Question re: Lightroom

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Originally Posted by Colin Southern

Katy,

In simple terms ...

1. You need a new computer, and

2. You need Photoshop CS5

Hope this helps :)

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Yes, you are exactly right, but, quite seriously, my birthday's not until June....

That is the conclusion that I've come to, today. In the meantime, that's six months away and I need to figure out what to do....

I'm trying to work on things from this end.... I'll let you know what I come up with. I think that it's going to be sad.

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Originally Posted by Katy Noelle

Yes, you are exactly right, but, quite seriously, my birthday's not until June....

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Yes - but - you should have had this bought for you for Christmas, so I think you need to give hubby the chance to do the "honourable thing" and "put things right" by buying it for you now -- you know, so he can feel better :)

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Originally Posted by Colin Southern

Yes - but - you should have had this bought for you for Christmas, so I think you need to give hubby the chance to do the "honourable thing" and "put things right" by buying it for you now -- you know, so he can feel better :)

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Feel better? After the 60mm macro that he bought more than half of? Perhaps I DO need more husbands....:eek:

Alas,....

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Originally Posted by Katy Noelle

Feel better? After the 60mm macro that he bought more than half of? Perhaps I DO need more husbands....:eek:

Alas,....

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It's probably legal in some states, not sure about Vermont though! :eek:

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Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

Hi Katy,

As said elsewhere; Elements will do it all for starters/intermediate (if it and ACR works on a Mac).

Some have LR for the enhanced RAW editing capability plus Elements for the cloning, layers bits, although that will only be 8 bit (as is GIMP), I believe. Beyond that, for best all round support, it has to be Photoshop CS5.

Now I don't know what deals are available in US, but in UK; if you buy Elements and register it with Adobe, Adobe may e-mail you after a few days/weeks and offer CS5 at half price, which is a good deal for most. That gets you the better ACR than Elements (although it is probably still a match for iPhoto) and of course, proper 16 bit editing, cloning, layers and fully functional masks.

Cheapest starter, if it works on a Mac (someone to confirm this would be nice), is Elements.

Cheers,

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This is the Adobe download site for Elements for Mac so I guess it must work
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...form=Macintosh

Katy: I have Elements and Lightroom. I got Lightroom first because I did not know one program from another or what one could do compared to another. Lightroom is a great program and I use it for RAW processing and it is also my library. I like it, BUT I could do what I do in LR in Elements but not the other way around, so if I was doing it all over again, now that I know more, I would get Elements and get that working for me for RAW processing and I would use the Elements library, I have heard that the Elements catalouge/library has some glitches so I don't know if that part would be as good as LR but for many of the other things you want to do, you will want Elements and then as Dave suggested, you can move up to Photoshop later if you want to. I'm still quite happy with Elements and have not used most of what it has to offer so I don't plan to change any time soon.

Elements is also very inexpensive for what you get. If you already have your photos catolouged in another program, you could still use that instead of the Elements catalouge, and other than the catalouge I think Elements would do everything you want right now and more for a very low cost.

Here is a link for Elements at Amazon, there is even a $20 mail in rebate.
http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photosho...383203-7542731

Wendy

Adobe has PSE9 on sale for $79.99 and you get a $20 gift certificate to Shutterfly. If you know a college student or a teacher, you could get the educational discount and get it for $69.

I really agree with Wendy that Elements is a good choice. At this point, it covers everything you want to do, and you won't be getting a lot of "extra" stuff -- 3D capability, things that only graphic designers will ever use, etc.

Not to complicate matters, but Lightroom has really good web connections and printing set-ups; you can print directly from Lightroom in a bunch of different ways, and once I figured out what was going on and how to use it, I really like it. I don't know if you're at the printer stage -- I have one that can do 13 x 19, and Lightroom will set it up so I can print two 8 x 12s on a sheet of 13 x 19, and that makes me so happy because 8 x 12 paper is very hard to come by and few everyday places (except Costco) do 8 x 12s.

Katy
I don't think you can do any better than to spend some time viewing the free videos on the Julieanne Kost site. She is an Adobe evangelist and has an uncanny knack of explaining very clearly what Lightroom's various elements are about.
It was only after I had viewed these for myself a couple of times and downloaded the trial version that I decided Lightroom was for me, and I haven't been disappointed.
THIS is your link.
Hope this helps.

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Originally Posted by mythlady

Adobe has PSE9 on sale for $79.99 and you get a $20 gift certificate to Shutterfly. If you know a college student or a teacher, you could get the educational discount and get it for $69.

