which one

[damien]

hi people im still trying to find the best for photo editing, im not very clever when it comes to this, i have tried cs2 and im currently using lightroom3, still reading the manual on that one and 200 pages im sure its going to take a while, what confuses me the most is that they all say they are idiot proof well thats not the case in my case, what i cant get my head round when i see people talking about curves,shadows and layers i just dont seem to understand and dont think i will as im the not a clever person when it comes to this art of photography, so if anyone knows of good and easy photo editing programe please point me in the right direction


thanks in advance

damien

[russellsnr]

hi people im still trying to find the best for photo editing, im not very clever when it comes to this, i have tried cs2 and im currently using lightroom3, still reading the manual on that one and 200 pages im sure its going to take a while, what confuses me the most is that they all say they are idiot proof well thats not the case in my case, what i cant get my head round when i see people talking about curves,shadows and layers i just dont seem to understand and dont think i will as im the not a clever person when it comes to this art of photography, so if anyone knows of good and easy photo editing programe please point me in the right direction


thanks in advance

damien

Damien, Firstly "Rome was not built in a day" I am the wrong side of 50 and it has taken me a year plus to learn only a little of what Photoshop has to offer, Lightroom in my opinion is the way to go untill you get confident, as for training I am one of those people who if I read it it takes two or three attempts to get it to stick but!! show me how and life becomes easier. Have a look on the web for video tutorials (not on Photoshop but on Lightroom http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...9&feature=plcp) you can also buy from places like Linda.com or join your local photo club where I am sure someone will show you how. Don't give up on either Photoshop or Lightroom but IMO look at and learn Lightroom first (you have to crawl before you can walk).
Hope this helps.
Russ

[Geoff F]

There are plenty of very basic editing programmes, Damien, where you are simply offered a choice between three or four preset options and you click on the thumbnail image which looks best.

But they don't do a very good job of getting the best from your shots.

My suggestion would be to read the CinC tutorials,several times, then ask specific questions about what you don't understand; and just work with one item at a time.

Personally, I can't understand anything which is shown to me on a computer screen, particularly those video tutorials. I need to see it in a printed form where I can have it beside me while I am experimenting and have the ability to keep rereading the same paragraph until it slowly sinks in.

Things like Curves and Layers are relatively easy, at least the basics, once you get to understand the general principal. But, yes, they do initially appear very confusing. Even using Masks isn't difficult, at the simpler level, once you understand the basic principle.

I have never found any of the Photoshop range of software to be logical for me. While I do now use CS5 I keep thinking that this is a very long winded method to achieve something simple.

And for me, Photoshop certainly isn't idiot proof and one idiot mistake that I often make is getting confused between Save and Save As. It is so easy to accidentally click the wrong one.

Or as an engineer once said to me, 'As soon as we make something idiot proof we discover a different range of idiots'.

Personally, I always found the Serif Photo Plus earlier range of software to be relatively easy to use but with sufficient options to cope with most requirements. However, I am talking about versions X2 or X3 not their latest X5 which is a lot more complicated to us.

[damien]

Damien, Firstly "Rome was not built in a day" I am the wrong side of 50 and it has taken me a year plus to learn only a little of what Photoshop has to offer, Lightroom in my opinion is the way to go untill you get confident, as for training I am one of those people who if I read it it takes two or three attempts to get it to stick but!! show me how and life becomes easier. Have a look on the web for video tutorials (not on Photoshop but on Lightroom http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...9&feature=plcp) you can also buy from places like Linda.com or join your local photo club where I am sure someone will show you how. Don't give up on either Photoshop or Lightroom but IMO look at and learn Lightroom first (you have to crawl before you can walk).
Hope this helps.
Russ

Wow thanks for the info im sure it will sink in one day but i suppose its one of those things you just have to keep working with till its sinks in and stays in thanks again for your info on this subject

[damien]

There are plenty of very basic editing programmes, Damien, where you are simply offered a choice between three or four preset options and you click on the thumbnail image which looks best.

But they don't do a very good job of getting the best from your shots.

My suggestion would be to read the CinC tutorials,several times, then ask specific questions about what you don't understand; and just work with one item at a time.

Personally, I can't understand anything which is shown to me on a computer screen, particularly those video tutorials. I need to see it in a printed form where I can have it beside me while I am experimenting and have the ability to keep rereading the same paragraph until it slowly sinks in.

Things like Curves and Layers are relatively easy, at least the basics, once you get to understand the general principal. But, yes, they do initially appear very confusing. Even using Masks isn't difficult, at the simpler level, once you understand the basic principle.

I have never found any of the Photoshop range of software to be logical for me. While I do now use CS5 I keep thinking that this is a very long winded method to achieve something simple.

And for me, Photoshop certainly isn't idiot proof and one idiot mistake that I often make is getting confused between Save and Save As. It is so easy to accidentally click the wrong one.

Or as an engineer once said to me, 'As soon as we make something idiot proof we discover a different range of idiots'.

Personally, I always found the Serif Photo Plus earlier range of software to be relatively easy to use but with sufficient options to cope with most requirements. However, I am talking about versions X2 or X3 not their latest X5 which is a lot more complicated to us.

thanks for you help on this matter, im sure i will find something sooner or later, its all about patience something that i have little of i one of those people who wants to know and do everything in hours not days or years and thats why i find photography so annoying lol, i will keep with it and get there in the end....

[The Blue Boy]

Damien,

You can also get info from the original source, Adobe. Also use Google. It's how most of us found this place.

[krispix]

This is beginning to look like a forum for old codgers (of which I am one).
My first point would be that CS2 is a bit old hat. CS3 was a quantum leap and CS4 was a pretty serious upgrade as well. CS5 doesn't offer that much of an improvement unless you want to work in 3D, so I would council anyone with CS4 to stick with that for a while.
With CS2 you are missing out on some serious stuff like HDR.
However, my strong recommendation would be to try Adobe Photoshop Elements 10. Unless you're a pro this little package will give you everything you could wish for at silly money. It's so cheap, it's ridiculous. Before Christmas Amazon were selling it on one of their 24-hour specials for £30! Even the usual price of £60 is a bargain.

[Ken Husveg]

Photoshop Elements is an excellent program to start with. It has an easy learning curve, with powerful tools when you get more comfortable. There are lots of good Photoshop Elements books plus most of the Photoshop tutorials online can be successfully completed using recent versions.

When you're manipulating a photo use a copy of the original or save the original to the photo editors native format or to a PNG or TIF (both lossless). JPEG format (lossy) images when manipulated will degrade.

No matter which photo editor you choose pick one with layer support. When you open a photo add a layer and use this layer for any changes you may make.

By the way, "lossy" doesn't mean bad. JPEG compression is "lossy", meaning that the decompressed image isn't quite the same as the one you started with. "Lossless" means, the de-compressioned image you get will be exactly the same image as the original.

Checkout the Photo Editing Tutorials.

Good luck and have fun!