FOAK: Photoshop?

Right, since I've tried to get back into photography again (clincher
was seeing Adies DSLR and my brother managing to turn my bridge camera
into a decent Canon 400D setup) Ive been thinking about getting some
computer software and learning a bit about using it.

Now, it would appear that the standard would appear to be Photoshop
rather than say, Paint Shop Pro etc

I'm not looking to do anything professional / make money from it, but
want to "get more into it" if that makes sense.

So, question is, is there not a basic, perhaps amatuer version that
sells for less than say £500?

 

Photoshop Elements.
--
Gavin.

GSXR600K1
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gavin_wilby
Blog: http://www.stoof.co.uk

 

Enjoying it?

Try picasa for starters.

Want a 'trial' version of Photoshop CS4?

 

I'm sure there's a student version for a lot less.
Or do what at least 50% of non-commercial users do - torrent a copy.
Thing is, Adobe have almost a monopoly with PS in the commercial field
and every bugger with a hookey copy who goes on to work with it
professionally is another bit of added weight in the Adobe camp.
If they're proficient in it through personal use, they'll stump up the
cash when it's paying for itself many times over.

 

Gimp is open source and similar to Photoshop http://www.gimp.org/ . If you
want to buy something try Photoshop Elements - we use it as the tutorial
program of choice in our photography club. Also, it's free to download a 30
day trial of Photoshop CS - and it's possible to get longer trial periods.
Where in the UK are you? Paint Shop Pro has good reviews but I don't know
how well supported it is. There are shedloads of tutorials available online
for Photoshop.

John

 

Aperture.

 

I've never seen the justification for Photoshop at it's price tag and
I've been doing digital imagery since the mid 80s. I do have it on
this PC as a company I was contracting to gave me one of their
licences. But I still use other tools that I am comfortable with and
can't see the point in forking out $1000 for it. And I make a living
out of this game. And Paint Shop Pro V5 is still one of the tools I
use.

Photoshop Elements is what you should look for if you want the
stripped down version though.

But don't poo-poo PSP just because it is cheap. No, it isn't
Photoshop, but it is a bit like Microsoft Word. How many people really
use all the features in Word?

I started work about a decade ago in an animation studio. I had to
modify an image and the only thing loaded onto the PC was Photoshop. I
got a look of amazement when I said I hadn't used PS. Sorry guys, PS
didn't even exist when I started doing this. Wasn't hard to pick it up
though as I constantly used After Effects which is pretty much PS with
time added for another dimension.

Kev

 

Canon DPP for converting Raw (free)
GIMP for editing (free)

 

Just installed that on my Macs. Number One Son bought it using his
student discount for something like £65. On first inspection, not as
broad as Photoshop but bloody impressive all the same.

 

Well, given that it's a competitor to Adobe Lightroom...

 

GIMP. Not you, but what you do on a Saturday is up to you.

GIMP is free and bloody good.

 

seen what CS5 will be able to do when its released?

clever stuff

 

AOL and there is a version/fork called GimpShop which has a more
PhotoShop-like interface, if you prefer.

 

I've stopped shooting RAW. I decided to improve my skills with the
camera, rather than rely on fixing things afterwards, because I simply
don't have the time. JPG provides a much faster workflow, and I've
got better.

 

I use both, depending in the situation. For fast shutter rates, or
just taking photos jpg is fine, but if there's a lot of contrast
involved, or you want to extract every last bit of sharpness then raw
is the only option really, because jpg often loses some of the sensor
detail.

 

Yeah www.gimpshop.com and it's unlikely you will want to do anything this
doesn't cope with.
Bit of a learning curve but I expect PS is more difficult still.

 

Dingly ding. In fact, I've never shot in raw. 95% of my pictures are
straight out of the camera.[1]

I was never one for doing that dodging/burning stuff in the darkroom and
life's too short to spend hours with PS.

The tools in Picasa are good enough for me.

[1]That might explain my success rate though. I'm only really happy with
about 0.1% of my pics.

 

Ah, yes. As Timo pointed out.

 

Seconded, on both accounts.

GIMP will have everything you need, save for the myriad of photoshop plug-
ins, but it's free so you'll save some pennies and be legit.

Elements is pretty good for their nobbled version. I've got the version
before the "suite" came out, so don't know how bloated it is these days.

 

No I'm not.

Yes, and they're generally pretty good at it since I'm sure there's been
a lot of tuning of the software to the sensor.

It's a lot more unprocessed than many a pic that has been 'improved' by PS.