ipiccy wots it like please?

Hi I am thinking of downloading this to enhance my photoes before printing them for display. The only thing that worries me is if the image resolution will b compressed,so that I cant have my finished product enlarged without noise showing.

How can I get round this please? Thanks.

Louise, I've just tried it. After editing I saved the picture at max. quality and the image size was reduced to 3500 pixels wide (from 4672). (The saved image was 300ppi as per the original, not that it matters much - the overall image size is far more important).

This is good enough for printing at A4 but like most of these cr@ppy online photo editing services, I wouldn't recommend this program as a primary image editor. They're designed for mobile uploads destined for Facebook really.

Get a decent proper photo editor like Photoshop CS2 (which is free) and learn how to use it. Forget these gimmicky online editors. All the time you have wasted on them would have been better spent getting to grips with Photoshop IMHO!

Thats what I was worried about, so it did compress the size? I was thinking of getting lightroom five or photoshop Elements, which one do u think is better?

I am going to lighten up pictures, sharpen, make vivid in some etc. Which version would be better? Thanks.

As I said the actual size of the image was reduced, there was a small amount of compression but I saved as 'max. quality' so not a significant amount. (The file size was reduced slightly but this is probably because the actual image ended up being smaller).

For me, Photoshop CS2 is a good bet as it's free, and very full featured. This is pretty much the only program I use these days.

Photoshop Elements is also great. In practise it's very similar to the full featured Photoshop. You will have to buy it, but you'll get a more up to date version.

Lightroom is mainly for people who shoot RAW (not that you can't edit RAW images with Photoshop too!) but I would forget about it for now and get to grips with Photoshop / Photoshop Elements.

Thanks for that I thought photoshop cs2 was over 100 pounds? There is a trial version of elements, I hope that doesn't compress the size?

Lightroom 5 from Morgan Computers, search on Hotukdeals for lightroom. It's under £
60.

It's great for straightforward editing and RAW processing. It has a logical interface and it is non-destructive meaning you can always go back to the original and have a many versions of the image as you like. I can do most of my editing in LR.

Download the trial and have a look.

Get the free Photos hope CS2 version and see how you like it too. It is fine if you need layers and more sophisticated pixel by pixel editing.

Have to agree with Will on this one. I'd go for CS2. I have Lightroom 5 and Elements 12 but usually find myself using Photoshop, as it's like "everything in one place"

I'm not very good at layers etc, where do I get the free cs2 please?

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/3689-adobe-photoshop-cs2.html

Photoshop is well worth wrapping your head around, and whether you're using Photoshop or Elements, you'll find most people will be familiar with the software and therefore able to help out on any specific queries you may have. There are also loads of online tutorials and plug ins that make things easier and simpler for you.

Thanks I went to a photoshop workshop and got really confused so elements might be better?

I think you'd be better off with Lightroom Louise. Those who have suggested Photoshop CS2 have said it's free but to use it legally, Adobe have made it clear that you need a license.

Also, the version of Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) that comes with PS CS2 will not handle RAW images from modern Pentax DSLR's.

Download the Lightroom trial version and give it a go for 30 days whilst following one of the many online tutorials.

Yes it will. (DNG).

I feel there is more potential for confusion with Lightroom, and while I would recommend that program generally, I would not necessarily recommend it to Louise (sorry Louise!)

Doing general contrast tweaks, and cropping etc in any version of Photoshop is very easy. The trouble with some workshops is they sometimes give you too much information all at once whereas Louise may just want to start off with a couple of things and then progress gradually. I would also recommend sticking with jpeg and forgetting about RAW conversion for the time being...

Hi, I have just upgraded to windows seven, so I am still trying to get used to it.

Anyway! I am going to download both the trial's and write notes about them and how I got on.

Is there a section in this forum that deals with computers please? Ta very much

I like lightroom as it has a pretty simple interface. The catalogue of your pics on the left, the pic in the middle, stuff you can do on the right. IN develop, the actions to perform are logically laid out and you just run down them selecting the ones you want and adjust the sliders.

I use Lightroom for most stuff, photoshop for some stuff and Picasa too (e.g. fast simple collages).


This seems a pretty good overview of lightroom. (3 not 5 but 5 should be an improvement)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9oUjFsb2I4

The develop module pretty straightforwardly explained
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-obDFZrZ27U

And export
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjaueio7rqI