which image processing software to buy?

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Hiya

Right. On my aging laptop, I have MS photo editor, canon's freebie software, the demo of cs3 and probably a few other bits too (panarama maker, adobe photo galerry thing etc.)

I need to clean up the pc and was going to delete all of these and re-install one imaging package.

Is it worth spending the extra getting the full CS3 package or is Elements going to be OK (and where does Lightroom come into things) or should I consider something else?

Despite having lots of programs loaded, i've not used any of them over and above simple crops and editing and I do tend to get a little confused over all the programs hence the getting rid of them all and starting over with just one that I can learn properly.

Please ignore the costs as I realise the pro packages are more expensive, but if I'm going to buy something I'd rather buy the best thing available but is CS2/3 going to be overkill for a photonewbie?

Please and thank you for any advice given
 
Photoshop CS (£600 ish )... is the dogs wotsits. Experienced users dont generally use more than 10-20% of its functionality, but if you need a function its probably got it or with a bit of creative parallel thinking you can doubtless do it. Huge learning curve (you probably never stop learning).

Photoshop Elements (£80 ish) ... a prosumer version of CS. It has quite a lot of the useful bits, but not em all and has the "wick" turned down + a simplified interface for the average Joe.

The Gimp (£free) Gnu version of photoshop, Has lots of features, its OK/Good as far as it goes, but like the price tag says it free. IMHO not bad if you cant get Elements or afford CS.

Correl PhotoThingyWotsit. Cant comment as I've never used it.
 
Lightroom has all the basic developing tools, but also has tools for managing your library of photos. If you aren't using layers in photoshop it will probably be fine. As with most of the Adobe stuff there is a free trial.
 
If you would like to go free, I suggest:
the GIMP - it's about the best free image and photo editor out there
RawTherapee or UFRaw for processing your raws, if you're a Canon user, then DPP could be good enough too

If you're not willing to get ued to using the tools I mentioned above, try these:
Paint Shop Pro - pretty good for the price
Photoshop Elements - not bad either
Corel Photo-Paint - only if you do vector graphics (it comes in a bundle with CorelDraw in CorelDraw Suite) or if you have to do pre-press tasks and Photoshop is too expensive
Photoshop - you know, the big expensive one. I haven't used it much, as I use the free tools I wrote about above and CorelDraw Graphics Suite 11, but people tend to like it, even if it's costly.

For all the paid programs I mentioned, there are free trials available, so try them out.
You have to find a program that suits YOU, don't forget that.
People can tell you their positive or negative experiences, but that always comes down how much they're used to using computers and their personal preferences.
Feature-wise, any of those I mentioned should be good enough for you.
 
If your lap top is getting on a bit you may find apps such as Photoshop and Lightroom require more welly than it can give. Check out the specs before you try.

Elements 6 is a fairly good program. Not expensive and a lot of the skills you learn will translate to Photoshop, if/when you decide to upgrade.

Bear in mid the price as well. Elements is around £60. Photoshop £600 and Lightroom £200

You can do a lot of things in Elements that until a few years ago was the province of Photoshop. If you've never done any serious Post Processing before Photoshop can be a bit daunting, but it's been said before most photographers don't use more than about 20% of Photoshop's capabilities, I know I don't. :)
 
Just a thought on age and spec, CS3 requires a minimum of 1gig memory!

Rob.
 
Have a look at Serif's PhotoPlus X2. I was using the GIMP before, and X2 seems to do everything that did. It also runs better on my ancient laptop (GIMP slowed it down something rotten).

If you download the free trial of photoplus 6 from www.freeserifsoftware.com (not the main serif one) and put your phone number in, they'll ring you a couple of weeks later offering you X2 for a better price that is on their website.

A short phone call and coupe of refusals later (I was thinking about getting elements at the time) £99 got me X2, album plus pro, the studio extras pack, and photo zoom pro 2, as well as a strange little programme called pop art plus as a freebie, plus a 60 day money back guarantee instead of the usual 30 and the manuals etc.

The only downside is I seem to get an email every couple of days offering me something else, but that's where the delete button comes in ;).
 
Most people on here (amateurs like me, right?) will need nothing more than PS Elements. You can get v6 (try eBay) around £30...
 
CS3 struggles on my 1.7GHz P4 with 768MB ram for some reason. It gets there in the end but the whole system is creaking with the decent software I have now. It was fine on PS7 though which does most things you could want. New PC should be with me tomorrow with any lick then i'll really see what it can do.

I always got on well with the "consumer" versions of Photoshop, elements should be no exception. It all depends on what you want to do. Most cameras will come with RAW software if that takes your fancy and if all you want to do is crop and make small adjustments you don't need Photoshop really. Problem is once you use Photoshop you'll never want to go back.
 
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