Photoshop recommendations

[DamselDoc]

I use CS3 and like what it can do with my RAW photos. I am certainly not in the expert category though. I am sure that someone that really knows CS3 can do much more than I could, although I got a tutorial DVD by Doug Sloss that is great for learning how to adjust underwater photos. (I think it is called Underwater Photography Workshop)?. I found this to be a good way to get a lot out of photoshop pretty fast.

 

[M_Bipartitus]

You can download one month trials of most Adobe products. Try it out, read a few tutorials, then decide.

Adobe - Downloads

If you happen to have a Mac, Aperture has a trial too.

http://www.apple.com/aperture/trial/

 

[bvanant]

Don't buy anything in a rush. Go to adobe.com and download lightroom and photoshop. You can get a 30 day free trial of both and see what you like about them. Further if you have a Mac then go to apple and download a free trial of aperture. Play with them all with YOUR pictures and see how you go. For 95% of the things I do, I use Lightroom, an occasional use of photoshop. I personally don't like the workflow of Aperture, but many of my friends love it, I like lightroom better. Take a class at your local community college and play with them there as well. You will learn something (maybe) and get eligible for the student discount.

As for the Drafahl's we were on a Solomon's trip with them and they are remarkably great people and their books are first rate as well. Highly recommended as are Martin Evening's books.
Bill

 

[H2O Photo Pros]

I definitely agree with Bill & Nannette. take full advantage of the free trials the companies are offering. Being a RAW shooter, you really will do the majority of your editing in Lightroom, but Photoshop still is a must have tool for the creative mind.

 

[gert7to3]

Just got back from Our World Underwater (and lots of snow outside the show). Jack and Sue Drafahl have just produced a new tutorial DVD on Light Room. This ably complements their previous tutorials on the use of PhotoShop. Their primary recommendation for a beginner is to go with Light Room first, then use something like PS Elements for any finishing you might need. However, if you're shooting RAW, there probably won't be much you need to do to your RAW photos anyhow.

That said, if you already own PhotoShop, you might be better off concentrating on learning that program instead (IMHO).

Their website is: Jack and Sue Drafahl, Underwater Photography and Photoshop Instructors

I have found their books tutorials really helpful with making sense of PhotoShop, even for topside work.

 

[illFisch]

I know I might be in the minority here (looking at the posts I'm definately in the minority) but I think you can't go past the price of GIMP with ufraw as both are open source.

There's probably a bigger learning curve and doesn't seem to be much support on here but I personally would rather use a fully legal open source package than a cracked copy of proprietary software (not that anyone here would be using pirated software ).

 

[ToPpS]

Generally speaking, Lightroom is great if all you want to do is some colour/tonal balancing and a bit of cropping. It's easy and provides the basics needed for photo editing.

If you are looking for any advanced editing that is needed. ie: replacing backgrounds, grunge borders Then Photoshop is the one for you.

If price is a huge problem there are "other" ways of getting your hands on PS3.......

 

[edrobmaui]

A few thoughts I haven't seen mentioned...

Hi guys,
I intend to shoot in RAW and then adjust white balance in Photoshop.

Actually Photoshop does not edit raw files. Photoshop uses "Adobe Camera Raw" (ACR) which must export the raw file to a new bitmap file before Photoshop can be used for editing.

I believe both Lightroom and ACR use the same raw engine. However Lightroom has a much slicker interface and has a few more editing bells and whistles.

Any editing you do in ACR or Lightroom will be non destructive which means you can always go back to the original image that has never been changed. Any editing you do in Photoshop will permanent once the file is saved.

Lightroom is also a DAM (digital asset management) program that you will appreciate after you have a few thousand files and want to find an individual file in the mix. Adobe Bridge (comes with Photoshop) can also be used for this but there is a difference that may be important.

Adobe Bridge is a file viewer (i.e. the file has to be present.) Lightroom is a database so you can search files on a removable drive, CD or DVD that is not present. you can even copy the database (Catalog) to a second computer. Note: you can not edit files that are not present, but you can find where they are located.

Lightroom also has a very good print mode, and easy slideshow mode, and can create web based HTML and Flash photo galleries.

You can find a number of free tutorials on Lightroom on the Adobe site here.
And a "Lightroom Killer Tips" site you might find helpful.

You will still need Photoshop for serious image manipulation like knocking out the background, creating graphics with text, etc. but most of the everyday editing can be done in RAW mode which is, again, non destructive.
Ed

 

[mikemill]

Before you spend money on Photoshop take the time to check out GIMP and UFRaw (for the RAW processing) and see if you like it. If you don't you lost a bit of time but not money.

 

[alewar]

Perhaps you should give The Gimp a try first. It's a very good open source program with most of photoshop's functions (for instance RAW-format support and color management) and you can download it for free!

Edit: It seems someone was faster than me submitting the link to Gimp