Software for Beginners

[Peter Lewin]

Apologies in advance for another beginner's question. I currently own an Epson 4990 which I bought 5 years ago but used rarely, as well as Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 which came bundled with it. However I now have rekindled enthusiasm for getting into digital workflow, scanning my 4x5 negatives and ultimately learning how to print (I'm a decent wet darkroom printer, but guess its time to learn new tricks; before buying a photo-grade printer I'd like at least to be able to upload images to the forum). In the interim I upgraded my iMac to Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.8) and 3 mb of RAM.

So today I downloaded the newest Epson drivers for the scanner, scanned a couple of new negs, and discovered that while I could do initial scans using the Epson Scan application, I couldn't open Elements any more. Presumably that is because I have a very old version of Elements and a relatively up-to-date OS. So now to my question: should I simply upgrade my copy of Elements (an $80 proposition), should I rather jump whole-hog into Photoshop (~$650 or so), or is there a better software package if all I want to do is work with black & white negatives (since Photoshop contains so many other features which I won't use)? Thanks for your advice.

[Gem Singer]

Stay with Photoshop Elements. It's all you need for editing B&W negatives.

Adobe just announced Photoshop Elements !!.

[bob carnie]

I would suggest you look into Lightroom.

[trog]

I've been playing with PhotoLine (64-bit version) for the last 2-weeks. Very capable software and all tools are functional with 16-bit files (unlike PE). The only weakness that I found is the print-preview and setup functions (not particularly intuitive). I haven't figured out how to actually preview for scale.. so I export to PE for printing functions.

You can download and evaluate Photoline for 30-days for free.

[Preston]

I agree with Gem. PS Elements should suit your needs. You can always upgrade to the full PS at a later time, if/when your needs change.

--P

[RichardSperry]

Lightroom is effective, light, easy to learn, easy to use, and inexpensive.

[Emil Ems]

Isn't Photoshop Elements only an 8 bit operator? I would prefer a 16 bit operator that would allow me to make substantive changes in contrast etc. without losing to much information. This means Adobe Photoshop. Please note that Photoshop includes the raw processor ACR, which is identical to the raw processor in Lightroom, so no need to buy the latter program too. With Photoshop, it is possible to work with layers, which makes local picture processing (affecting only parts of the picture) much easier and workable. Serious photographers do not limit themselves to Elements.