Photoshop recommendations

"Neil Jones" wrote in
message
>
>
> PS - What are plugins? Do you need to buy them separately from Photoshop?


A "plugin" is separate piece of software which has the ability to
attach itself to the target software, in this case Photoshop, which
will then appear as an additional menu selection in Photoshop to
perform a task. You can invoke the "plugin" software directly from the
menu of Photoshop.

More detail here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plugin


Some of the plugins are free. Some are not.



Regards,

Wannabe
=======
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:00:43 -0500, Neil Jones
wrote Re Photoshop
recommendations:

>Hi,
>
>I am amateur photographer, only up to the point of taking pictures. For
>the pictures I shoot, I do not process the pictures or enhance them with
>touch ups etc. The pictures that turn out good are printed and the rest
>are saved.
>
>I am planning to purchase Photoshop to enhance the photos. It appears
>that Photoshop has a religious following in the photo processing area.
>To tell the truth, when I went to the Adobe site I was completely lost.
> They have tons of products with varying price ranges. What Photoshop
>version(s) are used by the community at large to process and enhance
>photos? What would be the price range?
>
>Thank you in advance for any help.

You may wish to consider Paint Shop Pro at www.jasc.com/ It does most
of what PS does at a fraction of the price. Unless you are doing VERY
high end image *creation* (rather than editing) PSP is all that you
need. There is a dedicated NG at comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

Always Has An Opinion wrote:
> Go cheap. Photoshop CS2 (if you can find it) or CS3 will be
> sufficient. There's a ton of plugins which make things easier, but
> I've never needed them. I've retouched photos, created 3D art and
> much more with just the basic package.
>
> You can find a lot of tutorials on YouTube as well.


Great idea! I went to Amazon and looked up for CS3 but found that it
costs as much as CS4 (even in the used section). They were listed at
$649 (USD). Some of the craigslist sellers listed it for $100 to $150.
I don't know if these are bootlegged packed with trojans in them. I am
suspicious because of the price difference between the new version and
used version.

What are some good sources to buy cheap/used software like CS3?

Thank you once again.

NJ
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:00:43 -0500, Neil Jones
wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I am amateur photographer, only up to the point of taking pictures. For
>the pictures I shoot, I do not process the pictures or enhance them with
>touch ups etc. The pictures that turn out good are printed and the rest
>are saved.
>
>I am planning to purchase Photoshop to enhance the photos. It appears
>that Photoshop has a religious following in the photo processing area.
>To tell the truth, when I went to the Adobe site I was completely lost.
> They have tons of products with varying price ranges. What Photoshop
>version(s) are used by the community at large to process and enhance
>photos? What would be the price range?
>
>Thank you in advance for any help.
>
>Happy Holidays!
>
>NJ
>
>PS - What are plugins? Do you need to buy them separately from Photoshop?

No one can really tell you what is best for you because we don't know
your skill levels or how much time and effort you will put into
learning a new program.

However, based on what you've said above, I would recommend that you
use Adobe's Elements and not the full version of Photoshop. Elements
7.0 is $140 retail, but you can purchase Elements 5.0 or 6.0 for half
of that or less.

Elements will do almost everything that the full CS Photoshop version
will do. The difference between "everything" and "almost everything"
is in the use of some features that it takes a year or more of
experience to learn to use. I've been using the full version for
several years, and there are *still* features that I'm not proficient
in.

I also have Elements 5.0. For most editing of family photographs, I
use Elements instead of the full Photoshop. I switch over to the full
version when I have a real problem photograph or want to do something
extra creative.

You can download a free trial of Elements 7.0 at
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/

This might not be of interest, but you can buy a Wacom Bamboo Fun pen
tablet for $80/$90 on Amazon, and this *includes* Elements 5.0 plus
Nic Color EFX (great filters!) and Corel Painter Essentials. Each
individual program alone is worth the money, and you get all three.








--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

Neil Jones wrote:
> Always Has An Opinion wrote:
>> Go cheap. Photoshop CS2 (if you can find it) or CS3 will be
>> sufficient. There's a ton of plugins which make things easier, but
>> I've never needed them. I've retouched photos, created 3D art and
>> much more with just the basic package.
>>
>> You can find a lot of tutorials on YouTube as well.
>
>
> Great idea! I went to Amazon and looked up for CS3 but found that it
> costs as much as CS4 (even in the used section). They were listed at
> $649 (USD). Some of the craigslist sellers listed it for $100 to $150.
> I don't know if these are bootlegged packed with trojans in them. I am
> suspicious because of the price difference between the new version and
> used version.
>
> What are some good sources to buy cheap/used software like CS3?
>
> Thank you once again.
>
> NJ
Howabout Photoshop Elements 7 unless you want/need the full-blown PS CSx?

