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A good photo editing software?

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  • 11-06-2008 11:45pm
    #1
    stabo
    Registered Users Posts: 604 ✭✭✭


    What software do ye guys use for editing,PP your photos? Looking to get something easy enough to use. Is lightroom a good one? Hoping to buy something in a couple of weeks. cheers.


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    #2
    arybvtcw0eolkf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 24,878 ✭✭✭✭arybvtcw0eolkf


    I use irvanview, PS CS3 & even Microsoft Paint at times!.


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    #3
    Roen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,620 ✭✭✭Roen


    Lightroom is more for Converting from RAW to other file format, then cataloguing all your pics, tagging them with keywords etc. It does have editing tools alright, but it's not Photoshop, it's a different tool entirely.

    How much you looking to spend? Or if free stuff is your bag, check out the GIMP.


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    #4
    michelleans
    Closed Accounts Posts: 301 ✭✭michelleans


    I use Photoshop CS2 and love it!


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    #5
    nilhg
    Registered Users Posts: 5,145 ✭✭✭nilhg


    stabo wrote: »
    What software do ye guys use for editing,PP your photos? Looking to get something easy enough to use. Is lightroom a good one? Hoping to buy something in a couple of weeks. cheers.
    Roen wrote: »
    Lightroom is more for Converting from RAW to other file format, then cataloguing all your pics, tagging them with keywords etc. It does have editing tools alright, but it's not Photoshop, it's a different tool entirely.

    How much you looking to spend? Or if free stuff is your bag, check out the GIMP.

    To be fair Adobe have always said that Lightroom is a photo editor whereas PS is a pixel editor, the develop module in LR works in exactly the same way with both RAW and jpeg (though generally you have more latitude with RAW), once you get used to it you can do 90% of almost anything you need quickly and efficently (100% for most of mine)

    To the OP the great thing about LR and PS is that you can legally download and use full versions for a month and then if you decide to like one (or both) there is a student discount scheme that many folks can wangle themselves into.


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    #6
    Hugh_C
    Registered Users Posts: 2,852 ✭✭✭Hugh_C


    stabo wrote: »
    What software do ye guys use for editing,PP your photos? Looking to get something easy enough to use. Is lightroom a good one? Hoping to buy something in a couple of weeks. cheers.

    I use a combination in Lightroom and Photoshop, or in theory it could be Lightroom and Gimp


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    #7
    JMcL
    Registered Users Posts: 2,219 ✭✭✭JMcL


    Ì use Lightroom and CS3. As Roen has pointed out, Lightroom is great for what it does, but is a very different beast from Photoshop, and the two are complementary.

    The problem with Photoshop is cost, it's horrendously expensive. If this is an issue, Photoshop Elements (now at version 6) has a good chunk of it's bigger siblings functionality, at a fraction of the price, and I'd have no hesitation in recommending it. If you want free, GIMP is excellent


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    #8
    AlanMooneyPhoto
    Closed Accounts Posts: 68 ✭✭AlanMooneyPhoto


    I use Lightroom and CS3, I love the integration between the 2.
    CS3 is expensive but worth it, in my view.


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    #9
    Calina
    Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Calina


    I use CS3. However I also have used Elements (5.0) in the past, also have tested the Corel equivalent (nice-ish). I tested Lightroom and hated. I use ACDSee Pro for cataloguing, sort of.

    If you are not sure what you are doing or what you need, a licence for CS3 in Ireland is about 850E. I'd test it first before spending. I'm not sure how necessary you'd find it. When I started I wanted a decent crop tool and a decent bnw converter. PSE has them. So too has Picasa although I loathed it when I tested it because it insisted on searching my hard drive for everything and re-arranging it the way it wanted to without my being able to stop it. Maybe that ahs improved.

    Paint.net is also recommended by a few people here. It's nice. Online there is a version of Photoshop, Photoshop Express I think; the flickr integrated editor while simple is far better than I expected, and Pixenate or whatever it is called at the moment integrates with FaceBook and an assortment of blog platforms, most recently Movable Type.

    Me, starting off, I'd recommend Photoshop Elements. Curves tool was the big lack in 5.0, I don't know if that's been sorted for 6.0.


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    #10
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    Gimp is pretty cool but be warned its classic open source software - a bit clunky and takes while to figure how it all works.

    http://www.gimp.org/

    Mike.


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    #11
    haz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 313 ✭✭haz


    I love Gimp, and Irfanview for the fastest, most useful image browser. Irfanview can also launch Gimp on selected files, and has some really neat batch processing and renaming facilities.


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