I'm limited to Picnik at the moment, and although I've downloaded Gimp I'm finding it tricky to understand. I'm thinking of getting PhotoShop and a book or something to teach myself properly, step by step. What's confusing me is the number of different PhotoShop products that seem to exist!
Can someone simply things for me please?!
What are CS5, lightroom and elements?
Do you need the former in order for the other two to work, or are they independent programs?
I only use Picnik too and have gimp downloaded but after an intial glance was too scared to look in any more detail at it. Apparently there are tutorials on youtube though. Sorry but I know abslutely nothing about photoshop :oS
@psychographer That's exactly what I thought when I saw it too. I'm thinking at least with PhotoShop there'll be books and courses I could read/take to learn how to use it methodically!
I use elements.. its photoshop, with less of the bells and whistles and much more affordable ($75) I have found its great for editing and there are plenty of addons you get can online for free as your editing skills increas.. plus there are great books and tuts out there online.. gimp is great too, you just need the patience to work thru the tutorials to figure it out i found
Lightroom is different from photoshop its an editing program of its own. Then cs5 is the full blown version and the elements like stated is cs5 with out all the bells and whistles. They are all independent of each other. I like elements better than lightroom just cause i think it is easier to navigate thru and unless you have your own photography business elements will do just fine you dont need cs5. Hope this helps.
Just spend some time experimenting with it. I used to be completely confused by Photoshop (I have CS5 Extended) but after a while, you begin to get used to how it works.
I wouldn't say I'm any sort of "expert" now, of course! Once I'd started to get some of the basics, I found this website very helpful.
I would just get a Gimp book and learn Gimp. I use Photoshop, and I've decided to learn the free product that can do the same stuff instead of updating PS. There are plenty of great Gimp book available...I looked at Amazon and chose one from about 8.
I had PS for over 5 years untouched on my hard drive, I was intimidated beyond belief. One day I asked my PS Guru (which I now call him) to show me how to do a watermark, it was infectious from that day forward. The doors it has opened up to my art is far greater then the ulcer it gives me on a day to day basis trying to figure it out. I recommend a community college course, as a matter of fact i still may take one myself. There is SO much I have still left to learn...
I used to use GIMP but found it mind boggling and the help menus difficult to use. I recently bought PS Elements. It is just a question of familiarising yourself with how it works (repetition is a great way for me to learn!!) I'm not that great but set myself a new technique or two every month to try and master. I use "The Photoshop Elements 9 Book for Digital Photographers" by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski which is a really easy to follow guide to the basics stuff. My advice is if you want to get good at this stuff you have to use it all the time to get to grips with it, no matter which programme
in my experience I find photoshop just as fiddly as gimp I would suggest looking up gimp tutorials on youtube or the like before you splash out a lot of money on something that you may find is just as trick to work with.
Agree with all that @sparkle says. Have had Elements for brief time and it takes some repetition to get familiar, but you can begin enjoying it quickly. It has huge potential for complicated work as well. PShop not necessary for non-pro - Elements has much of what PShop offers at considerably lower cost. The Kelby?Kloskowski book is great and there are many other good books as well.
I agree with @asrai That's why I recommend going with the free program. I use PS everyday at work, so in some ways learning Gimp is even more tedious...nothing really works the same as in PS. But I am determined to go with the free program. Gimp has many online video tutorials, but I don't like video learning...they go too slow. I'd rather read about it and do it at my own pace, and skip parts that I don't feel I need or want to hear about again. :-) So I have a book.
@lluniau In my experience, Photoshop's interface looks just as intimidating as Gimp. Powerfu or easy to use, choose one. I would recommend getting the book you referenced from Amazon for Gimp, or just look at free tutorials online for Gimp or Photoshop. After using Gimp for a little bit, you'll be able to translate just about any Photoshop process in Gimp with very minor modifications.
I see no reason for most amateurs to spend the outrageous price for full photoshop when Gimp can do 90% of it for free.
photoshop elements is for beginnners, CS5 is professional standard.
elements is not going to do everything the CS will do. it will do everything you want to do to get started learning.
if you're looking for a good place to start, go with photoshop elements. you'll be glad you did. photoshop gives you ultimate control of what you can do with your images in post processing. it has a large learning curve, but ya gotta start somewhere. if you find a good book, or even look online for tutorials, you will pick it up quick!
I have tried trail versions of various stuff but now use Picasa mostly! The only thing I use Photoshop Elements 4 for is to re-size the image or bulk process e.g a different watermark to the more basic one you can get from Picasa. The rest of the time I edit 'phone shots in-camera or else get it right enough first time just to tweak in Picasa! Otherwise you spend ages fixing up photographs rather than getting them right and ....I also use the camera supplied software, the Canon stuff is good and I think Silky Pix will be if i ever have to use it! Nikon fail with their free software offerings, another reason why I have moved away from lusting after their next generation cameras. Perhaps if they take a leaf out of some others and give away a copy of PSE or CSx I might re-consider. The Nikon software I trialled was OK but they haven't kept it up to date and its not free....Lightroom seemed good in trial and would be now I have upgraded to wide screen but its pricey. I save on the cloud via Picasa
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I wouldn't say I'm any sort of "expert" now, of course! Once I'd started to get some of the basics, I found this website very helpful.
Thanks guys for your opinions - it's much appreciated. Seeing as I've already got Gimp downloaded, from what most of you have said, I'm guessing I'd be wiser to just learn how to use it! Unless someone discourages it with a good reason, I'll probably buy this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beginning-GIMP-Novice-Professional-2nd/dp/1430210702/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312749611&sr=1-2
Wish me luck!
I see no reason for most amateurs to spend the outrageous price for full photoshop when Gimp can do 90% of it for free.
elements is not going to do everything the CS will do. it will do everything you want to do to get started learning.
if you're looking for a good place to start, go with photoshop elements. you'll be glad you did. photoshop gives you ultimate control of what you can do with your images in post processing. it has a large learning curve, but ya gotta start somewhere. if you find a good book, or even look online for tutorials, you will pick it up quick!