot of photographers use both, Lightroom for standard post processing such as WB and color corrections, and CS3 for graphics, special projects, etc.

I'm not sure how Paint Shop Pro compares, but Elements is (generally speaking) a watered-down version of PS, and you could probably easily transferr skills to CS3 if you went this route.

.... my two centavos...

Post edited by: FloppyDog, at: 2008/09/10 02:29

Oh, and by the way... welcome to the forum!

i use aperture 2 for macs.

Thanks so much guys. I have so much to learn and it sounds like i am at the right place. I love this site.

Elements is (generally speaking) a watered-down version of PS, and you could probably easily transferr skills to CS3 if you went this route.

What Steve said.

Elements is a nice little package and a lot of bang-for-the-buck. It's totally weak on pro workflow and doesn't have nearly the ability to cleanly punch up exposure on a dim image, but the basic tools and some of the fairly powerful ones are there. It's a great tool for learning concepts such as layering. For me, the move from Elements to PS CS3 was rather painless, at least for the basics.

Even my sister, who's been using Photoshop since its very first release, raised an eyebrow and uttered a little, "Wow...," when she saw what my copy of Elements could do.

I don't know if they still extend the offer any more, but owning a copy of Elements (which I picked up at Costco for $40) qualified me for an upgrade to full PS CS3 for less than half the price of the CS3 package. Saved nearly $300 that way. If the offer still stands, if I were considering buying CS3, I'd first buy a copy of Elements just to qualify for the discounted upgrade.

(A company I worked at in Seattle did that to get MS Office on the desktops more cheaply. They bought a legal copy of Works, a worthless little application suite, just to qualify for the Office UPGRADE rather than the full install. Saved a few hundred dollars per desktop. Check the upgrade qualifications.)

That's a good way to do it Bob!

Here's what I did to get PS CS3: I went down to the local community college and registered for classes. Then with my new college ID card, I jumped online and bought CS3 at the student price of $89. A few days layer, I went back to the school and dropped the classes for the full refund. Sure, it blew a couple hours of time for class registration etc. but it saved me a good $500.

The student version is fully functional, but the catch is that it expires after 24 months. So, every month I drop a twenty dollar bill in a jar. When the student copy expires, I'll have enough to purchase it outright.

Even better, Steve! $89! Can't beat that!

I wonder, can you get another student copy in two years? If not, maybe you can enroll that worthless cat of yours. If nothing else, it'll get him up off that couch a few hours a week.

I'll bet that would work. I have a year left on the license so perhaps we'll know for sure in another year.

Regarding the cat: I don't think I can get that idiot off the couch long enough to do anything other than eat, poo, and chase flies. So, college is probably out of the question.

I don't think I can get that idiot off the couch long enough to do anything other than eat, poo, and chase flies.

Sounds like he'd fit in perfectly at a community college.

i use elements 6 at the moment only because i can't load my CS3 onto my old 512mb computer, butt I like it. adobe only offers an uprade for previous generations right now like cs2 and elements 5 or some crap like that. Bob is right on the handleing of large work loads though. it will cycle through all of ur photos with the same fixes and then u either have to manually delete the copies or go through them one by one.

OrcaBob wrote:

I don't think I can get that idiot off the couch long enough to do anything other than eat, poo, and chase flies.

Sounds like he'd fit in perfectly at a community college.

Ouch! I say because I attend a community college

Student discounts are outstanding! Unfortuantely I do not get to drop my classes.

Ouch! I say because I attend a community college

I knew that would happen. I attended one myself before going to a university. Loved the place. It's a great way to get the lower-division core requirements out of the way on the cheap, or to get a useful technical/professional degree. However, there is a certain element endemic to the community college, students who are mentally still in high school and aren't there for the academics. Eat. Poo. Chase flies.

ROFL! Sounds like the community college I went to!

i think they are all the same lol. i don't remember any of the classes just the girls walkin by still sticks fresh in my mind.... and some nasty 3 day old pizza. go figure

HI
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Hi
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It is great nd free.
It offers olmost all the features of the mother photoshop.
You use it onlin, upload your pics, edit and save ON YOUR OWN COUTER.
Have a look at http://photoshop.ikolp.com/

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