Photo shop

[Tinopener]

Hi all
As I'm a kind of newbie at photography should I be using Photoshop to make my photos crisper and get rid of unwanted items captured .... Thank you Gary

 

[Unframed Dave]

Entirely up to you. I only crop my photos, no sharpening, or manipulation. Others have very different views. Horses for courses.

 

[Alan Clark]

All's fair in love and photography, there are no rules so you can do whatever you like with your photos. The only exception is that you must not break any rules if you enter them for a competition.
PS Other image manipulation software is available.

 

[russellsnr]

Hi, JMO but if you don't have Photoshop just now I would go for Affinity photo alongside Faststone viewer as a DAM (FREE Software).
Affinity probably not quite as good as Photoshop but a lot, lot cheaper option to start with.
Russ.

 

[Brownie]

Russell's advice is good. Once you get sucked into Adobe you'll live with their monthly fee forever. Affinity is priced fairly, a one-time cost, and updates are free. They've only issued one new version that cost $ over several years and have already updated it 3 times at no cost.

Faststone is free. It takes a second to learn the navigation and best workflow, but it's a good program. In fact, if you're only doing simple edits it does that too.

If you want something as powerful as Photoshop/Lightroom and is totally free, look at Darktable. I've been using is as my main processing program for years. It is well supported and updated regularly. Be advised the is a steep learning curve at the beginning. It is also best used to process RAW.

 

[Tinopener]

A friend down loaded Gimble on my computer but for the life of me I don't know how it works
I was thinking they all might work the same so might see if my local college does a photo shop/lightroom course .. Gary

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Gary, I was a novice without formal training and I thought I needed Photoshop. I would edit each individual jpg or raw file in the Adobe raw viewer when you open Photoshop and then I'd do the typical crop & resize and export to jpg. It took me years to find out that I wasn't editing my photos in the most efficient manner.
Lightroom, Capture One, or ON1 are better software to "develop" your raw images into JPGs and give you tools for managing folders/albums and have workflows for editing batches of photos instead of being limited to one at a time. Take the time to look at a few tutorials on Youtube to see what you like.

What photoshop does better than Lightroom is the heavy use of layers to take photos beyond simple editing and into digital art (like posters and other media that professional graphic designers produce), but you may not need all that. Photoshop Elements might be good enough to do any magic eraser functions you want for removing dust spots, or cloning out distractions. Just some food for thought.

 

[Brownie]

Gary, I was a novice without formal training and I thought I needed Photoshop. I would edit each individual jpg or raw file in the Adobe raw viewer when you open Photoshop and then I'd do the typical crop & resize and export to jpg. It took me years to find out that I wasn't editing my photos in the most efficient manner.
Lightroom, Capture One, or ON1 are better software to "develop" your raw images into JPGs and give you tools for managing folders/albums and have workflows for editing batches of photos instead of being limited to one at a time. Take the time to look at a few tutorials on Youtube to see what you like.

What photoshop does better than Lightroom is the heavy use of layers to take photos beyond simple editing and into digital art (like posters and other media that professional graphic designers produce), but you may not need all that. Photoshop Elements might be good enough to do any magic eraser functions you want for removing dust spots, or cloning out distractions. Just some food for thought.

Let's make this simple:

There are two steps in post: Processing, and Editing.

• Lightroom and other software of its ilk are for processing the RAW or OOC image.
• Photoshop and other software of its ilk are for editing.

In other words, Lightroom makes the image look nice. Photoshop lets you put Aunt Hattie in front of the Eiffel Tower.


They do not all work the same. In order to take a local or online course in Adobe, you will be required to pay $10/month for the student version. Once you learn how you're hooked and will be a slave to their subscription.

It really isn't that hard to learn the basics. Open an image and play with the sliders. Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Clarity etc. are self-explanatory. Stop wondering and just do it.

