Posted: 2/27/2012 3:46:29 PM EDT
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I'm just getting into photography on a higher level than before with my recent purchase of a Canon T2i. I love it, and I think I'll get a lot of use out of it as a hobbyist. I got the 18-55mm kit lens with it, and have a 70-300mm Sigma on the way that a member of another forum was selling. My next lens will likely be a Tamron 10-24mm for wide angle and scenery, because I think scenery will likely be one of my more common subjects. Eventually I'll replace the 18-55mm kit lens with the Canon 18-135mm lens, which I think will be a better 'general purpose' lens. I'm not a big spender, so that may end up being next year or so!
The Canon came with some software, but I haven't played with it much. I expect it is capable of doing a decent amount when working with photos... but I'm wondering... Would it be considerably better for me to get something like Photoshop Elements? Or maybe Aperture to use on my MacBook? Again, I'm a hobbyist, so I won't be doing any serious professional level editing, so $700 for PS is out of the question. One thing I would LOVE to do eventually is HDR. I know a lot of the low end / consumer software likely won't do it... but I have seen a suite that has a plugin version for Aperture that wasn't too costly. |
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OP, you just recently missed a smoking deal on LR (it was like $69.95 a week or so ago), though B&H still has it fairly cheap and it ships for free;
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/720705-REG/Adobe_65081059_Photoshop_Lightroom_3_Software.html |
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Well, I figure I could get Gimp on my Mac. I'm a Linux admin at work, but I don't run it on my desktop at home. I like to play games, and they don't work well in Linux, so I just run Windows on my desktop.
I might download some trials of the software mentioned and play around with some pics. |
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GIMP has most of the features of Photoshop. And it's FREE. Paint.net has most of the features of Paint Shop Pro, and it's FREE. All you have to lose is your time, in those cases. If you outgrow them, chances are you'll know what you want and can find more specific free software, or won't mind the full price of whatever you do settle on.
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Lightroom is a good program but is extremely limited. If your only going to buy one program you could do a lot worse than Elements. In elements I can do everything Lightroom can do (photo editing wise) but Lightroom won't do everything elements will do. I have both BTW.
The free programs are decent but Elements is so cheap why not use something standard? |
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Lightroom is excellent for enhacing the look of a picture, and can be found on sale fairly regularly for about $150.
PS Elements is less than $100, and can do some pretty heavy manipulation. HDR is really easy to do right with Photomatix or Nik which are available as plug-ins for LR, or as stand alone programs. |
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http://mansurovs.com/photoshop-vs-lightroom http://www.iheartfaces.com/2011/01/pondering-lightroom-vs-photoshop/ That first link really points out some advantages of Lightroom when it comes to organizing photos. I've had issues before with my Kodak fixed lens camera and the Kodak software. It dumped pictures into directories tagged by date, and it was a bit difficult to reorganize by event if I wanted. Generally, I manually organize like this: I have a "Pictures" directory. In that directory, I create a subdirectory for the year. Then in that subdirectory, I create a directory for whatever event I was shooting at. I would hope that Lightroom may work in a similar way - when I want to import images, I could tag them with an event and have it sort them into the corresponding subdirectory. I also see that Lightroom (as for sale on B&H's site) declares it is for "Windows and Mac". Does that mean it comes with both versions? If so, that's a MAJOR plus for me, since I would be able to use it on my desktop, and on my MacBook. Sadly, I missed the recent sale on Lightroom, but I may keep my eyes open and snag it should it go on sale again. For now, I may get Gimp and play with the functions, just to get familiar with what adjustments do what to photographs. I figure that should translate pretty well into most software. |
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http://mansurovs.com/photoshop-vs-lightroom http://www.iheartfaces.com/2011/01/pondering-lightroom-vs-photoshop/ That first link really points out some advantages of Lightroom when it comes to organizing photos. I've had issues before with my Kodak fixed lens camera and the Kodak software. It dumped pictures into directories tagged by date, and it was a bit difficult to reorganize by event if I wanted. Generally, I manually organize like this: I have a "Pictures" directory. In that directory, I create a subdirectory for the year. Then in that subdirectory, I create a directory for whatever event I was shooting at. I would hope that Lightroom may work in a similar way - when I want to import images, I could tag them with an event and have it sort them into the corresponding subdirectory. I also see that Lightroom (as for sale on B&H's site) declares it is for "Windows and Mac". Does that mean it comes with both versions? If so, that's a MAJOR plus for me, since I would be able to use it on my desktop, and on my MacBook. Sadly, I missed the recent sale on Lightroom, but I may keep my eyes open and snag it should it go on sale again. For now, I may get Gimp and play with the functions, just to get familiar with what adjustments do what to photographs. I figure that should translate pretty well into most software. I'm not sure about both OS versions in one package, but the EULA does allow you to install the one copy you buy on two machines. 2.4 Portable or Home Computer Use. The primary user of the Computer on which the Software is installed may install a second copy of the Software for his or her exclusive use on either a portable Computer or a Computer located at his or her home, provided the Software on the portable or home Computer is not used at the same time as the Software on the primary Computer.
