Help please

Damo1

Damo1

Messages
601
Name
Damion
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all I'm a bit shall we say "retarded" in the use of phot editing software , I currently have iPhoto and aperture on my mac but have no clue how to use aperture to any level , so was thinking of getting a new software and actually learning how to use it properly from scratch , can any one give me advice on any of the following and for the love of all that is holy tell me if you guys use more than one software on the outstanding images I see on here / Flickr ect :
Lightroom
Silverfxpro?
Photoshop
Coral ?
And any other suggestions you have please and thank you .
 
silver fx is a plugin for lightroom /photoshop.
made by nik efex who also do some other wonderful plugins, ( colour efex, viveza, define,hdr efex, analog efex, sharpner pro ).
Lightroom is essentially a cataloguing software with some editing options and i know mamy people who use that only without the need for photoshop.
im a novice to LR so tend not to do anywhere near whats possible with it and prefer to edit my images in photohop using the Adobe camera Raw plugin and the occaional play with the nik efex plugins.
if your on a budget ( other than the free GIMP ) you can also look at the latest adobe elements 12.
my adive visit the adobe website and download the trial versions which give you 30 days of full functionality and have a play.
make sure you get the bundled DNG/ACR too from adobe.
 
Thanks dean As you've probably guessed by now I'm very stupid so I really must ask what does dng/acr mean ?
 
DNG is a file format. so you can convert from RAW ( your cameras standard if you dont shoot jpeg ) and is more compatible without losing image quality. it stands for Digital negative and was developed by adobe and is a lossless ( no compression so no loss of quality ) TIFF based format ( TIFF being another image file format ) , anyway its compatible with all adobe products and many people use it.
info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Negative

ACR is adobe camera RAW. its a plugin to use for image maniuplation of RAW files in photoshop, lightroom etc, a great tool for adjusting, contrast, exposure, clarity, saturation and much much more.. image criopping, adding graduated filters, converting to black and white, purple fringinging removal, lens correction ( the list of functions is endless .. easy to use hard to master! )
http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2...secret-to-using-it-for-just-about-everything/
 
Thanks again I will download the trial now
 
If you are going to spend time learning a photo editing programme why not start with what you've got. I'm not a fan of iPhoto or Aperture as I don't like the way they organise images, much preferring Lightroom. However if you opt for another programme you are going to have to learn that. So why not start with iPhoto. There are a lot of publications out there for this app. Or if you want to go for Aperture. Whatever app you go for there is going to be a learning curve, be it Lightroom, Aperture or Photoshop ( Although I wouldn't suggest Photoshop if you are just starting. Elements would be better I would suggest. ).
 
You Tube. Oh and that is a tip not an insult ;-)
 
What is the difference between elements and photoshop ? Other than price ?
 
Go for Corel Paintshop Pro.It does nearlly all the others do at a much lower price and if you get the Ultimate you get really excellent plugins.X6 has a great learning section.Get a free trial.
 
Photoshop was originally designed for designers, not necessary photographers. Over the years it has developed and contains tools for both. However i suspect very few photographers ever use a lot of the facilities in Photoshop. I estimated I used 10% or less when Photoshop was my main image package. ( as it was for most Photographers) So Photoshop has a lot of baggage you'll never use. Elements is effectively the photo editing potion of Photoshop. ( OK there are some functions in Photoshop that are not in Elements but not enough to get excited about I suggest) .

Using Elements is a good grounding if you ever want to graduate to Photoshop, plus it's available at very attractive pricing and has a Novice and experienced user interface options. Personally I prefer Lightroom for image editing. far more intuitive, but like all these aps it takes a little time to use. It doesn't however enable you to pixel edit. So if you want to clone something out you'll need Photoshop or Elements. With Lightroom I don't think you'll need the full version of Photoshop, Elements should do well, if you need it. All are available on 30 day trials from Adobe so try them out. Suggestion though do one at a time so you get the full advantage of the trial period. Start with Elements, then Lightroom . Be aware though Lightroom is different (Different but not difficult ) from either version of Photoshop so I'd suggest going to the Adobe web site first and watch a few of the video tutorials,
 
Thanks all I'd already decided to give elements a try due to the pricing :eek:
 
viscountdriver said:
Go for Corel Paintshop Pro.It does nearlly all the others do at a much lower price and if you get the Ultimate you get really excellent plugins.X6 has a great learning section.Get a free trial.
Click to expand...
PSP is a windows only program, he's a Mac user (Aperture)
 
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