And every single image processing program has a wealth of online tutorial to guide you through. Go to You Tube and do a search for Affinity, ON1, DXO, etc. tutorials. It's all there for free.

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

As a newbie Gary it makes a lot of sense to use one of the free or cheaper
packages mentioned above until you find your feet and are able to decide
your required level of post processing.

There is no doubt in my mind that photoshop is the leading package for
post processing and editing and has many advantages over lightroom but
that needn't concern you at this stage of your development.
The adobe creative cloud photography package including photoshop,
lightroom, bridge and others is around $100 per year but for anyone who
has the need it is well worth it in my view.

As mentioned above faststone is very good for image viewing ,sorting and
a degree of editing but whilst very limited is probably adequate for your
needs at this stage. Photoshop essentials is a good choice to get familiar
with photoshop concepts if your ultimate intent is to move to photoshop
but at this stage its probably better to look at the other packages mentioned
above until you have your forward strategy fully worked out.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

For me personally it's Photoshop all the way, but that's partly because it's what I started with. I only use Photoshop CC, not lightroom, as I can't get on with that. I don't think the monthly is too bad, though 2 of us use it, so it's cheap really.
As others have said, try a few and see what you like the feel of.
One thing I will say though, is that I think Topaz denoise is an essential.

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Let's make this simple:

There are two steps in post: Processing, and Editing.

• Lightroom and other software of its ilk are for processing the RAW or OOC image.
• Photoshop and other software of its ilk are for editing.

In other words, Lightroom makes the image look nice. Photoshop lets you put Aunt Hattie in front of the Eiffel Tower.

That's a great way to put it for our newcomer.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

That's a great way to put it for our newcomer.

Or the Eiffel Tower on Aunt Hattie's Hat

 

[spudhead]

As a newbie Gary it makes a lot of sense to use one of the free or cheaper
packages mentioned above until you find your feet and are able to decide
your required level of post processing.

There is no doubt in my mind that photoshop is the leading package for
post processing and editing and has many advantages over lightroom but
that needn't concern you at this stage of your development.
The adobe creative cloud photography package including photoshop,
lightroom, bridge and others is around $100 per year but for anyone who
has the need it is well worth it in my view.

As mentioned above faststone is very good for image viewing ,sorting and
a degree of editing but whilst very limited is probably adequate for your
needs at this stage. Photoshop essentials is a good choice to get familiar
with photoshop concepts if your ultimate intent is to move to photoshop
but at this stage its probably better to look at the other packages mentioned
above until you have your forward strategy fully worked out.

What do you use Ray?

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

I have the Adobe creative cloud photography package and use photoshop. I also use lightroom to a limited degree
As there are some differences between the two and for some functions you need to switch between them.

I have used it since the 90's through my work and personal use

 

[iain clyne]

If you can get a free one to start with to see how you get on then make a decision. Gimp is another good free one.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

I have one of the Adobe packages that has Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and what I call the kid's version of Lightroom. I still use the 'kid's' version of Lightroom as I hate the Windows 3.1 style layout of Lightroom Classic, I can't stand the piss poor design of what is meant to be a premier piece of software, it's an embarrassment really...

 

[Slug]

I have Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS3 from back in the days where you could buy it on disc. I do any RAW conversion to TIFF with Sony Imaging Edge then process and edit with LR and PS. I find this perfectly adequate for my needs. Most of my online content are JPEGs edited with Lightroom 4.

 

[Tinopener]

Thank you all for your replies gives me some thing to think about ..I think I'll just start by learning how to use the camera first ....

 

[Landshark99]

I use Capture One for processing raws to whatever, Photo Mechanic for editing and organizing and Photoshop for any further image processing. The main reason I use them is because it is what I started with. I am not happy with software subscriptions and preferred for years just having the stand alone versions but that started to became harder to do, especially getting upgrades as my operating system software was being upgraded the old version did not run well. As has been posted here there are a number of different pp software programs, try the one that seems to fit what you want to do.