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Author Topic: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations  (Read 582 times)  Share 

Offline Al

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Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« on: December 05, 2011, 09:35:11 AM »
What would be a good Christmas Gift for a casual amateur photographer such as myself?  I normally use a several year old version of ACDSee, which I love for its ease of use and it will do most anything I normally need.  But then again maybe I don't know what I really need to do!  I also have Photoshop Elements 6.0 which I use on rare occasion.  Any recommendations? Should I bother to use something new or upgrade what I have? 

Thanks for any advice which will be most appreciated.
Al
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Offline badknees

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2011, 10:21:03 AM »
Quote from: Al on December 05, 2011, 09:35:11 AM
What would be a good Christmas Gift for a casual amateur photographer such as myself?  I normally use a several year old version of ACDSee, which I love for its ease of use and it will do most anything I normally need.  But then again maybe I don't know what I really need to do!  I also have Photoshop Elements 6.0 which I use on rare occasion.  Any recommendations? Should I bother to use something new or upgrade what I have? 

Thanks for any advice which will be most appreciated.
Al
What is it that you use the software for? Image adjustments?, catalog? printing? Do you shoot any raw files or is it all jpg? Do you do any complicated retouching? ie cloning out parts of photos, etc?
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badknees
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Offline Al

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2011, 01:19:15 PM »
BK, mainly just touch up, image adjustment, resizing, cropping which is not to say I occasionally might want to remove or blur something such as a license plate perhaps.  It might be nice to be able to combine several images into one such as combining individual dog shots into a group shot or perhaps even put a Christmas hat on a frog . . . but the ins and outs of Photoshop have always been beyond my skills or attention span.

Thanks for you help,
Al
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Offline Sotol Vista

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2011, 02:58:24 PM »
I use Paint Shop Pro X3. I got it on sale last year for $59 at best buy. I use it for my daily edits/adjustments. when I need to do some really really heavy editing/ manipulation I use Photo Shop.

Even though Paint Shop Pro X4 is out, you can get X3 for a steal at amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Paintshop-Photo-Pro-Ultimate-VERSION/dp/B0041S1DLM/ref=sr_1_2?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1323118641&sr=1-2

and X4 has a good price also
http://www.amazon.com/Corel-PaintShop-Pro-X4-Ultimate/dp/B005HTIWIQ/ref=dp_ob_title_sw


James

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Offline kevint

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2011, 03:25:46 PM »
Photoshop Elements 6 will pretty much do everything you mentioned.  Not sure how sophisticated v6 was but I use V7 and it has a nice automated utility for combining several dogs into a single picture.  It can also add a Christmas hat to a frog as long as the frog is not Jewish.  In that case you would need to first run a conversion utility on the frog and then add the Christmas hat.
 
If you are pretty familiar with Photoshop Elements 6 then an upgrade to v10 (current version) would cut down your learning curve and provide a few new capabilities/user friendliness.
 
In terms of a Christmas gift, a monopod might be a good idea if you don't have one, especially one that is fairly light and doubles as a walking stick.  Adding a little stability to your camera will help you take sharper pictures or sucessfully take pictures in low light without a flash (like sunsets in BIBE).
 
Good luck.
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Offline badknees

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #5 on: December 05, 2011, 05:51:11 PM »
Quote from: kevint on December 05, 2011, 03:25:46 PM
Photoshop Elements 6 will pretty much do everything you mentioned. If you are pretty familiar with Photoshop Elements 6 then an upgrade to v10 (current version) .......
 
Good luck.

Agreed

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badknees
Houston- Clear Lake

Offline Terlingua50337

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2011, 07:27:03 PM »
You can download GIMP for free. It's a poor man's Photoshop. BTW, it has a pretty steep learning curve.
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Offline TexasAggieHiker

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2011, 08:23:20 PM »
What about software that will process RAW files?  Will elements do that?
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Offline kevint

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #8 on: December 05, 2011, 08:41:53 PM »
Yes.  Photoshop Elements comes with Adobe Camera Raw.  Your version 6 should already have that.  However, I just helped my wife buy a new camera (Canon Powershot G12) and I had to upgrade Photoshop Elements on her computer from v7 to handle it's raw files.  If you are upgrading to PE10, you'll be covered whatever camera you have I would think.
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Offline badknees

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #9 on: December 05, 2011, 09:23:14 PM »
Quote from: TexasAggieHiker on December 05, 2011, 08:23:20 PM
What about software that will process RAW files?  Will elements do that?

Adobe frequenty releases updates of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) as new cameras come to market. These can be updated to Elements to process RAW from the newest cameras.

The caveat (always) is --The latest version of the Camera Raw plug-in available for Photoshop Elements 6.0 (Windows) is Camera Raw 5.6. This version will not support cameras that were rolled out after this update. Subsequent updates of ACR will require a newer version of Elements.
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badknees
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Offline TexasAggieHiker

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #10 on: December 05, 2011, 09:41:01 PM »
hmm...  I just got a $100 gift card for amazon and can get Elements 10 for $55 there.  If that can process RAW files, I may just pull the trigger on it.
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Offline badknees

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #11 on: December 05, 2011, 09:56:18 PM »
Quote from: TexasAggieHiker on December 05, 2011, 09:41:01 PM
hmm...  I just got a $100 gift card for amazon and can get Elements 10 for $55 there.  If that can process RAW files, I may just pull the trigger on it.

Elements 10 will process RAW.
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badknees
Houston- Clear Lake

Offline TexasAggieHiker

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #12 on: December 05, 2011, 10:03:56 PM »
Thanks for the info BK.  I may get a polarizing filter with the rest of the gift card.
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Offline fartymarty

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #13 on: December 06, 2011, 01:42:00 AM »
Quote from: Al on December 05, 2011, 01:19:15 PM
...or perhaps even put a Christmas hat on a frog..

Elements 2 will do that, unfortunately combined with my skill set it won't do it very well, but then you should have better results.

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Offline kevint

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Re: Casual Photographer Software Recommendations
« Reply #14 on: December 06, 2011, 05:12:22 AM »
A polarizing filter is an excellent choice, too.
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