adobe photoshop - starting out

Hi,

I still very much leave my images as are and have always been wary of the skills that I assume are needed to properly play with pics post shot using adobe photoshop software. I think I am now going to try and start playing so to speak. Can I buy an older version of Photoshop to get myself started (the new releases seem very expensive for me). And if so, how old can I go for the software to still be okay. I am using a Pentax K10D.

Any advice appreciated

Amer Khalil

I still use Photoshop 5 which is positively ancient in software terms but continues to do the business for me. It won't open RAW files so I process these first in Pentax Photo Lab (that came with the K10D) and convert them to TIFFs (sometimes JPEGs) before opening in PS5 for further manipulation.

I'm running an 18 month old mid-spec PC with Windows Vista and find that PS5 absolutely flies with no problems.

Later versions of Photoshop have added some quite nice features (not least the ability to work with RAW files directly) but I've yet to feel I'm really missing out as I can achieve about 95% of the things newer versions can do.

Photoshop is expensive but I've certainly had every last ounce of value out of mine.

Or you could buy Photoshop Elements. It does pretty much everything you will need, and is a lot cheaper than full Photoshop. PSE7 is just out but older versions are still available. you could try for PSE5 or 6 to start with. It is a big improvement over earlier versions, 7 has a few nice tweaks in it.

In fact ttk has PSE 7 for sale in the classifieds on the forum.

Definitely recommend Photoshop Elements.
Even version 2 or 3 have pretty much all the features you'd need. I learned with Photoshop Elements 2, moved up to Photoshop 7 then Photoshop CS2 - full Creative Suite which is expensive . But I still have PSE2 and PSE3 for reference and to help others out with tuition.

There are some tutorials about Layers on my web site: www.photon.me.uk
Hope that helps!
Matt

Thanks for all your help. I have just realised that I have Elements on my machine already, never saw it before! Not sure where it came from. So I will start with that and work upwards so to speak.

Is it quite intuitive, did you guys just learn through trial and error?

Many thanks

Amer Khalil

Amer,
Partly learned through trial and error. But bought the book "Hidden Elements" (website www.hiddenelements.com )
That "turbo charged" my understanding.
If there's specific stuff, then Katrin Eismann's books "Photoshop Restoration and Retouching" and "Masking.." (can't remember exact title) are in-depth books worth reading.

However, there are also plenty of on-line tutorials. Check out www.russellbrown.com - there's a load of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements video tutorials there.

Hope that helps!!
Matt

Picasa is still better given that is free. The latest one (3) has a great blemish tool and the 'I'm feeling lucky' works well 99% of the time for me. Combine that with the organisation and merges, i don't think that PS is worth the pricetag, but then never having used a latest version, something new might be worth it.

Thanks everyone

Will get stuck in and see how it goes

Amer Khalil

I started with PSE 5 (self taught) and I am just in the process of upgrading to PSE 7.

buy a small wacom graphics tablet. you'll get a free copy of photoshop elements, and you'll love working with a pen...

CS2 is as old as you can go and have the Raw Converter open PEF files. I would suggest getting Elements, works in a similar way to the full version only it doesn't have curves or Layer Masks, but there is a workaround for Layer Masks.

Chris

Lightroom however does have curves, and converts RAW, and has lots of nice file handling features...

Many people swear by GIMP which is free, I believe.

Best, Kris.

I'm now using Elements 6 and it has Colour Curves. Also has layers (was also in PSE5) which I understand is same as PS layers unless layer masks are advanced features of layers.

EddieD

PSE has always had Layers, but, as far as I know, it doesn't have Layer Masks (the white rectangle at the right hand side on the same layer).

Useful things Layer Masks you can apply a Levels to get say the sky correct and by painting with black at 100% on the Layer Mask remove the effect from the foreground. You can do this all over the picture with any Adjustment Layer. If you make a mistake just paint with White will remove the mask and reveal the effect again.

You can open several close up or Macro pictures taken at different distances from the subject each in their own layer, then working two layers at a time hide the out of focus pixels in all the different frames, result a macro shot with a massive DOF.

Chris