<mind the rap on the earl>

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-65026616-Photoshop-Elements-7/dp/B001DMBWX...ef=pd_b
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

harikeo wrote:
> Neil Jones wrote:
>> Always Has An Opinion wrote:
>>> Go cheap. Photoshop CS2 (if you can find it) or CS3 will be
>>> sufficient. There's a ton of plugins which make things easier, but
>>> I've never needed them. I've retouched photos, created 3D art and
>>> much more with just the basic package.
>>>
>>> You can find a lot of tutorials on YouTube as well.
>>
>>
>> Great idea! I went to Amazon and looked up for CS3 but found that it
>> costs as much as CS4 (even in the used section). They were listed at
>> $649 (USD). Some of the craigslist sellers listed it for $100 to $150.
>> I don't know if these are bootlegged packed with trojans in them. I am
>> suspicious because of the price difference between the new version and
>> used version.
>>
>> What are some good sources to buy cheap/used software like CS3?
>>
>> Thank you once again.
>>
>> NJ
> Howabout Photoshop Elements 7 unless you want/need the full-blown PS CSx?
>
> <mind the rap on the earl>
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-65026616-Photoshop-Elements-7/dp/B001DMBWX...ef=pd_b
>
>

I forgot to mention Gimp 2 which is free http://www.gimp.org/
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

harikeo wrote:
> harikeo wrote:
>> Neil Jones wrote:
>>> Always Has An Opinion wrote:
>>>> Go cheap. Photoshop CS2 (if you can find it) or CS3 will be
>>>> sufficient. There's a ton of plugins which make things easier, but
>>>> I've never needed them. I've retouched photos, created 3D art and
>>>> much more with just the basic package.
>>>>
>>>> You can find a lot of tutorials on YouTube as well.
>>>
>>>
>>> Great idea! I went to Amazon and looked up for CS3 but found that it
>>> costs as much as CS4 (even in the used section). They were listed at
>>> $649 (USD). Some of the craigslist sellers listed it for $100 to $150.
>>> I don't know if these are bootlegged packed with trojans in them. I am
>>> suspicious because of the price difference between the new version and
>>> used version.
>>>
>>> What are some good sources to buy cheap/used software like CS3?
>>>
>>> Thank you once again.
>>>
>>> NJ
>> Howabout Photoshop Elements 7 unless you want/need the full-blown PS CSx?
>>
>> <mind the rap on the earl>
>>
>> http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-65026616-Photoshop-Elements-7/dp/B001DMBWX...ef=pd_b
>>
>>
>
> I forgot to mention Gimp 2 which is free http://www.gimp.org/

I do have GIMP 2 but haven't done much with it. Photoshop seems to be
have a big following and easier to get some help.

NJ

PS - My digital camera also comes with some software which most people
(including myself) haven't heard of before. The software seems to be ok
but difficult to get any help.
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

Neil Jones wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am amateur photographer, only up to the point of taking pictures. For
> the pictures I shoot, I do not process the pictures or enhance them with
> touch ups etc. The pictures that turn out good are printed and the rest
> are saved.
>
> I am planning to purchase Photoshop to enhance the photos. It appears
> that Photoshop has a religious following in the photo processing area.
> To tell the truth, when I went to the Adobe site I was completely lost.
> They have tons of products with varying price ranges. What Photoshop
> version(s) are used by the community at large to process and enhance
> photos? What would be the price range?
>
> Thank you in advance for any help.
>
> Happy Holidays!
>
> NJ
>
> PS - What are plugins? Do you need to buy them separately from Photoshop?

Hey Neil, lots of good suggestions here, but something I haven't seen
mentioned yet, is that you should be able to download free demos of most
of this commercial software, and see what suits your needs.

From Adobe, there's Photoshop (for the hardcore), Elements
(Photoshop-Lite), and Lightroom (different workflow, might suit you
better). AFAIK there are free time-limited demos of all of them.

From Corel (bought PSP from JASC a couple versions ago), there's Paint
Shop Pro (latest version is 12, aka Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 -
time-limited demo downloadable), or if you dig around, you can find a
freebie version of JASC Paint Shop Pro 7.

There's tons of freeware/open-source/shareware out there that will
probably also do most of what you need - take a look at IrfanView,
Picasa, the latest GIMP, Paint.NET, or Pixel32.

