advice on photography software

[shyguy]

Thanks to all those who gave advice on what camera I should consider. Hopefully it's worked, I've bought a Fuji Finepix S8100fd, refurbished off their web site it was a steal at £139.99.

Unfortunately it now leads to another question :roll:

What software should I think about using, clearly various people do arty things with their digital images so I'm wondering what's the favourite with members :)

Cheers

[dragonfly]

i'm just new to photography and editing software, tried photoshop but couldn't work it out, too complicated for me but I got free trial of Paintshop Pro X2 and find it very easy, and cheap compared to Photoshop (got it for less than £50)

[cazmanian_minx]

Have a look at Photoshop Elements - Adobe has a free trial download available:

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshopelwin/

There are free solutions as well, such as Gimp - http://www.gimp.org/ - I've not tried it, but a couple of friends speak very highly of it.

[North Light]

shyguy,

Depending on the level of work you want to do there are some free downloads available.
The link below gives an overview of some of the s/w available,
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelbasedwin/tp/freephotoedw.htm


http://picasa.google.com/index.html#
http://www.gimp.org/
http://www.getpaint.net/

For on line work Photoshop express might be worth looking at:-
https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html

Hope this helps.

NL

[Mystical Potato Head]

Photoshop elements 6 is about £60 and is excellent value for money.I use PhotoshopCS3 as well but elements has a lot of great features,more than enough to cope with when your starting out.
Dragonfly..I wouldn't give up on Photshop.yes i know its complicated when you start out,took me weeks to get the hang of it,but its worth the hard work of getting used to it.There are loads of youtube tutorials to suit everyones level of experience,from beginner upwards and i dont think there is any software to match it.

[shyguy]

Thanks Dragonfly;) I'll have a look at Paintshop, I did have a trial on a 'new' PC a couple of years ago, but never had much to work with. I'll see if I can get this to run, always helps to try before you buy:)

Thanks to North Light, I'll have a look at the freeware:D

Thanks also to Cazmanian_minx and MPH, I'll try the free trial from Adobe and see how I get on.

Trouble is I now need the camera to arrive, some imagination and the right light to get something to play with on the software - lol

Hopefully I might produce something worth posting.

Cheers

[Deemac]

The thing with computer software is to remember that everyone starts from ground zero and on a learning curve. Some are just steeper than others. Start with an objective in mind and follow it as far as you can. Read the help files, look at tutorials on the internet, there are loads out there now - many free. Post questions on technical forums and newsgroups. There is always someone out there who will know the answer.

Like life, you will get out of it what effort you put in. With some software determination is called for. Whatever the software engineer had in mind can logically be the opposite of how you think on a process or operation. (Remember by its very nature these people are more into maths & logic than art) The trick is to "tune" yourself into their head and many a problem can be solved by just understanding the terminology that they have labelled some operation with!! A built up knowledge of shortcut keys also helps enormously - most are universal.

Above all have fun and experiment. Be curious, just what does that button or menu do? (Save lots, and lots, and lots!!! - Ctrl S).

Just my pennies worth. (Been "fighting" with software for nearly 25 years now - try 3D modelling if you want a real challenge!!!! - makes Photoshop seem like a child's toy at times. . . . . . ;-)))