Photography Question

[Hondo]

Last year I picked up a new DSLR camera and hope to finally get out and start using it this summer.

I'm looking for advice on software for post-production work, I guess you'd call it, on my photos. I've been looking at Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 and Lightroom 5 and was hoping someone here might have some experience with either or both of them and be able to give me their opinions on the programs.

Anybody used either of them?

[Billy Jingo]

Last year I picked up a new DSLR camera and hope to finally get out and start using it this summer.

I'm looking for advice on software for post-production work, I guess you'd call it, on my photos. I've been looking at Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 and Lightroom 5 and was hoping someone here might have some experience with either or both of them and be able to give me their opinions on the programs.

Anybody used either of them?

We have Photoshop and use it all the time. It is fantastic.

Or at least, I think it is. I have nothing to compare it with since that is all that I have ever used. The closest I have come to a different product is Toon Boom but that really is more of an animation thing. It is alot easier to navigate than Toon Boom.

[gary m]

Last year I picked up a new DSLR camera and hope to finally get out and start using it this summer.

I'm looking for advice on software for post-production work, I guess you'd call it, on my photos. I've been looking at Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 and Lightroom 5 and was hoping someone here might have some experience with either or both of them and be able to give me their opinions on the programs.

Anybody used either of them?

Most Adobe products can be downloaded with a 30 or 90 day trial period for the full version.
A lot of it depends on what you want to do with the photos. If it is just clean up, sharpen and crop, Photoshop may be a bit overwhelming.
If you want to put your face in a blue space suit while twirling a frisbee though, the $20 big box store product won't cut it.

[Norm dePlume]

You can do a lot with GIMP, and you can't beat the price. It takes some getting used to, but it's quite functional. If you don't like it, you have nothing to lose but some time.

[scott]

I use Photoshop CS2 and it's great but simple stuff is actually harder than it should be (contrast, color adjustment, etc.).

For normal adjustments I use Windows Live Photo Gallery which came with Windows 7. It's actually quite good and much quicker to increase the contrast and adjust the color a bit to make the pictures pop.

Here are some samples using the free tool:

[Tom Servo]

If'n when I ever upgrade this old computer (it's still running Win XP, and Chrome/Opera/Firefox/Netflix just dropped support for my processor, so no more updates from them) I'll need a new photo editing program and sound editing program. I'm using something called Paint Shop Pro, which is positively ancient and I don't think for sale anymore. It's 90% as powerful as Photoshop from the same era but easier to use. I'll probably just make do with GIMP since I'm familiar with it in both Linux and Windows, and the fact it's free.

[Frostbit]

You can do a lot with GIMP,.