Editing Software - which to recommend

[JerryL]

Hi
I am new to the forum and have a few editing software questions

I seem to be gathering a number of different pieces of editing software but as a beginner have never really explored which of them would be the best to use and stick with, as to date I have mostly just loaded up my images and done some basic fix work.

So here is what I have:

• Adobe Photoshop Elements (came with my D80) - both Mac & PC versions
• iPhoto - which my Mac seems to default to when importing
• Picasa
• HP Photosmart (came with my last scanner)

Does anyone have experience of any or all of the above and until as such time I can upgrade to some better software, which has the most features that you can recommend to stick with? As you can gather I have Macs, a Dual Core iMac desktop and a Macbook Air.

And the obvious next question is..what is a sensible upgrade route in editing software that won't break the bank? Is processing RAW a next step?

Any advice appreciated.

 

[Sam_G]

Of that list, Elements is technically the best. Picassa is so easy to use though and does a surprising amount of actions that I would always use that and if there was something that Picassa couldn't do, use Photoshop.

The next obvious upgrade would probably be Lightroom or if you like the extensive range of actions, PS CS4

 

[Craikeybaby]

I would discount the last two straight away.

iPhoto would be best if you don't really want to do much work with your photos, or if you have loads of them and need to keep them organised.

Elements is best if you want to do a lot of editing, but the organisation isn't quite as good as iPhoto.

My suggestion would be to use both for a while and see which one you prefer, with regards to upgrades, Aperture would be the logical upgrade from iPhoto, or possibly Lightroom, but that may be trickier to learn than Aperture id you are coming from iPhoto. From Elements the upgrade would be Photoshop CSx, but that doesn't really fit your not breaking the bank category!

 

[JerryL]

Thanks for the responses, I have unfortunately just used whatever fell to hand when getting photo's off my various cameras, all a bit haphazard to say the least.

I think I will remove all but iPhoto off my various Macs and do an install of Photoshop Elements onto each machine for more serious editing needs.

I assume it is possible to use iPhoto for importing and if more work is needed point to the appropriate folders or will I need to work on separate copies of the photo's within each application? Basically I want to avoid duplicate files where possible.

 

[Scarecrow]

Haven't experience of any of those, having always used Photoshop. However, Elements is very capable if not particularly intuitive. The big advantage that Elements does have is that there are a lot of tutorials to be found on the net, Youtube etc to help you learn how to use the software.

If, at a later date, you then decide that you need to upgrade to CSx, you will be familiar with how it works.