Long and short of it is, there's no reason to shell out money for a
solution without trying a bunch of different ones first and seeing what
suits you best. Don't worry about what's "most popular" - there's lots
of users and lots of support out there for all the different options. A
lot of Photoshop's "popularity" is people who, like you, simply think
Photoshop is the way to go because that's all they've ever heard - they
won't be a lot of help to you
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

Caesar Romano wrote:
[]
> You may wish to consider Paint Shop Pro at www.jasc.com/ It does most
> of what PS does at a fraction of the price. Unless you are doing VERY
> high end image *creation* (rather than editing) PSP is all that you
> need. There is a dedicated NG at comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro

I'd second that, and say that Paint Shop Pro 10 (PSP-X) is probably good
enough for someone starting with image-processing. The folk who use it
are very supportive and helpful to beginners (although I haven't checked
that very recently). The one other piece of software I might recommend is
something for combining two or three images together to simulate a
wide-angle lens - what I call a panorama, but meaning less than 360
degrees. Particularly useful if your camera only has a 35-38mm eq. widest
focal length.

Cheers,
David
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

"Neil Jones" wrote...
>
> I am planning to purchase Photoshop to enhance the photos. It appears
> that Photoshop has a religious following in the photo processing area.
> To tell the truth, when I went to the Adobe site I was completely lost.
> They have tons of products with varying price ranges. What Photoshop
> version(s) are used by the community at large to process and enhance
> photos? What would be the price range?

Start with Photoshop Elements for $100 or less. Once you get used to what it
can do, then decide whether you want or need all the power of the full
application.
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:00:43 -0500, Neil Jones
wrote in
:

>I am amateur photographer, only up to the point of taking pictures. For
>the pictures I shoot, I do not process the pictures or enhance them with
>touch ups etc. The pictures that turn out good are printed and the rest
>are saved.
>
>I am planning to purchase Photoshop to enhance the photos. It appears
>that Photoshop has a religious following in the photo processing area.
>To tell the truth, when I went to the Adobe site I was completely lost.
> They have tons of products with varying price ranges. What Photoshop
>version(s) are used by the community at large to process and enhance
>photos? What would be the price range?

Photoshop Elements 6 for only $28:
<http://www.pricegrabber.com/user_sales_getprod.php?masterid=50072739&lot_id=8567417>

--
Best regards,
John
Panasonic DMC-FZ8, DMC-FZ20, and several others
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:44:34 GMT, "David J Taylor"
wrote:

>Caesar Romano wrote:
>[]
>> You may wish to consider Paint Shop Pro at www.jasc.com/ It does most
>> of what PS does at a fraction of the price. Unless you are doing VERY
>> high end image *creation* (rather than editing) PSP is all that you
>> need. There is a dedicated NG at comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro
>
>I'd second that, and say that Paint Shop Pro 10 (PSP-X) is probably good
>enough for someone starting with image-processing. The folk who use it
>are very supportive and helpful to beginners (although I haven't checked
>that very recently). The one other piece of software I might recommend is

I used to use Paint Shop Pro all the time but I stopped after PSP 9
and switched over to Gimp because one of the things I do is to free
rotate images to correct my lopsided holding of the camera by a degree
or two and sometimes perspective correction for when a wide angle is
looking up or down. PSP 9 doesn't do that as well as Gimp because
Gimp can use the Lanczos interpolator for free rotation, perspective
correction, resizing, etc., and the best PSP 9 can manage is bicubic.

Have they added the option to use lanczos interpolator to the latest
version of Paint Shop Pro? If so, I might try it out. If not, I'll
pass.

Steve
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations 

TheRealSteve wrote:
[]
> I used to use Paint Shop Pro all the time but I stopped after PSP 9
> and switched over to Gimp because one of the things I do is to free
> rotate images to correct my lopsided holding of the camera by a degree
> or two and sometimes perspective correction for when a wide angle is
> looking up or down. PSP 9 doesn't do that as well as Gimp because
> Gimp can use the Lanczos interpolator for free rotation, perspective
> correction, resizing, etc., and the best PSP 9 can manage is bicubic.
>
> Have they added the option to use lanczos interpolator to the latest
> version of Paint Shop Pro? If so, I might try it out. If not, I'll
> pass.
>
> Steve

I can't speak for the latest version, but in PSP-10 bicubic is the best
available. I've always found that more than adequate, as I always do the
corrections such as rotation and perspective as the first step. I simply
add a little sharpening to the output image if needed, and usually it's
not needed.

Pity cameras don't include an element of sensor rotation and optional
automatic horizon detection function.....

Cheers,
David
 >> Stay informed about: Photoshop recommendations