DWHJR Loc: Kannapolis NC

Would like to hear some thoughts on PP please. Not interested in Photo Shop, too expensive. Lightroom, Corel or Elements, something in that price range. Anny inputs would be appreciated. Thanks!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

The last thing I would want to do is rely on a film camera to take pictures and then get them developed. Every picture I take goes through PP in Lightroom, PS, or Irfanview. I don't make money from my photos, but I do like playing around with the software and seeing what I can do. There isn't a single photo I've taken that I wouldn't mess around with. It's my entertainment

renomike Loc: Reno, Nevada

Try Zoner Photo Studio Pro 14, it has a 30 day free trial, and I believe it's $69.99. I've used it since version 10, and love it. I have several different editing software programs, including PSE 7 & 10, and Photoshop 7 and Photoshop CS, but I use Zoner 95% of the time.

http://www.zoner.com/ww-en/photo-studio/new-features

Mike

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

If you are serious, the best PP product out there is Lightroom 4.1. Easier than PhotoShop for editing, but more importantly it has a clean efficient and productive workflow with very powerful tools. Once you have spent several hours with it and a tutorial, it begins to become evident that Adobe has really listened to photographers and made this product work like we do. It also supports dozens of fully integrated add-ins (same line-up as Photoshop) that can do most anything and integrates with PhotoShop if you ever do need it (with Lightroom, 90% of folks never do)

For just $139 it is a steal.

BTW, following this post with probably be a dozen UHHer's saying that no product is best and that the one they use is also great. All true, but if you are going to invest hundreds of hours each year in PP, then LR4 should be your first choice. It simply saves you time and it works!

viscountdriver Loc: East Kent UK

get Serif PhotoPlus X5. As good as any of the others but easier to use and cheap

GDRoth Loc: Southeast Michigan USA

As F. L. says "if you are serious, it's Lightroom 4.1"

All this talk of "cheap", "free" and "as good as" is a waste of time.............If you are serious for the long haul, it is Lightroom.........

renomike Loc: Reno, Nevada

Sorry GD, but I've heard of a lot of short comings for Lightroom too, no one program does it all. Guess that's why I have several....;0) Zoner is not a waste of time, and in many ways ranks right up there with PS, and surpasses it in many ways. Don't knock something you haven't tried. After all these are just our opinions on what we use...;0)

Mike

GDRoth Loc: Southeast Michigan USA

Didn't mean to sound too harsh, Mike......I apoligize....

I just have a strong opinion that LR 4.1 is the state of the art and anyone taking PP seriously should bite the bullet and learn it....

renomike Loc: Reno, Nevada

No problem GD....;0) I just think someone new to PP needs to try some of the free trials of the various software out there and decide what's best for them. I really can't talk against Lightroom, as I've never used it. I've heard many good things about it, and some complaints against it. I've had some type of PP software since the DOS days....;0) It's amazing how much they all have improved over the years.

Have a good day.... Mike

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Ditto.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I used to sell comuters and software and all the software vendors would give "not for resale" copies of their software to employees for free. I found that when I got it free, it just wasn't the same as spending hard earned money in that I would put it on the computer and tend not to learn it. But if I paid good hard earned money for something, I'm going to take the effort to learn it the best I can since I don't like to waste money. Just my point of view on free stuff.

I've got LR, PSE9 CS5, PSP x12,x13,x14. Having too many is also another reason that I'm not better at PP. I was always thinking that this program is going to work best because everyone says it's easy and does a good job. This is probably true with most programs available today, except that they all have a learning curve that is sometimes difficult to grasp at first. I can only say that whatever program you choose, stick with it, get a book, watch youtube videos, ask questions here. Some books come with DVD videos with examples on how to do it.

LR is the choice for most photographers, but it doesn't do layering so that is why I find it's best to use LR and a full editor. I've got LR4 and CS5. I graduated from PSP9 to CS5 because the book I read kept talking about how CS "can do this" and more.

GDRoth Loc: Southeast Michigan USA

I have LR 4.1 and CS5.

More and more, I do everything in LR, but have not done a lot of work where I used Layers....I guess that's next

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

I have found the same thing. I use CS5 occasionally for things that I either cannot do in LR or, as I've come to discover more and more, didn't know how to do in LR.

Layering is a useful tool when needed, but it represents less that 2% of my images. HDR is another task that LR does not address, so I pop in and out of Photomatix Pro 4 for that (Yes I know CS5 can also do HDR, but not as easily or as well as Photomatix in my opinion.)

So, there is no perfect do all application. But the app at the top of the heap for Post processing (not specialized digital manipulation), is LR, the same company that makes CS5.