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I also see that Lightroom (as for sale on B&H's site) declares it is for "Windows and Mac". Does that mean it comes with both versions? If so, that's a MAJOR plus for me, since I would be able to use it on my desktop, and on my MacBook. Yes, and there are quite a few people that do exactly that, given that you're allowed to install the software on two different computers. |
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I also see that Lightroom (as for sale on B&H's site) declares it is for "Windows and Mac". Does that mean it comes with both versions? If so, that's a MAJOR plus for me, since I would be able to use it on my desktop, and on my MacBook. Yes, and there are quite a few people that do exactly that, given that you're allowed to install the software on two different computers. SWEET. I do know that I DEFINITELY want to do HDR, so getting Lightroom with the Photomatix or Nix plugins mentioned above would be a score. I'll have to keep an eye out for sales. I'm a member at pixtus.com (have been since it was the Texas Photo Forum, but wasn't active at all until recently), and they have a DEALS! section. Shit. Amazon has it for $89.99 right now. I don't want to spend the cheese yet. |
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Shit. Amazon has it for $89.99 right now. I don't want to spend the cheese yet. Look around. The new version is coming out and everyone is slashing prices. I ordered it from Adorama for $80 only to learn that B&H had it for $70. I've been using Lightroom since 1.0 and if you don't need full-blown editing capabilities like PS gives you its some excellent software. It makes it very easy to catalog your images as well as other things. |
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Shit. Amazon has it for $89.99 right now. I don't want to spend the cheese yet. Look around. The new version is coming out and everyone is slashing prices. I ordered it from Adorama for $80 only to learn that B&H had it for $70. I've been using Lightroom since 1.0 and if you don't need full-blown editing capabilities like PS gives you its some excellent software. It makes it very easy to catalog your images as well as other things. That's my intention... Amazon has it for $89 as mentioned... but I'm not looking to drop any money right now. Maybe next month or in April. With the next version coming out soon, you're probably right that vendors will mark it down and probably close it out. I do wonder, though, what features LR4 will be adding. As mentioned, I do want to do HDR, and Lightroom can do it with a $99 plugin. Maybe if LR4 does it natively, I could get LR3 and an upgrade for less than LR4 would cost new. We'll see how it shakes down. I just downloaded Gimp on my Weenderz box, so I'm going to play around with it a bit. Who knows? I may find Gimp perfectly acceptable for my uses. |
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I may find Gimp perfectly acceptable for my uses. I doubt it. Personally I think Gimp sucks donkey balls. Again, I may just use it to figure out what all the different tweaks can do. I'd be reasonably sure that fucking with white balance, for instance, probably ends up looking generally the same regardless of what piece of software is doing it. Notice I say "generally". There may absolutely be things that LR can do better than Gimp. I'm not questioning that. I'm saying Gimp may be good for me to play around with to see what I can do, and what tools affect images in what ways. I think LR3 is the winner, but I may have to wait until March or April before I'm ready to plop down the cash. I have a couple other priorities I want to take care of. I may even wait longer, since I have a vacation in June, and I kinda want to get a Tamron 10-24mm lens for wide angle scenery shooting (I may be swinging up to the Grand Canyon) and family / portrait /snapshot pictures. Given those circumstances, perhaps Gimp will allow me to play around with things a bit. I do plan on keeping all of my raw unedited files backed up, so if I should want to redo anything after I have better software, I'll be able to. Definitely thanks for the feedback everyone. I learn a lot by asking questions, but also by just reading what other people say in different topics. |