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photo editing programs
I would like to have a good photo editing program. However I don't have any information to qualify one program over another. There is Paintshop Pro, Photoshop, and Picture Window Pro. The few 4x5 that are keepers I have enlarged and fixed by the lab. (BWC) The price range of the programs is confusing. A proffessional lab can make a lot of prints before I can justify Photoshop. Suggestions?
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photo editing programs
Larry:
I have used all three, both in my scientific professional work and my personal photography work. It all depends on what you mean by "editing". They can all crop, adjust levels, change color balance and sharpen. But a typical "edit" of one of my 4x5 scans ends up with 5-10 adjustment layers with different masks and several sharpening passes in an ICC color managed flow to my printer. Nothing can compete with Photoshop for this... it is the professional tool of the bunch with wide support in the form many excellent third-party plugins and well written books and guides. It has a steep price tag and a steep learning curve, both of which are worth it. There are both academic and trade-up discounts available from Adobe so make sure you investigate those before comparing prices.
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photo editing programs
Photoshop, by all means. It's THE professional photoediting app. It is both expensive and complex to learn though, as Glenn said, so you might also want to consider testing the waters with Photoshop Elements 4 first, as this would give you a good intro to the full version at one sixth of the price.
Regards,
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photo editing programs
Photoshop's the only way to go, if you're serious about digial photography.
I second Marko's comments on the difficulty of learning Photoshop. See if you can find another Photographer who's an experienced Photoshop user to show you the ins and outs of the program. Or, find a class, not a lecture based class, but one where you can learn on a computer as you go.
It's not the type of program you can kind of pick up on your own. There're too many subtleties.
Don't settle for anything less than CS 1 or CS 2 Photoshop, and better CS 2 Photoshop.
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photo editing programs
photoshop. this is "the" photo editing/enhancing program. while the latest edition goes for a house payment, earlier vertions can be quite afordable.
by learning the earlier version of photoshop you will be taking some of the learning curve out of more recent programs.
one thing to consider is that a lot of digital hard are (i.e digital cameras, scanners, and printers) will come with a photoshop elements cd, so if you are considering any of these as a purcace in the near future you should purchase it sooner and get the photoshop bundled with it
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photo editing programs
Picture Window Pro is very good. It was designed by a photographer and uses photography metaphors like filters and the like. It is very memory efficient, meaning you can use it on large images without gigs of RAM. It has terrific support - a forum with the designer and programers and very sharp users. It has the best color correction tools - which are also available as a plug-in for PS. Ctien did a nice piece on it for Phototechniques last year. It uses a mask metaphor rather than layers. Some of the adjustments are much better than PS. I still do curves on difficult images with PWP rather than PS - the PS version has such crude controls it is hard to subtle changes, while PWP lets you work with a curve superimposed on a full screen histogram.
I moved to PS because I wanted to use layers for some images, and I agree that layers are great. However, even as a sometime geek, I still wonder if PS was designed by aliens. There is nothing intuitive about it, and it takes a long time to become even slightly proficient. You can do very good work in PWP very quickly. If you are working with large format scans, you do not need all of the tools in PS that let you do graphics from scratch or make the most of tiny digital images. I still use PWP a lot, especially when I have to work with a big image that chokes PS on my 1 gig machine.
Did I say that it is cheap?
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photo editing programs
I used Photo Shop, and yes, it is the defacto standard, and yes, whoever designed it has no idea of intitive commands, IMO. It's almost like a right of passage into some secrect ogranization learning how to use PS.
However, just to be different, I've been using Corel Photopaint for many years. Mostly becaue I also use Corel Draw, and moving from one to another, for me, is pretty seemless. I also find it a bit easier to learn, a bit more understandable.
However PhotoShop has more 3rd party add-ons that any other photo editing program, so if you are looking at learning a software program with a nod to any future possible employment, PS is the way to go.
One last thought - the open source, free ware program "the GIMP" is an amazing program. It's not a big learning curve too, very powerful , and next to PhotoShop, it probally has more 3rd party add'ons than any other editing program, and it is cross platform - that is, you can can use it on Windows, Linux/UNIX, - and - Mac O/S too. Once you learn how to use GIMP under one Operating sytem, you can pretty much use it under any O/S. It is free for download at
http://www.gimp.org/
And like all open source software, you'll find it free of virus and spyware - but download it directly from the source.
good luck
joe
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photo editing programs
Just to add to the mix, a new program called Lightzone is now available for trial download. I saw a demo of the program at Per Volquartz's Owens Valley workshop last October put on by Lars Vinberg, a contributor here at times. Lars works for Lightcraft, the company that is developing this.
What looked very promising was the ability to adjust your images by zone, as it is based on the zone system.
I am unaware if it is availble for purchase yet, but it apparently is available as a free trial demo.
The package itself is purported to retail for only around $250, and looks to be more user friendly than photoshop.
www.lightcrafts.com/
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photo editing programs
Photoshop has everything, and much of it you would probably never use. I have Photoshop, but I usually work under Linux where I use the Gimp (www.gimp.org), an open software program. There is also a version that works under Windows, and lots of people use it. The main advantage of Photoshop vis-a-vis the Gimp, except for extra bells and whistles, is that it does 16 bit per channel editing for many, but not all functions. I don't find the 8 bit per channel limit in the Gimp restricting, but it depends just on which functions you use and how radically you edit. For 4 x 5 work, I find that I don't do radical editing in most cases. Since the Gimp is free, you might as well try it.
Both the full Phtoshop and the Gimp have a curves tool, and, in my opinion, any photoeditor without such a tool is pretty useless.
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photo editing programs
Paintshop Pro is easier to learn than Photoshop and nearly as powerful. It is a lot more powerful than Photoshop Elements and only costs $100 (you might find it for less). If you are only producing a few prints for your wall then Photoshop is probably overkill and you might be better off with Paintshop Pro. Version 10 has layers, gradients, sharpening, outstanding selection tools, color management, works with 16 bit files, and has all that you need for making stunning prints. It even has some features that Photoshop does not--clarify being the most useful. Photoshop is the industry standard, but it is not the only alternative you should consider.
Link to Painshop Pro:
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pid=1047025487586
That said, the advice above is good if you ever plan to use plugins made for Photoshop, or plan on exchanging files/techniques with other photoshop users. Most tutorials on the web and books in the store are written for Photoshop. There is more training and support available for Photoshop.