Photoshop??

Wasn't too sure where to post this topic. My daughter is 16 and is getting interested in photography. She just got back from a three week workshop sponsored by the Governor School for the Arts here in West Virginia. They used adobe photoshop cs4 and now she wants me to buy her the program. At $750, I feel that is a big investment for a 16 year old. Does anyone know of a program that is a bit cheaper but still brings good results? I feel if she sticks with it, maybe the photoshop will be a Christmas gift in a couple of years.

You should see if you can buy an older version at a big discount and then buy the upgrade to CS4 for $199

If not, then Photoshop Elements will do most of what CS4 does for the majority of users.

There are/were also student discounts which ends up being $199. They are the full CS4 with no restrictions and upgradeable when a new version comes out.

I believe the full student edition of Photoshop CS4 Extended is only $199 US for higher education students and $299 US for K to 12 students.

http://www.adobe.com …e=OLS-EDU&nr=1&sdid=DQJKK

tomwilson74 wrote in post #8315124
Wasn't too sure where to post this topic. My daughter is 16 and is getting interested in photography. She just got back from a three week workshop sponsored by the Governor School for the Arts here in West Virginia. They used adobe photoshop cs4 and now she wants me to buy her the program. At $750, I feel that is a big investment for a 16 year old. Does anyone know of a program that is a bit cheaper but still brings good results? I feel if she sticks with it, maybe the photoshop will be a Christmas gift in a couple of years.

i think light room is a great program because it's made specifically for photographers.

ed rader

As a student she can get the academic version for under $200, or the academic version of Lightroom 2 for around $100. The only difference between the "full" version and the academic version is that you aren't allowed to use the academic version for any commercial purposes.

I got my Nephew to get me the Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended for $249.00 from the University book shop. You can get the Photoshop CS4 Extended from amazon for $194.99 and it comes with free shipping. This is the Academic version so you need someone that is in school to get the registration serial number and fill out the form for you.

Take Care,
Cheers, Patrick

I'm not sure how set you are on photoshop and if you are that's certainly your business, but I believe your daughter would get much more use out of a program like Lightroom vs. Photoshop if it is indeed photography she's interested in. Lightroom is a great organizational tool for photographers, and has a very capable editing side to it as well. In some ways it's very similar to photoshop and for photographers some of its capabilities are arguably better.

Many photographers have stopped using photoshop completely (myself being one of them). Photoshop certainly has its place, but it has become more a secondary tool vs. the primary one.

In addition, it's much more affordable...and would allow her to develop her budding interest before adding the "tool" that is photoshop.

I typically use free software like Paint .NET http://www.getpaint.ne​t/ and GIMP http://www.gimp.org/