Virtually all my photo editing has been in Picasa because it is easy and free. Now I find out that Google is doing away with it. So... I need new software to edit/file my work. My issues are that I am financially challenged (read, poor) and I cannot seem to grasp the various terms used in programs like Photoshop and Lightroom. Any advice, recommendations, and contributions are heartily encouraged! Blessings to all!
It isn't going to stop working just because they aren't giving it away anymore. Drive it until it drops and keep a backup of the download just in case you computer develops an issue. You aren't alone with this problem. :)
Thank you! (Love all your quotes!)
lightcatcher wrote:
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-401340-1.html
filzfotoz wrote:
Virtually all my photo editing has been in Picasa because it is easy and free. Now I find out that Google is doing away with it. So... I need new software to edit/file my work. My issues are that I am financially challenged (read, poor) and I cannot seem to grasp the various terms used in programs like Photoshop and Lightroom. Any advice, recommendations, and contributions are heartily encouraged! Blessings to all!
Photoshop Elements is the least expensive full featured program you can buy: frequently on sale for $49.
Even though they made vast improvemnts in usabilty starting with version 12 it still has a high learning curve. There are many free videos and even sometimes free books but it does require study and practice.
Store all your photos on "Google Photos" it is an excellent organiser and has a basic but very good editor, I use it all the time.
Zoner and Ashampoo both offer reasonably priced editing software.
For free, I can vouch for Raw Therapee. It does not support layers but otherwise it is pretty complete.
For layers, some will recommend Gimp. I can't disagree because I've not tried that software for many years. When I did, I found the user interface confusing and the learning curve steep. That was a long time ago, however.
But Paintshop Pro is pretty cheap at under $100 for the latest version and updates often dropping to under $50. You can probably pick up an older version on eBay for $20 or less and really there is nothing wrong with the older versions. Changes between successive versions tend to be insignificant.
Creative Cloud. $9.99 month forever. Get Lightroom and photoshop, both kept up to date forever. 😄
Paaflyer wrote:
Creative Cloud. $9.99 month forever. Get Lightroom and photoshop, both kept up to date forever. 😄
CC comes with a one-year commitment and it renews automatically at the end of the year (I seem to recall that you have ten days to cancel at the end of the year).
So that is $119.88 a year to keep up-to-date forever. I'm not saying that is a bad deal, but that is the reality of the deal - unless Adobe decides to jack-up the price.
Shakey
Loc: Traveling again to Norway and other places.
filzfotoz wrote:
Virtually all my photo editing has been in Picasa because it is easy and free. Now I find out that Google is doing away with it. So... I need new software to edit/file my work. My issues are that I am financially challenged (read, poor) and I cannot seem to grasp the various terms used in programs like Photoshop and Lightroom. Any advice, recommendations, and contributions are heartily encouraged! Blessings to all!
Your best free photo software is GIMP. Get it here:
http://www.gimp.org/ Download 2.8.18, the latest edition for Windows. If you have a Mac click the same download and select OSX for the Mac version. Many users compare it favorably to Photoshop, maybe not quite as good but an excellent program.
For quick and easy tutorials, which you can print out lesson by lesson, go here:
http://www.gimp2tutorials.info/downloads.htm Scroll down the page for the downloads. Get the demo photos as they can be a big help while learning.
MikeMck
Loc: Southern Maryland on the Bay
I still use Picasa. I did make a copy of the software in case I get another computer.
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