adobe photoshop ?

Could someone offer help on what is the difference in all the different versions of photoshop?

example CS2 CS3 Photoshop7 and so forth..

I'm needing a editing software and would like something thats so complicated it'll not get used and then I want something that allows me to do more than just change contrast and brightness. I have the cheap stuff so to speak.

Whats Light Room like? That has me interested but rather not make a mistake as mentioned and get into something overly complicated.

Photoshop CS3 is the newest edition. If all you need is just changing contrast and brightness of your pictures, why not consider GIMP, and which is a free GNU image editor.

http://www.gimp.org/ab​out/

Photoshop can be a lot more complicated then LR...
Totally different programs though. Chances are that with LR, you'll still need PS occasionally.
If you are new to all this, why not give Photoshop Elements a try?

photoshop just adds more and more with every new version, if your gonna buy one, i suggest CS3... that is if you want all the bells and whistles.. then either take a course or get some books on PS..it will help you alot! iF COMPLICATION IS WHAT YOU WANT..pscs3 IS YOUR SOFTWARE...LOL I have it and am quite used to it because i have had every version since ps4 i believe and it gets better and better...but truthfully, if you just want to process photos and dont do much on the creative side... PS elements 5 will put you right where you wanna be.

Ive been a self taught user of Photoshop for many years. Lightroom is the new thing out and the way many photographers are going now. Use it in conjunction with CS2 or CS3.
One of the best ways to learn is by DVD.There is a new 5 DVD set out called "Lightroom Simplified" a 5 DVD tutorial set by PhotoVision.Lash out and get this and every question you may have on how Lightroom and Photoshop work together will be answered. The DVD set can be ordered from:-
www.camerabooks.com Im in Australia and have ordered many DVD's and books from Petras shop. She accepts PayPal, so its easy to order and a great way to learn.
There is also a fantastic book on using Lightroom by Scott Kelby, called The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers. Petra can supply this, or you can order it in Australia online from www.booktopia.com.au
Hope this helps. - Mark

You don't say how soon you need it . Look around for a night school , Jr college or even a large library .
If the difference in price doesn't bother you , go for CS3 . It will be able to " keep up " when you upgrade your computer . The upgrades will be easier .
You will either love it or hate it .
Anything Adobe likes lots of memory .

over the course of the last year, i've gone from elements 2.0, to 4.0, then to photoshop 7.0, pscs, and now to pscs3. the vast majority of that time was spent on cs, but i can tell you that it's a big improvement over 7.0, and cs3 is just as big a leap over cs. it's not so much that you can do more with cs3, but that you can do it more easily and more powerfully. black and white conversion is a great example. there are dozens of witches brews for how to do it, but with with 7.0 they each involved multiple steps, dialogs, etc. pretty much the same with cs. now, with cs3, you can do a great bw convert in one dialog box from the image menu. will i still use my old recipes? sure....sometimes, but it will depend on the situation because i'm all about the result rather than the method.

good luck, and definitely follow the advice to get books and tutorials! learning this thing is a beatdown.

wp.

I hate Adobe Lightroom. The biggest waste of $200.00 I've ever spent. I use Lightroom for converting my RAW image files to .tif. I bought Lightroom because they bought Pixmantec and supposedly incorporated Pixmantec's RawShooterPro RAW conversion features in Lightroom. Well, it's a mess. Performs much worse than RSP yielding noisier conversions. Run away from Lightroom AFAYC and AFAAP. If you need only slightly more tools than the basics and don't want to be overwhelmed, get Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. Very good software.

I use DPP (version 3) and RSP for RAW conversion then I just polish my photos in CS2 (mainly burn & dodge, crop and square off horizons and a touch of curves/levels). I've played with CS3 and the is a real improvement in the tools over CS2 ... but (the big but), I am palying for a whole lot of program capability which I never use. I'm gonna look at Light Zone for my final polishing.

Gary

Yeah ! I use Photoshop CS2. Have been with them for many years and have to say there have been many improvements but I get the feeling saturation point is near. If there is anything else I can't do with CS2, then I don't really want to do it.

Adjusting images in CS2 is about all most people (photographers) want of the package but there is also room for manipulating them also if you want to.

If you've never used Photoshop then it is a daunting uphill learning curve, but once you master the basics, you won't look back.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Reaperman

Thanks everyone, I'm new at this and yea I've heard the horror stories of learning PS especially the more advanced versions.
I guess what I'm wanting to do is correct skin tones/colors, saturation, exposure. I'm sure I'm leaving out a few needed items for a new guy.

I know one thing I shot sme Raw photos and gosh dang they looked aweful do they alwys look bad until they get touched and converetd? Anyhow I'm no where near learning Raw...

I started with pse2, then pse4, finally went to ps7, now using cs2. No way would I go back. And believe me learning is not easy for me. Get cs2 or 3 and go to your local junior college for classes, most of the local jcs have classes on photoshop and photography.

Thanks Tom!!

I'll take the advise and go with it

I was sent this by someone when I asked if CS 3 was worth it . I think it was done in PS 7

oldsquawk wrote in post #3382477
I hate Adobe Lightroom. The biggest waste of $200.00 I've ever spent. I use Lightroom for converting my RAW image files to .tif. I bought Lightroom because they bought Pixmantec and supposedly incorporated Pixmantec's RawShooterPro RAW conversion features in Lightroom. Well, it's a mess. Performs much worse than RSP yielding noisier conversions. Run away from Lightroom AFAYC and AFAAP. If you need only slightly more tools than the basics and don't want to be overwhelmed, get Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. Very good software.

I have Lightroom but continue to use RSP. I personally get better results with RSP and I don't want/need Lightroom's organization functionality (I like IDimager). I may be wrong but I thought I read that Adobe hasn't yet incorporated the RSP engine into Lightroom (they had talked about "blending" it with ACR).

Dave