Information overload- photo editing software

[suzette]

Halemano- on that shot, I just used the "I feel lucky" button on the picasa software, which I think mainly corrected the white balance. One that is far more striking is this:

Again, using only the "I feel lucky" button on picasa:

After:

And THAT is exactly why I took the picture to begin with- it's a gorgeous landscape!

Also, regarding:

BTW - will you be at the Invasion? Love to meet you in person

I will very likely make some of the events while you all are invading the Keys- I can't wait! I haven't had time to really sit down and see what's what and what events are going on, but I'd love to join you all for some of it. I am working too but I usually have 2 or 3 days off a week and mostly work at night, so I should certainly be able to meet up and dive or have lunch/dinner/drinks!

 

[WOODMAN]

Isn't that 'I feel lucky' button handy? It isn't going to teach you the mechanics of how to make these corrections, but it sure makes a nice place for you to get started and get some usable images while you are getting used to this stuff. You will be wanting more control eventually, of course, and Photoshop Elements will be waiting for you, but for now- isn't Picasa fun? And you can't beat the price!:10: Welcome to the vast world of photo editing. Woody

 

[ryanpublic]

I use picasa a lot. I've noticed similar results. I wish I had my before and afters like you did yours because they were similiar. I had like 200 pictures from the Texas Flower Gardens that I took with a cheap 3 mP sealife camera. When I got them home I was very disappointed because they all had that blue green haze and the color was so bland. But with picasa it was very easy for me to make a big difference in those pictures and some of them I really liked after it was all over.

Another program I got that was free was noiseware. This is another program that did a very good job. Gimp is free but it's complicated.

I'm to cheap to spend money on the other software so far. Someday that might change but not yet.

 

[peterbj7]

I have Photoshop CS2, but I've never really got to grips with it and I'm thinking of using something a bit more intuitive. Is there anything in Lightroom and Elements that I don't have in Photoshop?

I also use Roxio Photo Editor. Not very powerful but extremely easy to use.

 

[WOODMAN]

Is there anything in Lightroom and Elements that I don't have in Photoshop?

Elements is a derivative of the much larger (and more complicated) Photoshop CS, and therefore will not contain anything which isn't already in Photoshop CS, unless I am misinformed. I cannot speak to Lightroom, as I have no experience with it.

 

[Kim]

Elements is a derivative of the much larger (and more complicated) Photoshop CS, and therefore will not contain anything which isn't already in Photoshop CS, unless I am misinformed. I cannot speak to Lightroom, as I have no experience with it.

I don't think CS has the "SmartFix" which is in Elements. It has all the things in that get used - levels, sharpening etc - but not linked into a single controllable menu item. Also, the Organiser doesn't actually exist in the same way - CS achieves that through Adobe Bridge - but that needs a pretty powerful machine to run decently.

 

[danclem]

Actually, I believe Photoshop CS3 does have "Smartfix." Try Image>Adjustments>AutoLevels. As was mentioned earlier, Elements is an extract of the larger Photoshop program.

Dan

 

[Kim]

Actually, I believe Photoshop CS3 does have "Smartfix." Try Image>Adjustments>AutoLevels. As was mentioned earlier, Elements is an extract of the larger Photoshop program.

Dan

Auto Levels is only one part of Smartfix. That's what I meant. The tools SmartFix uses are all there - you just have to use them independently. For instance Smartfix sharpens too - I don't think Auto Levels does that by itself.

 

[suzette]

For video? Very basic, included in XP, Moviemaker. That allows basic production, adding music, transitions, some filters etc.
Then there's a whole range of stuff that's entry level - from Adobe Premiere Elements (I believe you get a discount when buying the Adobe software together), Ulead makes some simple stuff - Video Editor if I remember correctly.

Know what's weird? MovieMaker won't work for my videos- they're in AVI format from my camera and MovieMaker doesn't recognize that format, which seems strange to me.

 

[Kukuisa]

That's strange indeed. My version of Moviemaker (ver. 5.1) lists the .avi format in the Help Topics as one of the supported file types.