Best photo editing software for under $150?

[Golf4food]

I am getting a new PC soon and figure that is a good time to upgrade from my circa 1998 version of Paint Shop Pro 5, lol. Can't afford one of the fancy $500 programs, though. I've seen quite a few lighter versions of things in the stores that are in the $80-$150 range... of those, what is best?

I'll be learning to use anytthing I get, so familiarity is not an issue at all. I also don't do much fancy - white balance, contrast, color tweaks, cropping, straightening, etc... the basics are all I'm really concerned about most.

(If it matters, I use Pentax cameras, so being able to open Pentax RAW files would be grand... )

Thanks, ya'll!

 

[Experiment_626]

Well, Photoshop Elements will get you where you want to go. That will also include Adobe Camera Raw, which is where you can do much of what you mentioned better and faster than anywhere else. it is where I do most of my correction and optimizing these days -- in less than three minutes per image, 98 percent of the time.

I think Pentax DSLRs do (or can) save RAW files as DNG -- Digital Negative -- which is an open standard that Adobe created, so you'd be good there.

SSB

 

[MICKEY88]

Corels paint shop pro photo x2 Ultimate is a great program for 99,

it will do everything that photoshop will do, and has an easier learning curve,

A complete photo-editing software solution
Corel® Paint Shop Pro® Photo X2 Ultimate combines ease of use with full professional power. Fix brightness, color and photo imperfections like red eye in a few clicks, or use precision photo-editing controls to create photos you'll be proud to share. The Ultimate edition features valuable extras like media recovery software, a creative content pack, Corel® Painter™ Photo Essentials 4 and a 2 GB USB flash drive — over $200 in value!


you can also get psp pro photo x2 for 69

I just upgraded to ultimate for the new features, and the new raw support..

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1184951547051#versionTabview=tab0



if you do video at all, right now they have this bundle deal

http://store.corel.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?partNumber=OL_PVB&srcid=&pculicenseid=&promocode=0&itrkid=rppu12&countryCode=US&storeId=10302&catalogId=10103&langId=-1

 

[jann1033]

lightroom 2 would do what you want as well. if you have a student in your family you can get it from someplace like campus tech for around $100. if you shoot raw mostly i think it is better for that than elements. i have pse5 so unless they changed this since you can't really do much with batch processing raw files. you probably could get lightroom and pse 5 ( if you can find it) for close to $150. the only thing i really use elements for a lot still now is when i convert to black and white i use the alien skin plug ins i have in pse just cause it like it better than the lightroom presets for that

 

[thomas998]

I would stick with paint shop pro if that's what you are familiar with... switching to photoshop isn't an easy switch...

 

[Golf4food]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.

It now looks like we're going to go ahead and get a Mac instead of another PC, so I'll probably wind up with Aperture 2.1 from Apple, which supports Pentax RAW and sounds like it will do everything I need. (Any user comments welcome!)

Thanks!

 

[thomas998]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.

It now looks like we're going to go ahead and get a Mac instead of another PC, so I'll probably wind up with Aperture 2.1 from Apple, which supports Pentax RAW and sounds like it will do everything I need. (Any user comments welcome!)

Thanks!

If you're getting a mac, just use bootcamp and then you can run windows and install paintshop pro. I was forced to swap my windows laptop with my wifes macbook because she hated it so much.... she had aperture on it and I played with it for a while... In the end I decided to use boot camp and turned the macbook into a windows machine... While aperture seemed cool to start with I think it might be a decent program for organizing your photos but for photo editing its horrible. very limited. The simple fact that Adobe is still selling photoshop for macs should tell you that even dedicated mac users realize that aperture is garbage when it comes to photo editing.

 

[Golf4food]

If you're getting a mac, just use bootcamp and then you can run windows and install paintshop pro. I was forced to swap my windows laptop with my wifes macbook because she hated it so much.... she had aperture on it and I played with it for a while... In the end I decided to use boot camp and turned the macbook into a windows machine... While aperture seemed cool to start with I think it might be a decent program for organizing your photos but for photo editing its horrible. very limited. The simple fact that Adobe is still selling photoshop for macs should tell you that even dedicated mac users realize that aperture is garbage when it comes to photo editing.

Thanks for the heads up - I'll give it a bit more thought then. Glad I hadn't placed my order yet (Aperture on sale at Amazon...)

I will certainly have a program to run Windows applications (leaning towards VMware Fusion at the moment), but I don't want to run EVERYTHING as Windows on my Mac, ya know? Anything else good that will run on Mac?

 

[DueyDooDah]

As above, Lightroom has a Mac version. If you can get the educators/student version, $99. Many Aperture people I see on the forums have made the switch. Each has it's feature set but I think people are leaning toward LR. It's pretty nice and made ONLY for photos, unlike Photoshop which has a much bigger and more diverse client base (meaning much more complex to use).

 

[adabob]

I love my Adobe Photoshop Elements 6

It is everything that i need and learn something new everyday