editing software

I like lightroom using V5 ATM.

Be careful of Adobe student versions. They require proof of enrolment before the software can be activated.

Cheers

Steve

you cant do HDR in Lightroom but you can get many many plugins for Lightroom and one of them is so you can export to photomatix....and work on the photo in there..

you can also get plugins so you can send your image to the likes of photoshop and then send it back when your done....

I would highly recommend you have a look at the video tutorials for Lightroom 5 (on the adobe website) gives you an idea of what the program can do and I learnt so much from them

I too endorse Lightroom. It will do 99% of what most amateur photographers need and 95% of what professional photographers need, leaving aside the extreme photograph manipulation that is the forte of photoshop.

Your brand of PC may influence your decision. If Microsoft OS you have the full gambit of choice. If Mac you are limited to a few programs that have features of desire. For the Mac users, i've used Lightroom and Aperture. Lightroom V2 is more advanced than the current Aperture on Mac. The algorithm used by lightroom to auto rectify a photo is far more advanced than Aperture. i also dislike the manner Aperture stores photos in a library that can't be accessed outside the program. It also is limiting in the way you can export photos. In the Mac world the price difference between Lightroom and Aperture doesn't justify the compromise.

my 2 bobs worth

MLD

Depends what you want to do.


I use Photoshop elements which is pretty good for most hobby stuff and easier to use than Photoshop

I've haven'y used Lightroom, but isn't it more for essentials like contrast, brightness, tones, etc whereas Photoshop is more about manipulations/graphics art. i.e. Their side by side programs

You can download old Photoshop legally from Adobe for nix, I know I did. But use elements as it does pretty much everything I need

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitl...wnloads&loc=en


Clive

Quote:

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Originally Posted by clive22

I've haven'y used Lightroom, but isn't it more for essentials like contrast, brightness, tones, etc whereas Photoshop is more about manipulations/graphics art. i.e. Their side by side programs

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Hi Clive, the real power of lightroom is in it's ability to import, raw convert manage, colour adjust, stylise, tag, rate, find, retrieve and export lots and lots of images. I have 25K images in my current catalogue, it is not phased by much bigger catalogues than this. It really has good memory usage and caching!

A by product of digital is that you WILL end up with lots and lots of images and you really should have some way of keeping them a little bit organised. If you are on a mac and only shooting for personal use, iphoto may do all this for you, otherwise at least have a look at lightroom! there is a free 30day trial version for download.

Photoshop is a different beast altogether, but blitz in the original post did not want to do extensive manipulation so probably doesn't need to go there unless they get out of control with the hdr :p.

Bernie

Sooo I ended up getting Adobe photoshop elements 11 - probably more powerful than I need but will see how it goes.

Thanks for the input everyone - I had intended to buy lightroom but ended up getting the other instead. Now to start experimenting