Help needed choosing the Photoshop I need: I've been seeing the beautiful work everyone is doing with the special effects on their pictures. I need help with which Photoshop to add.

annie blossum Loc: USA

I've been seeing the beautiful work everyone is doing with the special effects on their pictures. I need help with which Photoshop to add. Photoshop 5, Photoshop Elements ......??
I need it to be free as I am hearing a lot about the free programs or whatever they are called.

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

Annie, I do all of my special effects in Photoshop CS5 but that is a very expensive program. I believe that most of the special effects can be achieved with Adobe Photoshop Elements 10, but it is not free. However it can be had for as low as $59. There are a few good free programs out there. I have experimented with most of them but they never live up to the capabilities of Photoshop or Elements. I must add that I am somewhat perplexed that many photographers are willing to spend several hundreds of dollars, even thousands, for their cameras and lenses but they are unwilling to pay for a post processing program. Many people are going to tell you to go with Picaso. It is free, but free is what you get. Also keep in mind that there are hundreds of free aftermarket filters available that do great special effects. Most all of them are compatibble with Photoshop and Elements.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

annie blossum wrote:

I've been seeing the beautiful work everyone is doing with the special effects on their pictures.

I can just picture some of our people cringing as they read "special effects." I think they prefer to think that they are making a good photo better. No offense intended to anyone with that comment.

As someone will soon say, it all depends on what you want to do. For years I have been using a wonder free program called Irfanview, which is available with a few polug-ins. You can download the whole package all at once. It loads in about a second, and it offers quite a few editing features, so if I just want to lighten an image or remove some spots, I can finished before Photoshop even gets running.

For more detailed work I use PS, LR, and PSE. They are expensive, though, so you might want to start with free programs and free tutorials on the web. If you use Windows, there are free programs included. I think Windows Paint can do editing.

Good luck and enjoy your processing.

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

jerryc41 wrote:

quote=annie blossum I've been seeing the beautifu... (show quote)

Good point, Jerry. I use Irfanview as my default viewer. It can also automatically resize photos for email and send from the program without actually downsiizing your saved original, and it works with most email clients such as Outlook. I also like the fact that will open Canon RAW files for viewing. Just keep in mind that the plugins for these functions must be loaded with the program.

joe west Loc: Taylor, Michigan

cs5 the only way to go

bioteacher Loc: Brooklyn, NY

annie blossum wrote:

I've been seeing the beautiful work everyone is doing with the special effects on their pictures. I need help with which Photoshop to add. Photoshop 5, Photoshop Elements ......??
I need it to be free as I am hearing a lot about the free programs or whatever they are called.

I would tell you to try Paint Shop Pro X4 - cheaper than Adobe and most of the Photoshop plugin work with PSP. Also Adobe has nice discounts for students and educators.

fosgood11 Loc: oil city, La.

Photoshop elements will do everything you need. It will cost you but it's worth it.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

One of the benefits of Photoshop Elements is the wide variety of training available. There are very organized courses from lynda.com or video2brain, either online or on disks. Adobe has forums. And, YouTube has lots as well.

The cost is not much more than what a few rolls of film and processing used to be. Regarding the OP's remark about "free", you can download and use it for a month without cost.

PE is extraordinarily complex if you've not done digital editing. On the surface there is plenty of easy, automatic features. Deeper are tools beyond imagination. Without organized learning, the curve will be long.

Bill

fosgood11 Loc: oil city, La.

you are right. I have ps and pse so I know what you are talking about. I only use ps sometimes for most things I use pse cause it's easy.

oldtool2 Loc: South Jersey

jerryc41 wrote:

quote=annie blossum I've been seeing the beautifu... (show quote)

Good point Jerry. CS6 is now 700 bucks, Lightroom is $150.00 and Elements is between $60.00 and $100.00.

One little side note. I feel Lightroom and Elements will do almost anything CS6 will do and only cost around $250.00 instead of $700.00. Elements will do things CS6 can not do, that is why Adobe sells it as a package deal for $770.00. There are a few things CS6 will do that they, LR & PSE, will not do as well but unless you are a professional you don't really need CS6. I had quite a talk with Adobe yesterday about this and when done they agreed that LR and PSE pretty much make up a poor mans CS6.

Jim D

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

oldtool2 wrote:

quote=jerryc41 quote=annie blossum I've been see... (show quote)

I've been using Photoshop Elements for a few months and it recently upgraded itself with the RAW processing capability to include more cameras. I don't (yet) have a RAW capable camera and find the depth of tools in PrE amazing. What part of Lightroom is necessary to make it required in the "poor man's" version? Isn't PrE alone, enough for those who are poor from buying too many cameras and lenses? What am I missing about my understanding of Lightroom?

Bill

oldtool2 Loc: South Jersey

bsprague wrote:

oldtool2 wrote:

quote=jerryc41 quote=annie blossum I've been see... (show quote)

I've been using Photoshop Elements for a few months and it recently upgraded itself with the RAW processing capability to include more cameras. I don't (yet) have a RAW capable camera and find the depth of tools in PrE amazing. What part of Lightroom is necessary to make it required in the "poor man's" version? Isn't PrE alone, enough for those who are poor from buying too many cameras and lenses? What am I missing about my understanding of Lightroom?

Bill

quote=oldtool2 quote=jerryc41 quote=annie bloss... (show quote)

LR really shines in the cataloging department. LR4.1 has gotten much better in editing also but there are features in editing that I feel PSE10 excells in. I have found that I can do most of my editing in LR and then if needed finish it in PSE.

The downside to using PSE is it is very restricted if you are editing a 16 bit photo for printing. It is great for 8 bit photos that you are going to save as a jpg for internet, emails or such. LR is much better if you are working with a 16 bit photo,and yes there are advantages to 16 bit over 8 bit. You might want to look at this thread:

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-36263-1.html

Jim D

UP-2-IT Loc: RED STICK, LA

annie blossum wrote:

I've been seeing the beautiful work everyone is doing with the special effects on their pictures. I need help with which Photoshop to add. Photoshop 5, Photoshop Elements ......??
I need it to be free as I am hearing a lot about the free programs or whatever they are called.

Something FREE to get you started will be a program called GIMP. It is based on PhotoShop, one of the most popular
processing programs in use. I would suggest starting with GIMP and after you are familiar with that go to whatever one that you feel would be best for you.

Just Google GIMP and download version 8, the latest.

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

My advice is to go for the best recomended free program to start with "IF" you don't have or don't want to spend $$$ right now - "BUT" as soon as you can or want buy PSE - it is not a pro oriented program like CS & LR - but has most everything you will ever need or want for years to come. $100 or less depending on the seller.
Enjoy you photography
Harvey

annie blossum wrote:

I've been seeing the beautiful work everyone is doing with the special effects on their pictures. I need help with which Photoshop to add. Photoshop 5, Photoshop Elements ......??
I need it to be free as I am hearing a lot about the free programs or whatever they are called.

UP-2-IT Loc: RED STICK, LA

Harvey wrote:

My advice is to go for the best recomended free pr... (show quote)

Harvey, think B&H is running Elements 10 at 49.99 again.