Software

[Spathodus77]

Hi,

Please can someone help me, I'm fairly new to the SLR world. I've always fancied being able to manipulate my photos after downloading. I think I have three main requirements:

1) When an object has been photographed against a light back ground and has come up under exposed I would like to be able to adjust the exposure on that object to bring the detail back.
2) I'd like to be able to chop around pictures with bits from other photos (e.g. trialling out the look of different alloy wheels on a car).
3) Be able to make these changes to Jpegs with potential for raw processing in future

I'm a mac user software version 10.6.8 and don't want to spend too much on the software - say £60 max. What are my best options?

Thanks,

Ralph

[rottie102]

Damn, 64p too much

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adobe-Photoshop-Elements-1...


But seriously - this is your best bet.

[paul911]

Photoshop Elements 11 for less than £30 will do all that, or Gimp for free

Edit: looks like its not £30 anymore!

Edited by paul911 on Sunday 18th August 19:32

[tenohfive]

I managed to get Lightroom 5 for a shade over £60 on an offer - traditionally it's double the price of Elements. Elements generally get's reduced to £30ish and LR get's reduced to £60ish.

I've got Elements 10 and Lightroom 5. Lightroom 5 is MUCH easier to use and for 95% of processing it's exactly what I need - as well as feeling much more powerful for day to day processing. My workflow is much more straightforward and much quicker than using Elements.

Don't get me wrong - for heavy duty cloning and individual adjustments I'll still dip into Elements - but Lightroom is what I'd go for if I were you. If you don't need it right this second then give it a few weeks and an offer will come up - check HUKD from time to time.

[Simpo Two]

I'd go with PS Elements for (2) and (3), but (1) is a matter of exposure and best sorted out on the spot. You can brighten things in processing but you can't recover detail that wasn't captured, and boosting the shadows too much brings out noise (speckle). Instead, judge exposure as you go (histogram) and use exposure compensation or spot metering, if you have it, to get it right in camera.

[Spathodus77]

Thanks. I agree it is best to sort out exposure at the time, but sometimes it is difficult when the kids are posed and I have 5 seconds max before they start sticking tongues out and running off etc

Ralph

[SlidingSideways]

Spathodus77 said:

I'm a mac user software version 10.6.8 and don't want to spend too much on the software - say £60 max. What are my best options?

Try Aperture from the App Store. It's Apple's version of Lightroom and is <£60.

[mojitomax]

It's a tricky one. Aperture and Lightroom pretty much do the same thing. They are great for connecting your camera and dumping all the pics into. You can sort through them quickly and efficiently, categorise them, tag them, delete the chaff.

You can make changes to exposure, contrast and do quite a lot. But they generally apply changes to the entire image, not parts of it.

So swapping wheels and changing the exposure on a specific part of the image can't be done.

For that you'll require photoshop elements or gimp. I've used gimp in a mac and I hated it.

I import everything into aperture. It has the advantage of automatically downloading your photo stream too if you take pics with your iPhone and you can upload to photo stream and therefore easily share with iOS devices.

From within aperture I will sort my images and delete the duds. Then select the goodens and process them. If there is any cloning or more involved stuff ill open the image in photoshop elements and faff with it there.

Hope that helps

[K12beano]

mojitomax said:

You can make changes to exposure, contrast and do quite a lot. But they generally apply changes to the entire image, not parts of it.

Not so Lightroom, which is very well geared for selective and non-destructive manipulation of a wide range of factors including exposure.

Not just LR. I think Aperture can do this, but certainly other RAW converters are geared for this nowadays.

(And you need to go the RAW route if you want maximum flexibility for Exposure, shadow enhancement, highlight control and WB changes.)

For manipulation which involves more "graphic design" like cloning out in a lot of detail, painting in, layering of different images and swapping wheels and faces you do need to consider Gimp, Photoshop Elements etc.

[mojitomax]

That's interesting. I'll have to see if aperture can selectively apply exposure, contrast etc adjustments.

[K12beano]

This is where LR lets you fiddle:



You are looking at the panel that drops down from the "paintbrush" option.

IIRC it's been a feature since LR3 - and I have to say it's very intuitive. (Tutorials offered at competitive rates! )

[Spathodus77]

mojitomax said:

That's interesting. I'll have to see if aperture can selectively apply exposure, contrast etc adjustments.

I'd be interested in what you find out, PS elements sounds very flexible but a bit heavy duty.

Ralph

[mojitomax]

Spathodus77 said:

I'd be interested in what you find out, PS elements sounds very flexible but a bit heavy duty.

Ralph

Ill have a fiddle tomorrow.

Either way though if you want to replace sections of the image with new bits (replacing wheels etc) aperture will not be able to do that.

[Craikeybaby]

For the criteria in the original post Photoshop Elements would be best, on a Mac iPhoto can take care of a lot of the image library management stuff, then if you find you are running into the limitations of it you can upgrade to Aperture.

[LongQ]

Bear in mind that exposure recovery has much much greater potential from RAW files than from jpg.

So you could consider setting up to record both RAW and jpg. Then use the jpg if it's OK, the RAW if it's a challenge.

Meanwhile if you have a camera that has some of its own capabilities to adjust the dynamic range of a scene (lighten darks, educe the exposure of light areas) they may satisfy you need and would be worth playing with.

I you find that mosy (automated) exposures are too dark you could also consider setting a permanent exposure adjustment in the camera to compensate for its limitations. This is quite a normal approach that has been around for years, well before the days of digital system.

[CommanderJameson]

paul911 said:

Photoshop Elements 11 for less than £30 will do all that, or Gimp for free

Edit: looks like its not £30 anymore!

GIMP: great feature set, horrid application.

The only thing worse than the user interface is the documentation. It's arranged how a programmer would arrange it.

[Killwilly]

SlidingSideways said:

Try Aperture from the App Store. It's Apple's version of Lightroom and is <£60.

I believe Aperture 4 is imminent and remember, previous versions of Aperture can't be upgraded! It will have to be a new purchase if you get 3 now and then decide to get 4 when it arrives.

I contacted Apple at the weekend and asked when 4 would be available and was told that no release date had been announced.

I recently bought a new Macbook Pro Retina (last week) and had a £70 voucher to spend at the App store, so will wait for the new version of Aperture.

[mojitomax]

i had a fiddle and found out how to apply effects using a paintbrush. it's brill and has edge detection. Really neat.

Thanks for the tip

[SlidingSideways]

Killwilly said:

I believe Aperture 4 is imminent

Aperture 3 was "imminent" for about 2 years before it finally appeared. As with all things Apple, you can either spend your whole life waiting for the next release, or just buy it and get on with it.
And he can probably get A3 now, and A4 when it (finally) arrives for less than the cost of Lightroom