Terry Wildman

Best Buy has always offered a special deal for photoshop on Black Friday. Is this the best program for editing/playing with
my photos or should I hold out and get a different program? How difficult is photoshop to master?

Rhino

Photoshop is the professional choice and every photographer should learn it. It is very hard to master. You will not be able to get the most out of it without reading a few books. Scott Kelby has photoshop down. Etter than most photographers. He wrote a book. Called "The photoshop cs book for digital photographers". It is not written with all the technical bs that we photographers dont care about like many ps books. I highly recommed it for everyone that shoots digital. For about $40 bucks, its a steal. Just biy the book..trust me. As far as the program, drop a ton of cash if you want, bit it is my belief that adobe puts it out there so unprotected in hopes we amatures pirate it. They do this to create a base line of users. The only people that pay for the software are organizations and licenced business. This is not stealing, they set it like this for a reason. Simply hack the program for a fully functional version, buy the book, and learn it.

SQUIRL033 Loc: Chehalis, WA

questionable ethics at best...

English_Wolf Loc: Near Pensacola, FL

Photoshop is indeed a 'pro' program but the best for everyone? Far from it.

Everyone has different needs at different times (or progress in photography) as well as being able to afford the damned thing.

Look around for software that fits you. If you want complexity right away, use GIMP ( http://www.gimp.org/ ) it offers just about anything that Photoshop does. Price? free under the GNU program.

You did not fill your profile so it is hard to figure out at what level you are at. If you are a pro or nearly a pro, you should not need post processing. So software? to organize your pictures, that is all you need.

I have a profound distaste of post processed pictures are more often than not the result of sloppy work in the first place.

renomike Loc: Reno, Nevada

Squirl....I agree, How much you want to bet he's in his early to late 20's at the most.....;0) The generation that knows it all.

Mike

effrant Loc: New Hampshire

Nikon does the same thing, makes cameras for pros. If you aren't a pro, just steal your camera.
Photoshop is a great program. If you can get a deal on it, and plan to use it BUY it and learn it.......

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

What's the deal at BB? It may actually not be a deal if you compare Internet pricing. BB normally is not prone to killer deals but is just competitive.

Photoshop CS5 is the very best post-editing software there is but it may not be best for YOU if you have no endurance and get frustrated easily. It requires studying as though you were in college to learn it. You may even have to take a couple adult education classes at a local college campus to get over your initial learning barriers and get moving along. You will feel like you're banging your head on a brick wall for a while. Some people persist and get it while some people wimp out and quit.

If you want to hobby around or "play" as you call it, there are a half dozen brand name cheaper packages that will do that better and some are even free. I usually recommend starting with a cheaper Adobe product like Elements because it's more newbie friendly then move up to Photoshop later if you desire.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

Many people, pros included, find that Adobe Lightroom will do 90% of the processing required. It is also valuable for organizing and subsequently finding your photos. It's a lot easier to learn than Photoshop which is a real bear to use.

Gary Truchelut Loc: Coldspring, TX

Check our Lightroom 3, it was fairly easy to learn and does everthing I need. It works with RAW and yet doesn't alter your original image info. Also good organizational tool. It was recommended to me by a professional portrait photographer as being the only software I would need unless I wanted to do more digital art with my photos.

eglide02 Loc: Titletown USA

I have to agree, Photoshop is a bear to learn, I bought Scott Kelbys' book and I am taking an online class, just reading the book was not an option for me. I was so lost nothing made any sense. Its getting better now 10 lessons in and I am getting the hang of photoshop. I think if I had to do it over again I would have tried one of the less expensive programs/or free programs first. You can always upgrade. Just my opinion but I have the gray hair that comes with photoshop, luckily I now know how to fix it with the program.LOL

George H Loc: Brooklyn, New York

Terry,
Photoshop is a great program, but it has a sharp learning curve if you use it to its potential. There are many tutorials on U-tube that deal with it. I can also recommend ACDsee this program is a little easier but is not as powerful as PS.

ken4peace

Picasa is a free download and is simlair to photo but easier and I would recommend that a beginner like myself start there. It is fairly easy and does not require a lot of reading to use it properly. When you are ready and want to do more advanced things then move to Photoshop.

photocat Loc: Atlanta, Ga

-Photoshop is basically a graphic design program and years ago when photographers began to be more serious about their digital work it was about the only "game" in town and so it has become a standard. However, only about 20% has value for a photography and so Elements came about. Adobe took those functions photographers used the most and placed them within a specific platform.

Depending on one's needs and background it may or may not be the best program.

There are a variety of programs that will provide basic tools for handling digital images. Most have free trials to enable folks to determine which they find the most useful.

There are also several free programs that may be of value.

Check out Photoscape, it is very powerful and easy to use .

I always recommend to my students, start with the cd that comes with your camera, and then when you out grow that program, move up to something more powerful.

As to Adobe not protecting their asset, have you tried to use a version on any more than the 2 computers allowed with the liscense. Not so easy. Of course there are unethical folks who pirate the program and it may be the target of many , rather than Corel; but that may be the result of the price point and many thinking it is the only program of value.

Lightroom is basically a catalog program with some basic editing functions, and many use it together with PS. If your shooting 1000 of images a week , it may be helpful. If one is shooting family affairs , vacations, etc. then it may be over kill. Again, try it and see if it helps or henders your workflow.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I agree. This is a bit like saying restaurants have a front door because they want you to taste their great food, before you "dine and dash"

Libby Hillhouse Loc: Ryegate, Vermont

Does anyone have any idea WHY photoshop is structured to be so difficult to use? There must be a way to create such a useful program without all the tangles.....