Software Reccomendations - Digital Photography

I am looking for software to use with my new Digital Camera. I am thinking about getting Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop Elements 5 (at student price). Will there both run on Vista? Also, does anyone know of any similar software to do things from importing to organizing to editing to showing pictures? Thanks.

 

well, you could try out picasa for a free simple editing software...but won't do the advanced stuff you can do with photoshop.

 

What kind of camera?
In other words, how serious are you?

I'd try out Gimp (or the Gimpshop variant) before you decide to spend money. It's open source software (read: free) with functionality somewhere between Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. The major downside is that it doesn't handle any sort of color management, but then, neither does Elements.

 

I have a Nikon D70 (digital SLR). I am not professional by any means, but I like photography and plan to learn to use the camera as well as I can, and want to do some good editing and organizing. My other question then is if I decide to go the route of elements, should I suck it up and buy Photoshop (the extended version for $300)?

 

I would, but that's because I'm a color geek (among many, many other kinds).

I'd say it's a good idea to start with full blown Photoshop because you'll have to relearn a lot if you outgrow Elements. Photoshop does have a bigger learning curve, but you'll only have to go through it once.

You might also consider Xara Xtreme (Pro), which is pretty well on par with Photoshop with a good bit less cost.

 

Oh, and here are a couple comparisons. Well, the latter has a few links to comparisons.

Simple Photoshop

Retouch Pro

 

I've got PS and it's taking me forever to learn, anybody have a very noob friendly and visual instruction loaded guide that I can use to help me along?

 

Here Phillip:

http://getit.rutgers.edu/tutorials/photoshop7/index.html

They introduce Photoshop to you, show you the tools and eventually guide you step by step to create some images and make use of some Photoshop effects.

Doesn't matter that its for Photoshop 7, there hasn't been too much change since Photoshop 7 and CS2.

And to Caleb, I think you should go straight towards Photoshop. Even if you don't need to use it to edit photos, it comes in handy later on to create images like sigs, avatars or promotional items. Its a worthwhile thing to learn, Photoshop.

 

I like PhotoShop CS2. It also has RAW functionality. I don't think GIMP has a RAW extention, but it might. I used it for quite a while before expanding to CS2. I still catch myself venturing back to GIMP on occasion.

 

Thanks Sam, now all I have to do is practice.

 

That, and look up tutorials that help you do the specific task you are trying to do. That is how I learned, I just played around for a bit, then I realized i needed to do something I didn't know how to do, I found a tutorial and did it.. you soon realize that you can make your own style by altering the way the tutorial helped you accomplish your task

 

I don't know if Gimp has any RAW capability in the base package. It is available, though. Check out UFRaw, a stand alone RAW converter with a Gimp plugin.

 

I too am a color geek but I manipulate through F stop and shutter speed. The following are completely untouched:

(Click each to enlarge)
My pond:

Myrtle Beach:

(I just thought these guys were cool lookin :

My Pond Again:

Jellyfish:

Random Sky shot (I think this was one morning when I dropped my kids off at school)


I use Fujinon lenses, on a Fuji DSLR by the way.

 

Ok, how is photoshop in terms of a file importer and organization tools?

 

Organizer? Does Photoshop organize photos? I never used it to organize photos .

I just store them in folders in My Pictures, unfortunately. If you're going to turn photography into a full-fledged hobby I'd suggest you get Adobe Lightroom (or Aperture if you switch to Mac). Or use Windows Photo Gallery in Vista, that's a little better than My Pictures of XP.

 

The version of Photoshop Elements that I have is always trying to organizes my prictures and all of that, now that I have a camera, I realize how nices that might be. I was considering lightroom, but its quite expensive for both lightroom and photoshop.