I want to buy a good photo editing program/software and have never used PS at all. I am looking for techniques to improve the quality of my photos - sharpness, lighting, etc,- and it needs to be airily easy to use or at least to learn to use. I'd appreciate any advice, info and/or recs.
I'm a big Lightroom fan. I can organize and edit my photos all in one place. It can be as simple as a couple clicks with Pre-sets or you can make your own adjustments.
Photoshop (we have Photoshop CS for Windwos and for the Mac, too) is a great software, but NOT easy to to learn - in my opinion. We took a week-long class to learn how to use Photoshop CS extended (which is a bit more than Lightroom) and I still have a lot of questions, even though the class itself has been great and very informative. I would vote for Lightroom, but you could always use free shareware, which would do the few things, you want to do, just fine. "The Gimp" is one example.
if you're just wanting to edit photos, then Lightroom will work well for you.You can download a free trial from the Adobe website if you want to try it out.
Another HUGE fan of Lightroom! Been processing and organizing all my photos in Lightroom since 2009 and I never use PS to process photos anymore, unless I'm adding text or brushes onto the photos, like Glue said. Lightroom is fantastically easy and awesome.
While i prefer lightroom for basic editing, you can use ps elements for those digital brushes i think (i don't actually have it i have ps) so if that is something that interests you
A lonely vote for Elements. I have both, and to be fair, I still have to learn how to use Lightroom, but beside photo editing, you can do lots more with PSE.
If you're wanting to do anything like digital scrapbooking, I'm going to say Elements. It allows you to edit photos AND work with digital files. I use PS, but teach Elements. You can use it for things like changing digital files for use in your Silhouette. I think it's a great starting program. LR is more for processing Camera Raw images. If you shoot in CR, it's GREAT. But does it replace some of the fine-tuning that can be done is PS or PSE? not so much. I think you need both, eventually.
If you want easy and free and just want to make simple edits, Photoscape is awesome. Make sure you download it from the CNET.com site so you can be sure you're getting the right software and not a virus.
It's my go-to program for simple edits. I also love the "page" feature which makes it easy for me to place 2 smaller photos on a 4x6 page for printing, etc.
Quick qn: I want to use LR mainly for organizing. Would I be able to transfer my catalog/library, including metadata if I decide to purchase a new laptop? I've had LR for a while now but held back cos I didn't want to invest the time. Haha..
Yes, you just need to find your .lrcat database and move it over to the new laptop and point LR to it.
I'm actually in the process of migrating to my new awesome computer that my husband bought me for our anniversary. I'm also upgrading to LR4 at the same time.
I want to buy a good photo editing program/software and have never used PS at all. I am looking for techniques to improve the quality of my photos - sharpness, lighting, etc,- and it needs to be airily easy to use or at least to learn to use. I'd appreciate any advice, info and/or recs.
I'm a big Lightroom fan. I can organize and edit my photos all in one place. It can be as simple as a couple clicks with Pre-sets or you can make your own adjustments.
I have both and prefer lightroom!
Photoshop (we have Photoshop CS for Windwos and for the Mac, too) is a great software, but NOT easy to to learn - in my opinion. We took a week-long class to learn how to use Photoshop CS extended (which is a bit more than Lightroom) and I still have a lot of questions, even though the class itself has been great and very informative. I would vote for Lightroom, but you could always use free shareware, which would do the few things, you want to do, just fine. "The Gimp" is one example.
if you're just wanting to edit photos, then Lightroom will work well for you.You can download a free trial from the Adobe website if you want to try it out.
I only use photoshop elements...looks like I need to try Lightroom
i ADORE lightroom. i only use PS/PSE for things like brushes or adding text to photos. definitely download the trial and play with them!
Another HUGE fan of Lightroom! Been processing and organizing all my photos in Lightroom since 2009 and I never use PS to process photos anymore, unless I'm adding text or brushes onto the photos, like Glue said. Lightroom is fantastically easy and awesome.
LR for sure!
While i prefer lightroom for basic editing, you can use ps elements for those digital brushes i think (i don't actually have it i have ps) so if that is something that interests you
Another vote for Lightroom! Love love love LR!
A lonely vote for Elements. I have both, and to be fair, I still have to learn how to use Lightroom, but beside photo editing, you can do lots more with PSE.
If you're wanting to do anything like digital scrapbooking, I'm going to say Elements. It allows you to edit photos AND work with digital files. I use PS, but teach Elements. You can use it for things like changing digital files for use in your Silhouette. I think it's a great starting program. LR is more for processing Camera Raw images. If you shoot in CR, it's GREAT. But does it replace some of the fine-tuning that can be done is PS or PSE? not so much. I think you need both, eventually.
Like Elisa, I have both and use PSE more. I haven't really taken the time to figure LR out.
If you want easy and free and just want to make simple edits, Photoscape is awesome. Make sure you download it from the CNET.com site so you can be sure you're getting the right software and not a virus.
It's my go-to program for simple edits. I also love the "page" feature which makes it easy for me to place 2 smaller photos on a 4x6 page for printing, etc.
I use PS for digital scrapbooking and designing, but I use Lightroom exclusively for photo editing and organizing.
Quick qn: I want to use LR mainly for organizing. Would I be able to transfer my catalog/library, including metadata if I decide to purchase a new laptop? I've had LR for a while now but held back cos I didn't want to invest the time. Haha..
yes it is pretty easy to transfer your catalogue
Yes, you just need to find your .lrcat database and move it over to the new laptop and point LR to it.
I'm actually in the process of migrating to my new awesome computer that my husband bought me for our anniversary. I'm also upgrading to LR4 at the same time.
I should add: backup your database before migrating, in case anything goes wrong.