Photo editing software.....

[KristiA]

Hello all. I am looking to purchase some editing software with my Christmas money. Just wondering what everyone's preferences are. Don't have a huge amount to spend, maybe 200ish.

 

[wenrob]

What kind of camera do you have? What kind of processing/editing do you plan to do? Depending on what it is you want to do will help people make recommendations.

I currently use Corel PSPX2 Ultimate. It's affordable and user friendly.

 

[Groucho]

If you have a kid in school, you can get an educational license for Lightroom, I think it's somewhere around $99 versus the $299 full price. I think the regular version was on sale for $199 at some point in early December, too. That's will go a lot of things but won't do stuff like put someone's head on another's body or make collages or that type of thing.

Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro are worth consideration if you're after more "editing" and less "processing and organization" which is what LR specializes in.

 

[wenrob]

Yep, Groucho, I paid 98.00 for my copy of LR2 w/DD's school ID. Still waiting for it....

 

[KristiA]

I have a Nikon D40. I don't think I need anything too fancy. Just want to do some special effects (b and W, coloring, etc.) and maybe some fixing of photos.

 

[wenrob]

So then you don't plan on processing RAW files then?
I would say check out PSP or PS Elements for what you want to do. You can download free trials of each to try them out. Personally I prefer PSP, for me it's just easier to navigate and self learn.