Coming back and need help

[NJG]

Hello again. It's been a while. But I'm getting back into my hobby I used to love. I need a new laptop and editing software. So what do you recommend?

Was thinking lightroom? Any tips on best place to get lightroom from?

 

[Pookeyhead]

Hello again. It's been a while. But I'm getting back into my hobby I used to love. I need a new laptop and editing software. So what do you recommend?

Was thinking lightroom? Any tips on best place to get lightroom from?

Lightroom is superb for global raw processing, but Photoshop is still the king for actual retouching and detailed manipulation.

You can get both for around £9 a month on creative cloud I think... or could recently. Check out the Adobe website.

It's not a case of choosing between the two.. they both do very different things.

There's other products available other than Adobe stuff though... Capture One Pro is considered an industry standard raw processing programme too, and in many ways is superior to Lightroom, especially if you want to shoot tethered. As for image manipulation software, I've only had experience with Photoshop, so you'll have to wait for others to come along if you want alternative recommendations to that.

 

[NJG]

I've dabbled with Adobe stuff but nothing serious so maybe sticking with it. But I'm interested to hear of other similar software.

 

[jerry12953]

Even though Adobe seem to have started dumbing it down I'd still suggest Lightroom and outright purchase is probably still the way to go. LR has so many features now that it's actually getting quite complex but there's surely very little you can't do in it.

If you want Photoshop as well, it's probably best to get them (PS + LR) on subscription at about £100 p.a. but for many people it's probably overkill.

 

[ianp5a]

I've dabbled with Adobe stuff but nothing serious so maybe sticking with it. But I'm interested to hear of other similar software.

I use Digikam for import, powerful organisation, edit, HDR, stitching and web upload. It allows me to plug in Raw Therapee Hugin and Gimp, so everything is done from within Digikam. Easy to try, it as it's all free.