I don't use any photo editing and I want to start taking my pictures in RAW. I have paintshop but never really understood it. I wondered what others thought was the best programme to buy or even the subscription package? I think its about £9 per month. Any advice and or pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Susie
Perhaps you could start with the RAW software that came with your camera? You have already paid for it. Photoshop (and Lightroom too) are big programs, and if you have never used an editor, you may initially be overwhelmed.
As @davidtom mentioned above, Lightroom may be a good option as it quite intuitive. Photoshop is a brilliant but challenging programme. Whilst I have never used it, I understand that Gimp has many similar facilities to PS and is free!
I would go for the LR + PS packages on Creative Cloud. Not entirely sure where you are or what the price is there for both, but its generally pretty cheap. This way you get to play around with LR and have scope to check out PS at a cheap price
I definitely recommend Lightroom as well. I started with Aperture and didn't like it. I found it hard to navigate and I didn't like the way it organized files. I switched to Lightroom and found it super easy to use and very intuitive. I was easily editing RAW files in no time! I opted for the $9.99/month Lightroom & Photoshop package from Creative Cloud. That's really a great price, and while LR does do 95% of what I need, it's great to be able to jump in to PS to do the other 5%.
I got a Creative Cloud subscription and did Kim's 'Round Trip' Lightroom to Photoshop course - click on the test kitchen here: http://learn.kimklassen.com/ then on the round trip button and it will tell you about it: Highly recommend Kim, she's lovely, I've done lots of her courses, learned a lot, worth every penny.
Its funny..... I know everyone says LR to start but I love CS5. Just so many more options and it's so easy to learn. I have LR as well but seldom ever use it :/
Do you work using RAW files? LR is basically ACR plus part of Bridge plus some other features. However, you can always make changes in LR to the RAW files. Unless you use smart objects, I don't think you can easily go back to ACR process once you commit.
I find LR has a better layout with various additional features (i.e. side-by-side comparison & virtual copy) that ACR does not have.
Some may ask why make constant changes in ACR. Just do it in PS. Once you convert the RAW to a PS file, you no longer have access to all the information in the RAW file. Kinda of like taking a negative, processing it and then making the edits only on the printed image. Working in the RAW environment constantly allows you to access all the data (i.e. dynamic range of the file). The analogy being doing as much of the post-production work as possible in the darkroom before printing it. So if I later decide I want to pull more details out of the shadow, I can easily go back and do it.
In reality, when dealing with RAW files, when you use PS, you likely will use ACR which is basically less feature rich LR. So the question is why not use LR (where it has more options) instead of ACR.
I would also recommend Lightroom, but PS cs5 is also not so complicated, you just need to play with everything until you understand it.. And for me, I edit most of my pics in PhotoImpact (Ulead's version of PS). That's just my personal choice, I've been using it forever
I have just downloaded the Lightroom/PS bundle from creative cloud, before this I used PS Elements and Picasa 3.
I havent started shooting in raw yet, this year I want to learn PS and Lightroom and organize my photos. So far I haven't used Lightroom because I'm not familiar with the terminology, I find it very intimidating.
Any suggestions on how to get started with Lightroom?
@radiogirl I do use Lightroom to catalog my photos. I have a Mac but I've been a PC user all my life up until now, so for me it finally feels like home. If I still had a PC I might still catalog the "old way" with my own folders, but actually I find LR a really great way to organize.
Good question. When you create your first catalog, the first thing you will do is "Import Photo and Video". I assume this will be from a memory card of some sort. In any case, the "Import photo and video" window will allow you to choose where you can find the photos and how the photos and videos will be stored on your computers. The default option is to store the folders in a directory structure divided by date. The other option is to store all the files in one large folder. I suggest using the default and by using the default, you are now cataloging your files by date. Congrats.
From the computer's point of view, directory structures are the primary method in cataloging files so it isn't really any different than what you would normally do without LR. Instead of dates, you may name the folders different but fundamentally, you would be using a tree directory structure and LR will do the same in regards to physically storing your images on the computer. This differs slightly from Apple Aperture/Apple iPhoto where all the files are stored in what the user's perceive as a single file (in reality, it is also a tree directory but it is hidden from the users).
Now LR provides you other tools to "catalog" your files. The whole purpose of cataloging your photos is to be able to quickly find them. Separating from dates is one approach but is still somewhat limited because users don't memorize photos by dates. Subject matter may be more important way to remember and find photos (i.e. my child's 3rd birthday party or the family vacation to TimBuckToo). This is where we can use keywords. By associating a keyword to a file, we can then sort doing searches on keywords instead of looking at dates. Other tools that can be used is by flags (white flag or black flag) or star rating or even colour codes. Lightroom will also search for metadata / exif information such as Camera type, lens type, focal length. You can also search on titles and captions. Lots of options. I'm not sure if Adobe Bridge allows you to do that easily as I don't think there is a central database to store this information. Adobe Bridge may have to search all the files or use the OS database.
Once you import your files and associate keywords to it, you can then start doing your edits. These edits would be the same as the edits one would do on Adobe Camera Raw. You can also tell Lightroom to process the file and send a jpg or tiff or PSD file to photoshop to edit in. Lightroom will automatically launch Photoshop and open the file for you. When you save the file in photoshop, Lightroom will be aware of the changes you made in photoshop and will update its preview file it has on it.
