Which digital editing setup ?
Discussion
Hi all,
My wife is a very keen photographer and is now contributing photos to the amateur section of a travel magazine here in the Netherlands.
She has been given various advice on manipulating pictures to enhance the subject or remove unwanted elements from the picture. She has a birthday coming up soon and I would like to buy her a new computer (she is currently struggling with her old HP laptop) and some proper photo editing software. Mostly used for cropping, retouching, adjusting exposure settings and colours at the moment.
I think I've settled on an iMac - but the question is what software ?
She has used trial versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements v11 and Google Picasa v3 and much prefers Photoshop.
However there is also Lightroom ?
What would you more experienced folk recommend ?
Cheers
Steven
My wife is a very keen photographer and is now contributing photos to the amateur section of a travel magazine here in the Netherlands.
She has been given various advice on manipulating pictures to enhance the subject or remove unwanted elements from the picture. She has a birthday coming up soon and I would like to buy her a new computer (she is currently struggling with her old HP laptop) and some proper photo editing software. Mostly used for cropping, retouching, adjusting exposure settings and colours at the moment.
I think I've settled on an iMac - but the question is what software ?
She has used trial versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements v11 and Google Picasa v3 and much prefers Photoshop.
However there is also Lightroom ?
What would you more experienced folk recommend ?
Cheers
Steven
Having only ever worked with Photoshop I can only recommend Photoshop.
I've used it for about 12 years now and (since I normally have the latest version) I'm still learning, but I also feel there isn't anything I can't achieve.
When you learn how to use it properly, there are no limits.
I don't think the same can be said for any other pieces of image editing software, so if she's keen to learn then I would recommended it.
I've used it for about 12 years now and (since I normally have the latest version) I'm still learning, but I also feel there isn't anything I can't achieve.
When you learn how to use it properly, there are no limits.
I don't think the same can be said for any other pieces of image editing software, so if she's keen to learn then I would recommended it.
Thanks for the replies guys.
Simpo - she is only shooting JPEG at the moment with little experience of RAW.
Looking through the quite complex Adobe website it seems to point to something called Photoshop CC - a subscription based cloud product offering all of the tools within the Adobe suite.
Is this it or can we purchase a standalone version of Photoshop ?
Simpo - she is only shooting JPEG at the moment with little experience of RAW.
Looking through the quite complex Adobe website it seems to point to something called Photoshop CC - a subscription based cloud product offering all of the tools within the Adobe suite.
Is this it or can we purchase a standalone version of Photoshop ?
If her camera shoots RAW then get her to switch to RAW and learn to process the files.
Other that the amount of space required in the card, there is no disadvantage to RAW.
I have Photoshop CS6 Extended. That's the full and most recent version.
You will need a 64 bit operating system to run it, but if you are getting her a new computer anyway, that shouldn't be a problem.
Other that the amount of space required in the card, there is no disadvantage to RAW.
I have Photoshop CS6 Extended. That's the full and most recent version.
You will need a 64 bit operating system to run it, but if you are getting her a new computer anyway, that shouldn't be a problem.
Blukoo said:
If her camera shoots RAW then get her to switch to RAW and learn to process the files.
Other that the amount of space required in the card, there is no disadvantage to RAW.
I have Photoshop CS6 Extended. That's the full and most recent version.
You will need a 64 bit operating system to run it, but if you are getting her a new computer anyway, that shouldn't be a problem.
Cheers BlukooOther that the amount of space required in the card, there is no disadvantage to RAW.
I have Photoshop CS6 Extended. That's the full and most recent version.
You will need a 64 bit operating system to run it, but if you are getting her a new computer anyway, that shouldn't be a problem.
Photoshop 13 CS6 seems to be pretty expensive compared to Lightroom or Elements !
If she's using a laptop for portability, I'd go with a Macbook over an iMac. A Wacom tablet will also help her out and earn you extra points, the Bamboos can be picked up for next to nothing.
Software wise, I'd go Lightroom regardless of RAW/JPEG, not only is it great for initial cataloging and tweaks, but you can plug Color Efex Pro/Silver Efex Pro into it as well, which is a piece of software that filters the images, then throw out to Photoshop when the initial things are done. Even without Color Efex Pro, the sheer amount of lightroom templates out there makes Bridge or opening up in PS fairly basic.
Elements can do pretty much most of the finishing touches (and that's where the Bamboo will come in handy)
Software wise, I'd go Lightroom regardless of RAW/JPEG, not only is it great for initial cataloging and tweaks, but you can plug Color Efex Pro/Silver Efex Pro into it as well, which is a piece of software that filters the images, then throw out to Photoshop when the initial things are done. Even without Color Efex Pro, the sheer amount of lightroom templates out there makes Bridge or opening up in PS fairly basic.
