Software Programs
I am a rank amateur at digital photography. As in, I really don’t have a clue what I’m doing. Seriously, none.
I have a great little Olympus camera that I’m learning to use (there are a shitload of settings, even on a little point-and-shoot) but what I’ve found is just as important as a good camera is a good software program.
But what software program to use?
I have downloaded and tried out three different programs: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, Corel PaintShop Pro X4, and GNU Image Manipulation Program 2.6. I’m going to give a quick review of each from my perspective as an amateur.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3
Adobe’s stated target audience for this product is professional and amateur photographers. It has a sleek look with a plethora of options but I found most are hard to find. Granted, I don’t really know enough about digital photography (yet) to know what I’m looking for but the few things I do know to look for took me a while to find.
The striking thing about Lightroom 3 is that is appears to be super friendly to social media users. As soon as you open a photo file, there is a Facebook icon you can click to instantly upload to Facebook.
In my opinion, Lightroom 3 is really easy for people who want to view, print, share, or create slide shows with their photos. If you want to post a good number of photos on the web, Lightroom 3 is by far the easiest.
Manipulating the photos, on the other hand, seems rather difficult for a novice user.
The cost is the most prohibitive element of this program. A whopping $299.00! Whoa! Seriously? I don’t mind companies making a profit but come on!
Corel PaintShop Pro X4
Corel PaintShop Pro X4
Corel’s product seems to be aimed more at the professional photographer. This program has it all. I’m still finding stuff to do to my photos. There are so many features in the program that it makes one’s head swim.
At first it’s a bit imitating because with all the buttons and gadgets it’s hard to tell where to start. But once you get into it, you will seriously lose track of time. I lost a couple of hours last night playing with the “artistic” settings alone!
I wish I could write more on this product, and I probably will in the future, but I’m still playing with all the buttons and lights this program has to offer.
Like Adobe, Corel offers this product for a 30 day free trial. If you like it the asking price is a respectable $79.99 (but as of December 18, 2011, they are offering it for a special price of $59.99).
GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) 2.6
GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) 2.6
The first thing you’ll notice about GIMP is that it actually opens three different windows. This struck me as odd because I was so accustomed to opening a program and having one, lone window run it. No so here.
GIMP is pretty easy to use and like Corel, there are a ton of photo editing features (most of which I’m still playing with).
The three windows thing has been playing havoc with my patience though. I’ll go to close a window I think is some draft photo only to realize it was a key component window to the program, resulting in the whole thing shutting down. Arrrgh!
For the money, GIMP is the best buy because it’s FREE!
Summary
If you are like me and new to the digital photography world I recommend starting with the free program. Once you get the hang of what each function does to a photo, then you can move up to more expensive software.
Personally, I’ll probably go with Corel because it will take me at least a year or two to figure out the program. That’s more entertainment value per dollar than most things these days.
As always, I welcome any comments or ideas!
Related articles
- Works (fjfritz.wordpress.com)
- PaintShop Pro X4: A Powerful Photo Editor For The Rest Of Us [Giveaway] (makeuseof.com)
- New Machine (fjfritz.wordpress.com)
- Adobe releases Lightroom 3.5 and ACR 6.5 (morecheaptricks.wordpress.com)
- GIMP 2.7.4 arrives for testing (h-online.com)
- The Gimp 2.6.11 (techappz32.com)
