Dial me in on Photoshop and photo manipulation software

[MT930]

I’ve had interest in photography since I was a kid. I had a black and white dark room from 16years though college. I’ve had point and shoot digitals since 1999 (No DSLR) I use them in my work for documentation and marketing. I shot film until 2008 or so.

I just sold all my old Nikon body’s and lens’s and bought a Nikon D7000 with a couple lenses. The technology has really improved in the last 5 years. I’m really enjoying taking good pictures again. I’m just starting out but I have a firm grasp on the camera side. I’ve been waiting for the release of this camera for several months, it’s unbelievable I’m hooked again.

What do I need to know, is what would be a good entry level photo manipulation software to start out with. I want to enhance pictures and do so creative stuff. I do not want to go back to school to learn software operation. I tried Photoshop around 02-03 it seemed too complicated for easy use. I also don’t want to spend much to try it out.

There are some great pictures on pelican so I know this is a good place to start
What do I need to know?

[nota]

all adobeCS5 stuff can be downloaded FREE in TRIAL form willnot copy tranfer ect
but you can play with it and learn

GIMP is free and will do most PS stuff

or there is the elements PS simple version for about 100

[stomachmonkey]

Buy "Adobe Classroom in a Book for Photoshop."

Available from places like Borders.

For software get a copy of Adobe Elements to start.

Photoshop will be way overkill for what you need but it is the de facto standard.

It will do the minimal that you need right now and has all the extra bells and whistles that you don't know you need until you discover all the stuff you can do and then you don't need to learn something different.

Did that make sense? I'm trashed right now.

[porsche4life]

What kind of computer do you have? Mac or PC?


I've played with iPhoto a bit and it does everything I do in photoshop, much easier too.....

[campbellcj]

It is very likely that for what you want to do, you don't need Photoshop!

Check out Lightroom (Adobe Photoshop Lightroom) or Aperture (Apple) if you are a Mac person. Both have free trials available. I switched to Lightroom earlier this year from a combination of other software for photo library management and editing, and I've been very happy with it.

I also use the suite of plug-ins / filters from Nik Software, which are superb as well. In particular they have a program called Silver Efex for B&W conversions and filters. It does a better job and has more creative tweaks than the standard B&W converters.

[trekkor]

I like Paint Shop Pro, from JASC.


KT

[gchappel]

Photoshop is still the major player, but unless you want to do very specific post processing most of us find lightroom to do 90% of the work.
The art of post processing is at least as challenging as taking the images in the first place, with dozens of players. If you are just starting out I like some of Scott Kelby's books and take a look at kelbytraining.com, he is adobe based. Other processors off the top of my head include capture one, dxo, silkypix, nx2, bibble, to hit the main players. They all work.
Gary

[DARISC]

oops...

[Loomis]

I don't know if you plan to shoot in RAW, but you will need to make sure you have a converter program if you do. Also be sure to have a rigorous and consistent file structure and backup routine. Digital processing generates a lot of files, so it's good to know which ones to toss and which ones to keep and back up.

Luminous-landscape.com has some of the best tech articles and reviews I have ever found.

Have fun.

[DARISC]

I bought Photoshop CS4 about a year ago to upgrade from Photoshop 7.0. Still using 7.0 (does more than I need it to and I hate fumbling through new bells and whistles that I don't need anyway). Buy a cheap older version and you'll probably be happy.

I'm self taught and bumbled about, mostly confused, for a year or two, then bought Photoshop for Dummies. Turns out it was written for me! It lays out the basics of pixel manipulation in a very easy to understand way and in a very short time, I became one hooked dummie!

A couple of my dumber immages:

[Brando]

I've been using FrodoShop for years... It is the standard by all means. The CS4 master suite set me back a pretty penny ($1200!!!) but is worth it. Got CS5 design standard and that didn't hurt as bad.

As stated, get the trial edition. Or, if you got a friend/kid in college get the student version for ½ the price.

If you want to learn it, there's TONS of tutorials online. You can also get books at Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc for a fair price (used). The books will teach you all sorts of useful things (batch jobs, export to web, color profiles, advanced FX) whereas the online tutorials online go through the more simple things (selections, masks, paths, fx).

Then you start getting to plugins. The real fun begins there
Just one fine example.

Another cool example.

A very useful tutorial.

[emcon5]

Originally Posted by trekkor

I like Paint Shop Pro, from JASC.


KT

Ditto. In fact, I am still using version 5 I bought in 1998.

It does basic cropping and resizing, color adjustment, and can do basic manipulation as well.

For example:


In the original, there was a leash sitting in the shadow behind his front legs. I copied small sections of grass, dirt, and shadow and pasted them over the leash, then smudged things around a bit to make it sort of match. Yeah, if you are looking for it you can see something was done there, but it didn't turn out too bad. The original:



For 99% of home users, something like this is all you need. Looks like Corel bought them, and you can get it online for $30. Amazon.com: Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate: Windows XP: Software

[Por_sha911]

If you want to tinker around with photo editing I suggest you buy Adobe Photo Elements. Its less than $100 and has most of what the basic PS user needs. If you like working with it and get proficient then you can buy the upgrade to the full boat program later. I have CS but 95% of my needs are covered by Elements.

[MT930]

I appreciate the input.

[Steve Carlton]

Elements is a good way to start. It'll probably do everything you could possibly need to start. Once underway, the "You Suck at Photoshop" series by Donnie Hoyle will move you forward nicely...

[MT930]

I found Elements 9 at Costco $79.99 $30.00 - instant rebate $49.00 Seems like a good deal. I'm In !