Photo editing - What else do you use besides PS?

[altered_pixel]

What other things should I start learning besides photoshop? I know just how powerful photoshop is, but what else is there out there?

[DavidW]

Photoshop is the standard for what Photoshop does, and almost all the plugins, actions and scripts are aimed at Photoshop. There are programs like Apple's Aperture and Adobe's Lightroom beta, but they have a slightly different intent behind them, and I can't see them being of much use to you, especially as I don't believe your camera can shoot RAW.

I do all my post-processing with Photoshop CS2 and Noise Ninja. I was fortunate enough to have Photoshop CS2 before I had my DSLR; I had reason to buy Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium because I needed InDesign, Illustrator and Acrobat for paying work.


You may find Noise Ninja worthwhile (try the demo version), along with maybe Photoshop Elements, which will give you much of the capability of Photoshop without the price tag.

There are many other worthwhile programs out there in the consumer market, but Photoshop Elements seems an excellent package for the price. As we've discussed before, there is a fair amount of agreement over Photoshop (or if you can't afford or justify the full version of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements), and either Noise Ninja or NeatImage, but beyond that, photography software is a very personal thing.

I would love some of the more expensive Photoshop plug-ins that are available, but the reality is that I'm nowhere near hitting the limits of what I can do with Photoshop CS2 by itself, and as my photography isn't commercial, I can't justify the expense. What money I put into post-processing next will go into a couple of decent books to learn to maximise my investment in what I have.


What are you looking for in your post-processing that you don't already have?



David

[vjack]

I can't imagine you'll need anything besides Photoshop and maybe a few plug-ins.

[altered_pixel]

considering photo editing as a career, what else should I learn?

[Robert_Lay]

If you are looking for cheaper alternatives to Photoshop, there is Micrografx Picture Publisher, which is excellent, and you can still get a free version of Paint Shop Pro at some earlier version level, I think, and there is Irfanview, which has a free version.

[vjack]

considering photo editing as a career, what else should I learn?

Photoshop is the industry standard for photo editing. If you learn it well, it is hard to imagine that there will be much you won't be able to do. Outside of photo editing, it might be useful to learn Dreamweaver if you plan to do any web design.

[Jon]

I use Raw Shooter Professional for initial processing and Paint Shop Pro for anything serious beyond that, mainly because I've been using PSP for better than a decade.

[am_pitbull_terrier]

I use PaintShop Pro It's a really nice program

[RossW]

I use Corel PhotoPaint. PhotoChop may indeed be the industry standard, and if you want to do photo work professionally, you'll probably have to learn it.

[MJP]

i use paintshop sometime but it depends....mostly i use ps cs2

[etaf]

photoshop does every thing I need, I often use RSE as a RAW convertor.

[Sageg]

Just to reiterate what was mentioned above. If you are planning a career in photo editing, you need photoshop. You should also have experience in some of the other programs as well, just to help you think outside the box.

[RacingMoose]

I mostly use Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro when I need more. PSP has some really nice frames other goodies.

[stoneylonesome]

I use PSP9 and PSP 10 when Coral bought out Jasc and came out with 10, I missed some of the features that 9 had, i.e. there RAW convertor function which I think is better than the way 10 treats it. Having said that I also use RAW shooter but really haven't mastered it yet. As others have said if your going to do photo processing professional than learn Photo Shop.

[chtgrubbs]

Photoshop is the most popular and powerful imaging program, so it is the industry standard. If you are going to free-lance as an editor you could choose to use another program such as GIMP, Picture Window, or PaintShop Pro if you like their workflow and results. But if you go to work for someone else then odds are they will expect you to be able to use Photoshop.

[slin100]

Wonder if there's anyone else besides me too embarrassed to speak up. Anyway, I will admit to using Picasa :o on occasion to do really simple corrections. I tend to do this for snapshots of friends.

[Robert_Lay]

Wonder if there's anyone else besides me too embarrassed to speak up. Anyway, I will admit to using Picasa :o on occasion to do really simple corrections. I tend to do this for snapshots of friends.

Hey, I admitted to using Irfanview (I think), and the only thing lower than that is PaintShopPro version 3.0 (that's the one that works only in 8.3 DOS filenames).

[aam1234]

ACDsee anyone.

[Jon]

Hey, I admitted to using Irfanview (I think), and the only thing lower than that is PaintShopPro version 3.0 (that's the one that works only in 8.3 DOS filenames).I too use IrfanView for minor tweaking, resizing, etc.

[AlexMN]

If you are considering photo editing as a career, I would recomend getting to grips with the whole of the Creative Suite, esp. Illustrator, this will come in usefull if you ever do any design/ advertising work, as already mentioned Dreamweaver is well worth having under your belt as well!

[trek 9.8]

hey.hey hey I use Picasa all the time (I didn't say that I was proud) I just didn't know better. Ok for photoshop how much????
Trek 9.8

[ernest]

15th of February 2006 (Wed), 12:27 AM
19 Hours Ago, 08:45 PM

You are a little bit late.......about 1 year :P

[CrazyPuma]

I use PaintShopPro9 (and many past versions ....) , which is pretty good for the price - I heard too many negative things bout PSP10 so stopped there. I tried GIMP since it was free, but didn't like it as much as PSP - it's definitely a good choice for many, however.

I echo the sentiment that if you're interested in professional editing, Photoshop is the one to get/learn. I have some old version of Photoshop from maybe 8 years ago or something that I didn't use much because I was too lazy to learn it; I haven't yet wanted to buy an updated version. The more I get into digital photography, the more I think I probably should/will ... eventually. :D

[snokid]

It all depends on why you take pictures.

Snapshots of friends/family--- any free/cheap basic editing program (did you look in the box your camera came in?)

Displaying your artwork-- PSP, gimp (opensource free program from what I have read very good)

Getting paid to create images-- PS CS2 or wait for CS3, theres no way around it.

It's a very powerful program, but it doesn't have to be hard to learn. Start with something basic and add something new to it after you figure out how it works.

google photoshop cropping tutorial I think there's a tutorial how to do just about anything in PS

most of all just play!!!

Bob