A noob question

[Gavlar82]

ok folks, been on here a few days, and i'm so impressed by all the members photo's. really put my work to shame. but being new to the photography game and having a poor pc, i dont have (and am not likely to get until i purchase a laptop) any editing software like photoshop. just wandering how much i am being limited by not having it and also how some members found it to use? simple? complicated? or if any other software comes highly recommended.

thanks all.

 

[andrewc]

photoshop can be complicated, but for basic image editing and retouching you can get away with photoshop elements or "The GIMP" which is free. Paint Shop Pro is another very capable budget image editor.

 

[mattyh]

If you don't want to do any actual editing (removing of blemishes etc), or too much in depth editing, you could always try Picasa From Google which, whislt being fairly basic is pretty good at basic adjustments... and it's also free same as GIMP

 

[oldgit]

If you ever intend to go the photoshop CS3 route (and probably even if you dont) then consider PhotoshopElements. The latest version is about £50, but you can get older versions from fleabay for less.
They are generally very good and do "most" of what people need to do.

 

[StewartR]

Hi Wannabe,

Some sort of photo editing software is pretty essential. It's easy to think that this was never necessary in the days of film, but there was actually a lot of correction going on at the lab (colour correction, exposure etc.) that none of us ever saw.

You don't need to spend a lot of money. For example:
* Photoshop Elements is not terribly expensive (<£100) and will do pretty much everything you would want.
* ACDSee is a bit cheaper and offers similar functionality to Elements.
* Picasa will do a lot of the more basic corrections, and it's free.
* Gimp is powerful and free, but has a steep learning curve.

 

[a1ex2001]

* Gimp is powerful and free, but has a steep learning curve.

I'd second that but also point out that the learning curve is getting alot easier, the user interface on the new version is alot better than some of the previous attempts and the amount of community support on the web is improving all the time. Generally speaking there are step by step guides available for all the basics and plenty of helpful people when you encounter something a little more challenging.