Image editing programs

I've never indulged in adjusting my previous digital photos with a program apart from cropping but I'm hoping to go to an evening class to give me ideas and get the best out of the dslr (Kx). What do you recommend as software .... and why? (Hides below the parapet very quicklyI have searched the forum but last discussion was started in 2003 that I could find...

Also just got some cards back from Bonusprint and they are very dark - when I look again at the pics - yes - brightening would have been an idea but I'm still mentally in film mode! You take the final shot not play with it. However, I see the need and would like to be able to improve my photography.

Had a look online and it's hard to see what each of the many programs has to offer. Have also bought mags that encourage use but don't say why one would better than another so am rather in the dark. Personal views are always much better. Looking at Adobe products and for PC.

Thanks.

lazydaisy25

Hi Lazydaisy. You will probably find that people here use a whole array of different software packages for editing images... You state that you are looking at Adobe products... there are three that I know of: Photoshop, Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. And I believe they run in that order for price (i.e Photoshop most expensive, Photoshop elements least so). Personally I use Photoshop Elements version 8. It cost me about £50 I think (although I upgraded from a previous version). It is a powerful tool and enables all sorts of adjustments to be made - from the very subtle to very overt. It also includes a RAW editor (I always shoot images in RAW so this is handy) and a further program called Bridge which I haven't used (:shock but i think it enables workflow/organisation of images.

Photohop is the big brother image manipulation package, and is a lot more expensive. Lightroom sits in between in price and I'm afraid I don't know much about it.

Of course there is also an image editor which would have come bundled with your K-X I would have thought, and there are also other free packages available through the web - such as in Picasa - although others will know more than I. There is a lot of choice.

I went with Photoshop elements because it was readily available, reasonably priced, looked capable and pretty intuitive (to my mind) and having plumped for it have had no reason to change -although I'd bet I only use 10% of it's functionality...

Don't know if that helps at all

Regards

Photoshop Elements should do you jst fine and offers plenty of control without costing a fortune.

GIMP is available as a free download and I understand it's quite good, but I have no personal experience of it.

I personally use Photoshop 7 and Photoshop CS2, almost always the latter now that we have new and faster computers.

Thanks Matt and John. It's good to get an idea. Don't want to spend too much - still counting the cost of the camera etc. The photo mags seem to concentrate on 'workshops' for Photoshop but I didn't know which way to think of jumping. All I know is that some of my images need tweaking - mostly brightness. Hard to tell from the lcd screen how well they have come up especially in bright light so playing with the settings now.

More comments welcome if anyone has a particular program they couldn't live without and can tell me why!

Lazydaisy25

Your Pentax KX should have been supplied with Pentax Utility Software 4. This program will allow you to adjust brightness, contrast, colour balance and a whole load of other parameters

The best imaging software and the industry standard is Adobe Photoshop CS5 which is very expensive, but will do anything. This program is the basis of most image processing courses. However, Adobe do produce Photoshop Elements 8, which to all intents and purposes, is a scaled down version of the full Photoshop CS5. Photoshop Elements 8 will do most of what photographers could need. Photoshop Elements 8 is available from Camera World for £50.

Picasa is all you need. It will do pretty much anything you need to do, to improve a photograph. It has a very easy interface; One click fixes for most things... Really Idiot proof. - Which is why I use it!
Best of all, it is completely free!. It's a Google product, downloadable from there. I have never felt the need to use anything else.

Give it a go. In fact, download it now and play with it for the rest of the evening. I think you'll like it!

I've never used anything extensively other than the GIMP, so I can't comment on what other packages are like compared to it, but it's great. I did try Picasa but found it very sluggish and resource-hungry, plus it doesn't work well on netbooks due to its desire to add all of your photos to a library (which doesn't help when you use an external drive to store them, which isn't always plugged in).

There is a plugin to handle RAW files named UFRaw, which will handle all the adjustments you might want to make.

I did install the Pentax imaging software but it crashes on me as soon as I get to the picture I want to adjust - it just won't open it and dies May have to try uninstalling and have another go. May try a free trial of Elements. Hubby also bought a Kx and is shooting RAW. My 10" netbook screen is really too small to be useful in editing so it'll all have to go on the pc.
Thanks for the info.

Lazydaisy25

If you're shooting in RAW then actually Lightroom might be a better option although it's more expensive than Elements and it's also different.
Lihtroom is a specialized software for processing photos, Elements is a (general) image editor like Paint Shop.

There are also more programs like Silkypix, Phaseone and more that are also specially for processing photos but they offer it all differently and have different features.
Just try them out to see which one fills your need.

About comparing screen with prints, it can also be you must calibrate your screen if you haven't done it.
A print company can't know the settings of your screen so they can't and won't calibrate their printers to your screen.

Photoshop Elements is just as much designed for processing photos as any other editor, and contains every feature you are likely to need.

The main thing is that most magazines as well as most workshops refer to Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. And when/if attending workshops or courses it is always to have a matching software package at home.

Photoshop Elements (PSE) has all the same processing capabilities as Lightroom. The user interface is very different, but both can do the same job, PSE does more.

. just finished the basic digital photography course at my local college they used Picasa. going onto the intermediate course next month and apparently it will be adobe photoshop elements, there is another course after that not sure what they will use then. i would imagine with the curreent financial climate it will be elements cheaper than full photoshop, plus photoshop is done as a seperate course which is far more expensive than the photography courses. probably aimed more at pro photographers and graphic design.
the lecturer was also a Pentaxian , he was quite excited as there were two of us with Pentax out of twelve
the basic course did ONE thing for me it made me USE THE CAMERA FUNCTIONS and it is amazing what you can do in camera
without recourse to software plus you learn the menu as you go.After the course i decided on Elements as it fits with the next.

I don't have elements but do have CS5 and lightroom.
For photography Lightroom is just anything you need to be honest and it has things CS5 doesn't have like how LR manage your photos and how it does non destructive processing, all little things that make a difference for photography.
CS5 has a lot more to offer though but almost all his features are geared towards general image editing so you get a lot off things you don't really need or will ever used.
They both are very different programs, just try them out and see what fill your needs better, lightroom or elements.

Lightroom is very popular, almost 50% of the pro's use it so I'm sure you will find processing for that in magazines too and i've already seen countless workshops for it.

Here is a nice tip and trick site for lightroom http://lightroomkillertips.com/

i use photoshop elements 7 ,Morgan computers are doing elements 7 for £21.78 inc vat and elements 8 for £32 inc vat .
regards, tim.

I've messed about with PP since I got my first DSLR. Pressing buttons and levers on Elements 5 and Windows Live Gallery, to see what happens. I'm now looking to get on a course in September hoping to find out how to do it correctly. As for the software, I'm waiting to see what is used on the course, so as not to get confused trying to learn with one and practice with something different.