best program?

Stephieann

DIS Veteran<br><font color=00cc00>Oh no....he is M
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Mar 7, 2005
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what is the best program to use to edit photos?
 
interested myself to hear the responses....I"m in the market for something now that I have the DSLR.
 
Well, that is an impossible question to answer if I ever saw one! :confused:

There is no "best" photo editing program. There are many great ones though. The tough part is finding one that is right for you. Things to consider are price, features, organization, etc.

I can tell you there are a few popular ones including Adobe Light Room, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, programs that come with cameras, Picasa, and GIMP.

For Macs you have Light Room, Photoshop, iPhoto, and Aperture.

You really need to figure out what you need in the editor before choosing the best one for you though. Do you want to selective color? Strong RAW image processing? Just increase/decrease saturation and make black and white photos? Do you want your editor to also organize your photos and add keywords? Do you want to invest the time necessary to learn how to get the full functionality out of the program or learn the basics you need?

Once you answer some of those questions we can hopefully point in the right direction for a program that will work for you.
 
what about photoimpact? I would love to have one that organized my photos!!!
 

another great program is Paint Shop Pro Photo X2


it will do everything photoshop will do at a fraction of the cost, and it has a much easier learning curve
 
The "best"? Adobe Photoshop, because it is the standard, and has the best likelihood of compatibility, longevity, and support.

Other programs may be easier to use, certainly cost less, and may even give better results in some cases, but none are as widespread in use.
 
being the standard doesn't neccessarily make it the best,

paint shop pro has been around for years, has good support and most photo shop plugins will work with paint shop pro..and a recent article stated that more and more pro photogs are switching to it, since it will do everything photoshop will do for hundreds less,

the best program is one that fits an individuals budget and will allow them to do the things they want without stressing them to the point that they give up and never use the program..

just like there is no ONE best camera, it is purely an individual thing, which is the best fit for each person
 
I'm going to second the notion that Adobe is the "standard". I have Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Lightroom. Of the 3, Elements was definitely the easiest in terms of learning curve, and it comes with an organizer. However, Elements is missing some of the more advanced actions found in the full blown Photoshop program.

Whichever program you choose, be prepared to do some reading and experimenting!
 
I will agree that photo shop is the standard, but in all fairness keep in mind that one of the main reasons is that it is geared to the printing and graphics industry, the average amateur photographer will never even come close to using it to it's fullest.

to hard sell photoshop and downplay other quality programs is the equivalent of insisting that the top camera in any manufacturers lineup is the only camera, and that lower end, less costly models won't do the job..

I know quite a few people that have switched to paint shop pro after seeing how much easier it is to use than photo shop, plus it has some awesome new features,,

one of which is the express lab, which allows you to batch process a whole folder of raw files without actually opening the files..
 
being the standard doesn't neccessarily make it the best,

I agree!
The "standard" is often more cumbersome and expensive than other options. But there are some good reasons to go with the standard, that may make it the "best" overall.

The very large corporation for which I work used to use Photoshop and PaintShopPro. Some years ago PSP was dropped in order to standardize, so that no matter which of our hundreds of locations worldwide processed or received an image file we knew that it would be completely compatible. This also made training and communications easier, we were all working with the same "language" now.

I used PSP for years and found it to be easier for some operations than PS, something I don't have to tell you for sure! ;) But in rating which is "best" the compatibility and standardization issues must at least be considered.
 
I agree!
But in rating which is "best" the compatibility and standardization issues must at least be considered.


perhaps, but those issues are more important to a large corporation than to the average amateur, who doesn't need to especially to someone that doesn't want to spend 400 for software..

in reality it would have been more cost effective for your company to allow people familiar with paint shop pro to continue using it and just have them save their images as psd files... or png which is becoming the new industry standard file..:thumbsup2
 














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