There are many other workflow tools you can use afterwards in Lightroom. You can have LR automatically upload to a photo hosting site like Flickr or a social site like Facebook. You can create photo books or web pages or create a slideshow. Not sure if you can do all that within photoshop or bridge.
@roseolivia@polarvrtx@toast@lisabell@paula365@jantan Thankyou all, I guess LR it is. I have been looking at the creative cloud bundle and I thik I might go for that and then I just need to get my head down and work on it. Thankyou @suebarni for the tutorial info I will look at that too
I only started using RAW at the end of 2012, after putting it off for some time. I put it off because I was worried that I wouldn't know what to do with it. Big mistake! Tho it is different, there is nothing difficult about it, and actually gives you more scope with shots that you aren't completely happy with. I was worried that after shooting only JPEGs, which are already edited in-camera to some degree, I wouldn't be able to see the potential in the RAW shots I took. To start with I shot in both RAW and JPEG (you can probably set your camera to do both at the same time). It didn't take long to get used to it and shoot in RAW only. Go for it I say!
@polarvrtx thank you Sara, just wondering with the LR/PS subscription that you have where do you save your photos??? And when you decide you are done with this bundle do you loose your photos?
Sorry sounds like a dumb question but just trying to figure out how to get started with the PS/LR bundle.
@radiogirl I use Lightroom to catalog my photos. I have one folder I named My Lightroom. Photos and I import all of my photos there in sub folders by date. I add keywords so I can find them easily. I have a Scott Kelby book that suggested this method, and it works for me. I actually owned LR5 before I purchases CC.
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Do you work using RAW files? LR is basically ACR plus part of Bridge plus some other features. However, you can always make changes in LR to the RAW files. Unless you use smart objects, I don't think you can easily go back to ACR process once you commit.
I find LR has a better layout with various additional features (i.e. side-by-side comparison & virtual copy) that ACR does not have.
Some may ask why make constant changes in ACR. Just do it in PS. Once you convert the RAW to a PS file, you no longer have access to all the information in the RAW file. Kinda of like taking a negative, processing it and then making the edits only on the printed image. Working in the RAW environment constantly allows you to access all the data (i.e. dynamic range of the file). The analogy being doing as much of the post-production work as possible in the darkroom before printing it. So if I later decide I want to pull more details out of the shadow, I can easily go back and do it.
In reality, when dealing with RAW files, when you use PS, you likely will use ACR which is basically less feature rich LR. So the question is why not use LR (where it has more options) instead of ACR.
I havent started shooting in raw yet, this year I want to learn PS and Lightroom and organize my photos. So far I haven't used Lightroom because I'm not familiar with the terminology, I find it very intimidating.
Any suggestions on how to get started with Lightroom?
Do you use Lightroom to catalogue all your photos?
@davidtom @polarvrtx @lisabell @jantan
Good question. When you create your first catalog, the first thing you will do is "Import Photo and Video". I assume this will be from a memory card of some sort. In any case, the "Import photo and video" window will allow you to choose where you can find the photos and how the photos and videos will be stored on your computers. The default option is to store the folders in a directory structure divided by date. The other option is to store all the files in one large folder. I suggest using the default and by using the default, you are now cataloging your files by date. Congrats.
From the computer's point of view, directory structures are the primary method in cataloging files so it isn't really any different than what you would normally do without LR. Instead of dates, you may name the folders different but fundamentally, you would be using a tree directory structure and LR will do the same in regards to physically storing your images on the computer. This differs slightly from Apple Aperture/Apple iPhoto where all the files are stored in what the user's perceive as a single file (in reality, it is also a tree directory but it is hidden from the users).
Now LR provides you other tools to "catalog" your files. The whole purpose of cataloging your photos is to be able to quickly find them. Separating from dates is one approach but is still somewhat limited because users don't memorize photos by dates. Subject matter may be more important way to remember and find photos (i.e. my child's 3rd birthday party or the family vacation to TimBuckToo). This is where we can use keywords. By associating a keyword to a file, we can then sort doing searches on keywords instead of looking at dates. Other tools that can be used is by flags (white flag or black flag) or star rating or even colour codes. Lightroom will also search for metadata / exif information such as Camera type, lens type, focal length. You can also search on titles and captions. Lots of options. I'm not sure if Adobe Bridge allows you to do that easily as I don't think there is a central database to store this information. Adobe Bridge may have to search all the files or use the OS database.
Once you import your files and associate keywords to it, you can then start doing your edits. These edits would be the same as the edits one would do on Adobe Camera Raw. You can also tell Lightroom to process the file and send a jpg or tiff or PSD file to photoshop to edit in. Lightroom will automatically launch Photoshop and open the file for you. When you save the file in photoshop, Lightroom will be aware of the changes you made in photoshop and will update its preview file it has on it.
There are many other workflow tools you can use afterwards in Lightroom. You can have LR automatically upload to a photo hosting site like Flickr or a social site like Facebook. You can create photo books or web pages or create a slideshow. Not sure if you can do all that within photoshop or bridge.
I hope that helps as a starting point.
I believe that Lightroom use the default date folder tree structure in both windows and OSX (mac).
Sorry sounds like a dumb question but just trying to figure out how to get started with the PS/LR bundle.