Digital Photo Editing Software
Want to use a more user-friendly software beyond that supplied by your camera manufacturer? Maybe you bought a used camera and don’t even know where to start.Adobe™ is the graphic editing king. Whether you’re on a Mac or PC-based system, Adobe is a no-brainer. I know there are some open sourced competitors out there at this time, but I haven’t used them, so I cannot advise.
The three Adobe products you should focus your attention are Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and Adobe Photoshop Elements (plus 'Premiere' if you will be editing digital video). Yes, they all have “Adobe Photoshop” in their name. I am going to simplify and drop the wordiness.
Photoshop
Let me put this into perspective. Photoshop is at the very tip top far end of the price spectrum. Adobe products have recently in the past couple of years went to all cloud-based programs and monthly subscriptions. So you would buy an older version to install and use on your Windows based PC. Adobe Photoshop CS6 was the last stand-alone version released. You can purchase Photoshop CS6 at walmart.com, tigerdirect.com or bestbuy.com (around $699 at the time of this writing). Good news is that it is well used, loved, and tested by many, many users. So I still have no problem recommending it if you’ve got the money and the time to learn it. It is the definition of high-end editing software.Lightroom
Begin by visiting Adobe.com and downloading a 30-day fully functional trial of their Lightroom product. Price-wise, it’s the middle of the road. In a nutshell, Lightroom is for lighter photo processing but better at processing a lot of files. It is built for speed but still has all the usual features you need, including straightening, one-box chromatic aberration removal, touch-up brushes to remove spots, and editing features. The difference is that you are not working with layers. Working directly with the raw file, Lightroom keeps track of all your edits and you don’t have to have an additional file to save your edits without harming your original raw file. One file, one file only. You can purchase Lightroom v5 at walmart.com, tigerdirect.com or bestbuy.com ($120) (around $150 at the time of this writing).Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 at Walmart.com
Shop Your Local BEST BUY Store For Open Box and Clearance Deals
Adobe Lightroom 5 on ebay.com
Elements
For clarification – There are two types; Adobe Elements and Adobe Elements Plus Premier Elements. Premier contains movie editing software built-in. If you’ll be editing movies, be sure to grab Premier. If you only edit photographs but do want software that is capable of heavier editing with layers, masking and manipulating pixels, get Elements. Elements allows you to combine photos (i.e., swap heads on people photos). Elements version 12 is the latest version at the time of this writing. You can purchase Elements v12 at walmart.com, or bestbuy.com (around $70 at the time of this writing). With Premiere movie editing capabilities, be prepared to spend about $40 more.Adobe Camera Raw
Be aware that when you use either Photoshop or Elements, when you first open a raw photo file, Adobe Camera Raw software first opens the file you are working on before actually loading the file in Photoshop or Elements. Within Adobe Camera Raw you are able to make a great deal of enhancements to your photos. Just FYI, there are different versions of Adobe Camera Raw one for Elements and a more enhanced version for Photoshop. The two versions of Adobe Camera Raw have different capabilities depending on if you’re running Elements or Photoshop.Shop online and check prices while you’re here.
(All trademarks belong to their respective holders)
No comments:
Post a Comment