Software ?

[adisneymama]

I am looking to buy new digital photography software. I would like to be able to print different size portraits as well as crop, edit photos etc. What type of software are you guys using? Especially those of you making these beautiful shirts!

Thanks!

 

[brack]

I am looking to buy new digital photography software. I would like to be able to print different size portraits as well as crop, edit photos etc. What type of software are you guys using? Especially those of you making these beautiful shirts!

Thanks!

You can't beat Photoshop and Photoshop Elements is an inexpensive start.

 

[adisneymama]

Can you do as much with Elements? There is quite a price difference between the two.

 

[AndrewWG]

Personally, I don't see needing anything but Photoshop elements. It will, for the most part, always do what I want it to do. As you mention, it crops and you can edit many many different things with it. As far as printing, I don't use it for printing. I use the program that came with my HP printer so I can't help there.

I don't think you can go wrong with elements.

 

[adisneymama]

Thanks for the replies. Any other reviews?

 

[bostran1]

I have a Mac and use Apple's Aperture. I would highly recommend it for photo organization and editing. But its only for Macs. Otherwise, I use photoshop too and love it.

 

[DVC Jen]

I use photoshop elements 5 - and print with it with no issues at all.

 

[orchjoe]

Photoshop elements should work for you. I personally use Photoshop CS3 (and have used CS and CS2) and I can't stand using elements.

Tip to the wise: If you know someone in school you can usually get a pretty good education discount on Adobe products (I bought lighroom for $96)

 

[MICKEY88]

PAint Shop Pro Photo XI

will pretty much do everything photoshop will do for under $100

 

[DVC Jen]

Photoshop elements should work for you. I personally use Photoshop CS3 (and have used CS and CS2) and I can't stand using elements.

Tip to the wise: If you know someone in school you can usually get a pretty good education discount on Adobe products (I bought lighroom for $96)

My DH has just started classes - going for his MBA and he can get some great discounts. I am expecting to find Lightroom under my tree this X-mas.

 

[jann1033]

i tried the free trials of any i could get my hands on and found photoshop elements to be the most user friendly for me...my only problems ( and i know i sound like a broken record) is i have an older computer( 512 mb) and a big catalog, so i had to put most of my photos on an external drive and i can still only open 10-15 or so photos to work on at one time( raw conversion) and the raw conversion tool isn't the greatest if you plan on shooting raw, ie no batch processing. don't know if pse6 has addressed either of those issues or not.

also i'd recommend a good book if you get it, i love the missing manual,Barbara brundege, really helped when i first got the program and i still keep it for reference.

 

[Master Mason]

One other thing you might think about is lightroom. It will do RAW conversion, batch processing, and image adjustments. If you want to really manipulate the photos, you'll need Photoshop or equivalent, but I venture to say that 99% of my needs are covered very simply in Lightroom.

 

[Groucho]

What kind of editing are you after? The free Irfanview (see link in my siggy) can do most basic editing tasks (cropping, rotating, resizing, color adjustments, etc, etc), often quicker and easier than larger, more bloated programs. It's not intended to replace Photoshop/Lightroom/Paint Shop/etc but depending on your needs, it may work very well for you. Can't beat the price - free...

 

[tekoa]

I am new and ignorant in the world of digital photography, but I find that picasa from google meets my needs. Maybe when I get more advanced I will venture into photoshop. Picasa is also free, my kind of price.

 

[adisneymama]

Thanks everyone. I may try a copy of photo impact that someone gave me. If I'm not satisfied with that, then I might try Elements. Going to go look at these freebies as well.

Thanks again!