What software do you use?

For a person new to all this, what would be the best solution for PP needs? Is there ONE solution, or do I need to look at more than one product?

I plan on shooting in RAW, and would like to be able to adjust white balance, hue, saturation, HDR, color temp, layers, etc...

I have identified the following products, and would love to know what your impressions are of you have used any or all of them, or others I have left out:

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop Elements
Adobe Lightroom
Gimp
Picassa
ACDSee

 

Thanks for starting this thread stogie, i'm just starting in the game too and am interested to see what the pros think. I have Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom already installed on my macbook, which I got from torrent. I know they will be sufficient for PP, but if there is easier software out there i'm all ears. I think lightroom is probably the best place to start as a n00b because the UI is rather friendly to understand most PP then probably step it up to CS3.

 

I have Photoshop Elements, and I don't really find it useful, so I've asked for Lightroom for Christmas. Hope I get it.

I've been using Digital Photo Professional, the software that came with my Rebel XT, and it's ok, but it's skimpy on features, so that's why I'm upgrading to Lightroom.

I'm a noob at PP also, so I hope Lightroom won't be too difficult to figure out.

 

Adobe just subpoenaed your IP address.....

I want to pay for the software, so I am trying to figure out which would be the best investment to make. Hate learning things the expensive way...

 

Elements is actually really good. I'd be interested to hear what it is you don't like about it. That said, I've been loving LR since I got it. There's just some things it can't do that PS/PS Elements can, like selective editing, layers, etc. I haven't missed PSE too much since I got LR, though.

 

I can only recommend Adobe, there's other out there to me, Adobe just does it better. For what you want to do forget just having Elements. If you're going to being a lot of pictures get Lightroom.

I don't think Adobe has really caught on for HDR, I use Dynamic-Photo HDR, or there's Photomatrix

 

For me LR is the foundation - I start with it and then finish with PSPXI. I think similarly Elements would be a good supplemental product to LR, for those things that LR can't do.

 

I guess I better DOD format the HD and clean up the house for the FEDS, maybe i'll pick up a dozen donuts for them

Actually I got lightroom straight from Adobe's server, so they already have the IP info if they want it.

 

I haven't used it in a while, so I'm going off memory, but it just seemed too basic and lacked more advanced things. I'm sure if I tried to use it now, I could think of better, more specific examples, but I can't remember.

 

I'm not a pro obviously, but I like my bibble pro. Mainly because the one key I bought works on mac, pc, and linux. It interface is fairly ugly, but it does a good job on batch processing.

I use it as my main processing program and then do really heavy editing if needed in GIMP.

I also have some warez cs, cs2 and ps 7 version lying around, but the more I learned about "the gimp" the less I have needed them. Once again, i'm not a pro, and I'm sure a pro might need features specific to those programs.

 

Stogie, if you decide to shoot in raw format, just know that Adobe's raw conversion software in Lightroom and Photoshop are identical. The biggest difference between Lightroom and Photoshop is that LR only does adjustments on the entire photo whereas PS can adjust any little piece of the image you want. You can still target specific color ranges, brightness levels, and so forth in Lightroom, but your adjustment will apply to every single instance of those things within the photo.

My opinion is go with Lightroom unless A) you can get Photoshop for the student price and B) you're willing to put in the time to learn some stuff (none of which is terribly hard).

 

Lightroom is so great.

I still use Photoshop CS3 to do some things, but I practically live in Lightroom now. The best thing you can do is download the Lightroom training videos at Luminous Landscape: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/vi...d-videos.shtml
There is so much to know about Lightroom that isn't immediately obvious when you start using it. Jeff Schewe does a great job in those videos and he gives you a lot of little tricks that are big time savers.

 

Lightroom it will be!! Thanks guys!

 

Thanks, Dan. I will need those training vids after xmas.

 

I think I might give lightroom too. I have CS2 but need to learn how to use it. It's so confusing.

 

There are some really great learning resources right on Adobes website. Here are a few links that I've been browsing.

There is a good assortment of Video guides that show how all the various tools work and the effects they create. http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/archives/videos/

There are a bunch of tutorials from Adobe here:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/designc...ightroom&go=Go

A lot of the ones from Matt Kloskowski seem to be very helpful.

 

This one is really good too, it offers video podcasts which is a real bonus!

http://www.mulita.com/blog/