Elements can do pretty much most of the finishing touches (and that's where the Bamboo will come in handy)
Edited by andy-xr on Wednesday 22 May 06:10
I have Photoshop and Lightroom.
Lightroom is great for managing pics and tweeking levels etc. It's not really a tool for editing pictures (although it has some basic features just for that).
I often find I tweek levels in Lightroom and then export into Photoshop to tweek further and do any editing I need.
There is no need to do this though as Camera Raw in Photoshop does everything Lightroom can do with Levels and white balance etc. It just doesn't manage libraries of photos very well. Bridge is not an alternative. Bridge is s
t.
I recommend Photoshop and a PC
Lightroom is great for managing pics and tweeking levels etc. It's not really a tool for editing pictures (although it has some basic features just for that).
I often find I tweek levels in Lightroom and then export into Photoshop to tweek further and do any editing I need.
There is no need to do this though as Camera Raw in Photoshop does everything Lightroom can do with Levels and white balance etc. It just doesn't manage libraries of photos very well. Bridge is not an alternative. Bridge is s
t.I recommend Photoshop and a PC
I'm not a post picture processor, prefering to get it as good as poss in camera.
However sometimes a tweak can help, I've used for 20years or so Corel draw in various versions I currently have X5 which includes Corel Photo paint which does everything the adobe products do.
If you have a canon camera the software package supplied can do most things you're gonna need, Unless you're a Pro' I'm surprised more people don't use it.
I've also used Lightroom which uses IMO a very awkward interface [compared to corel's]. I hate the library feature which is Crap, and ought to be binned.
I'm sure plenty out there ain't tried corel so will dis-agree, but for a new user the corel product is worthy of consideration, it's also much cheaper that PS.
Hope this helps
However sometimes a tweak can help, I've used for 20years or so Corel draw in various versions I currently have X5 which includes Corel Photo paint which does everything the adobe products do.
If you have a canon camera the software package supplied can do most things you're gonna need, Unless you're a Pro' I'm surprised more people don't use it.
I've also used Lightroom which uses IMO a very awkward interface [compared to corel's]. I hate the library feature which is Crap, and ought to be binned.
I'm sure plenty out there ain't tried corel so will dis-agree, but for a new user the corel product is worthy of consideration, it's also much cheaper that PS.
Hope this helps
If she prefers Photoshop, then get her Photoshop.
You don't have to go out and buy a brand spanking new version. Get a second hand copy. CS3 and up are all good (and can't you legally get CS2 for free from Adobe anyway?). I'm on CS5 at home and see no real need to upgrade. Before that, I were on CS3 and for what I use it for, the differences between CS3 and CS5 were very minimal. I only upgraded as it's what I used at work at the time and I preferred the tab bar at the top for managing multiple pics that CS3 lacks.
You don't have to go out and buy a brand spanking new version. Get a second hand copy. CS3 and up are all good (and can't you legally get CS2 for free from Adobe anyway?). I'm on CS5 at home and see no real need to upgrade. Before that, I were on CS3 and for what I use it for, the differences between CS3 and CS5 were very minimal. I only upgraded as it's what I used at work at the time and I preferred the tab bar at the top for managing multiple pics that CS3 lacks.
Edited by MysteryLemon on Wednesday 22 May 11:12
halfpenny43 said:
She has used trial versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements v11 and Google Picasa v3 and much prefers Photoshop.
Just to clarify this bit, do you mean that between those two she prefers Photoshop Elements, or that she prefers full fat Photoshop over those two?If it is the former my advice would be to go for Photoshop Elements, especially if she isn't too used to processing images. Personally I use Lightroom, but I shoot raw and like the image management, but iPhoto that comes pre installed on all new Macs is a pretty powerful tool for image management in its own right, actually if all she is doing is basic edits to jpeg images iPhoto may be powerful enough on its own.
Craikeybaby said:
Just to clarify this bit, do you mean that between those two she prefers Photoshop Elements, or that she prefers full fat Photoshop over those two?
If it is the former my advice would be to go for Photoshop Elements, especially if she isn't too used to processing images. Personally I use Lightroom, but I shoot raw and like the image management, but iPhoto that comes pre installed on all new Macs is a pretty powerful tool for image management in its own right, actually if all she is doing is basic edits to jpeg images iPhoto may be powerful enough on its own.
Cheers Craikey.If it is the former my advice would be to go for Photoshop Elements, especially if she isn't too used to processing images. Personally I use Lightroom, but I shoot raw and like the image management, but iPhoto that comes pre installed on all new Macs is a pretty powerful tool for image management in its own right, actually if all she is doing is basic edits to jpeg images iPhoto may be powerful enough on its own.
I think we'll get the iMac with iPhoto and then she can download Photoshop Elements of that's what she wants. I'm not sure she will get the benefit of the full Photoshop suite and unless she starts playing with RAW will not need the cataloging facilities of Lightroom
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