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I haven't read the licence agreement for a while, but to make it legal it's probably not so much a case of "KNOWING a college student or a teacher" as it is "BEING a college student or a teacher".

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Originally Posted by Clactonian

Katy
I don't think you can do any better than to spend some time viewing the free videos on the Julieanne Kost site. She is an Adobe evangelist and has an uncanny knack of explaining very clearly what Lightroom's various elements are about.

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One would hope so ...

... she works for them :)

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Originally Posted by Colin Southern

I haven't read the licence agreement for a while, but to make it legal it's probably not so much a case of "KNOWING a college student or a teacher" as it is "BEING a college student or a teacher".

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Well, they do check and do require quite a bit of documentation as proof...

I've just popped in to tell you all that I've decided to take up knitting instead! I'll touch base, tomorrow, to tell you what pattern and color of yarn I'll be using!

Sorry, Colin . . . of course you have to BE a student or teacher, like me . . . or have one that lives in your house and shares your computer . . .

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Originally Posted by mythlady

Sorry, Colin . . . of course you have to BE a student or teacher, like me . . . or have one that lives in your house and shares your computer . . .

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Hi Elise,

I knew that's what you meant -- just needed to be sure everyone else did. We do get a few "nudge nudge, wink wink" posts from time to time, but we've decided to keep everying totally above board and legal here.

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Originally Posted by Clactonian

Katy
I don't think you can do any better than to spend some time viewing the free videos on the Julieanne Kost site. She is an Adobe evangelist and has an uncanny knack of explaining very clearly what Lightroom's various elements are about.
It was only after I had viewed these for myself a couple of times and downloaded the trial version that I decided Lightroom was for me, and I haven't been disappointed.
THIS is your link.
Hope this helps.

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Hi Mike: Is Lightroom the only editor you use. I think I've seen you post some shots with textures and I'm sure you did not do that in LR. I'm not sure but I think Katy is looking for and inexpensive all round solution at the moment. I won't argue that LR is a great program, but do you think it is versatile enough to do everything Katy is interested in doing at the moment.

Wendy

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Originally Posted by ScoutR

Hi Mike: Is Lightroom the only editor you use. I think I've seen you post some shots with textures and I'm sure you did not do that in LR. I'm not sure but I think Katy is looking for and inexpensive all round solution at the moment. I won't argue that LR is a great program, but do you think it is versatile enough to do everything Katy is interested in doing at the moment.

Wendy

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I'm thinking of knitting a scarf in lilac and gray colored yarn! That will be a much more soothing hobby, I think.

You're quite right, Wendy, but, thank you, also, Mike. Actually, it's been very helpful to know what you're all using.

Other than that.... it's all unfolding very (TOO) slowly for words. Tom has an old version of photoshop that is kosher to share between computers and I'm hoping to get an older version of Lightroom that will be compatible with osx 10.4.11. I think that, although, this is a little disappointing 'cuz it's fun to get the shiny and new, I think/hope that this will work just fine. It has to be an improvement from what I'm working on, now, at any rate!

Everyone's advice has been very, very, very helpful! It's all been great spring boards to learning and looking into things more. I've had to really revv up my understanding of the differences between all of these different options (not to mention, learning some basic computer skills that I've managed to avoid, so far.) I hope that tomorrow brings something more concrete, though.

Looking at them, though, I'm not so scared. I thought that they would all be complete and foreign mysteries to me but they look a lot like what I've been working with - except, I'm suspecting that they work more effectively. Can't wait!

However, tomorrow, I think that I just need to go out and take some nice pictures of snow and branches or something like that.

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Originally Posted by Katy Noelle

However, tomorrow, I think that I just need to go out and take some nice pictures of snow and branches or something like that.

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I think that's a good idea, you are - in different forms, posts and PMs - tackling two or three different things all at once, and that can't be helping 'getting your head round' any one of them - or is that the pianist in you; being able to cope with left and right hands playing different things (I don't know the proper terms) that can take it in their stride?

I know I couldn't do it!

Cheers,

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Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

I think that's a good idea, you are - in different forms, posts and PMs - tackling two or three different things all at once, and that can't be helping 'getting your head round' any one of them - or is that the pianist in you; being able to cope with left and right hands playing different things (I don't know the proper terms) that can take it in their stride?

I know I couldn't do it!

Cheers,

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Nah! That's just how I work. :rolleyes::)

just a fyi.. In the US sign up for a class.. and get the student discounts on Adobe products. CS5 is 80% off with a student discount. I signed up for a night class (on Photography of course :) ) through my community college and I get the discount.

-Dave