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Photoshop and photo processing questions

post #1 of 10
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Hi everyone. My wife is looking for photo editing software that she can use for her business. Since she is just starting out (and has no experience with photo editing), we want to try and get somthing that is good but isnt really expensive. We were thinking about getting Adobe Elements 10 (price is definitely good) but I wanted to ask you guys if you had any suggestions (or is Elements good)? She will be using it on her Macbook until we upgrade her computer. Our budget for editing software is 150-200 USD (but cheaper is better).

That brings me to my second question, is Mac or PC better for processing/editing photos? She likes the physical appeal of the Macs, but for the cost of one, I could build a powerhouse of a PC (and probably save some money). This question may just come down to personal preference, but I thought I would throw it out there anyways.
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post #2 of 10

RE: Photoshop and photo processing questions

I use Photoshop to edit photos on a PC. The monitor is really important too. I would go with a good PC and monitor instead of a mac. The price for a mac.....you could buy Photoshop as well as a PC instead.....especially if you're building it yourself. All the adobe software is good enough.

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post #3 of 10
Quote:
Originally Posted by thebigrobbyrob View Post

Hi everyone. My wife is looking for photo editing software that she can use for her business. Since she is just starting out (and has no experience with photo editing), we want to try and get somthing that is good but isnt really expensive. We were thinking about getting Adobe Elements 10 (price is definitely good) but I wanted to ask you guys if you had any suggestions (or is Elements good)? She will be using it on her Macbook until we upgrade her computer. Our budget for editing software is 150-200 USD (but cheaper is better).

For general processing and editing elements and/or lightroom work well. I like the layout of lightroom for quick editing and adjustments. For heavy cloning or editing something like photoshop or elements is needed. Lightroom does pretty well with cloning but the masks feature in elements/photoshop is the one thing I find it lacks.

Gimp is a free software that is rather powerful and has quite a few of the features of photoshop/elements.

It really comes down to what you want to do and how in depth the edits will get.
Quote:
That brings me to my second question, is Mac or PC better for processing/editing photos? She likes the physical appeal of the Macs, but for the cost of one, I could build a powerhouse of a PC (and probably save some money). This question may just come down to personal preference, but I thought I would throw it out there anyways.

IMO they are the same as far as what software is available. However, performance of a PC build can quickly outperform a mac for the cost. If she is set on the Mac interfaces and OSX build a box for her and use a Mac monitor/keyboard/mouse and run OSX on a DIY build.

I use my sig rig for Lightroom/elements/Photoshop and it flies through everything. The monitor is easily to calibrate if she wants although out of the box it pretty much matches prints I have made.
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post #4 of 10
On the software question, i would definitely say Adobe Lightroom, i belive Lightroom 4 is due to be released, so Lightroom 3 should be easy to find cheap. I think it's the best Photo Editing program, for just the editing part. The problem would be if she wants to do other things that photoshop can handle but Lightroom can't since it's a "real" photo editing program if i can call it that. I've been using photoshop for editing photos since i started taking photos in 2006 and i'm about to ditch my CS3 collection in favor for lightroom. I think it's a much better program for photographers, it's easy to edit your photos and the thing that matters most to me is how easy it is to sort your photos by date, camera, lens, tags etc.

The hardware question, i've been there many times, should i keep go with windows or change over to mac. After some reading i always end up realizing that mac's aren't better anymore on photo editing, that time seems to be over. As silvrr said, if she is used to osx there could take some time to get used to a windows computer. But the performance for the same price is better with a custom built windows machine.

For work out in the field i would use a MBP as it is a very robust laptop with decent hardware that can handle Lightroom really nice.
post #5 of 10
As mentioned, GIMP is free, if she feels comfortable learning it instead of another package. At some point, your time spent learning a product is a literal investment worth more than the purchase price. I agree that if she is going to show it to clients and work in the field, the MBP is a nice machine.

If she likes the way she works on a Mac, I think that it is a valid investment, but the PC counterpart machine will be more powerful for less money. I know you haven't mentioned this, so you may have the issue solved already, but the people who I know that edit photos place emphasis on the accuracy of the monitor. Whatever the case, for photo editing, a decently fast CPU and 8+ gigs of RAM should be a good starting point. The RAM will come into play with super high resolution photos, or when she is creating many layers or effects on large amounts of data.

A fast scratch HDD and ample redundant backup is also smart.
    
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post #6 of 10
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the responses everyone. We are going to look at Lightroom and compare it to Elements (go 30 day trials smile.gif). For the PC vs Mac question....I kinda figured both would work so we will look at it a little more.
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post #7 of 10
Since price is a big factor, I also suggest testing GIMP as a Photoshop alternative. Lightroom is the defacto standard for post processing, but there are others to consider as well. I like Corel AfterShot Pro (formerly Bibble). It is definitely missing some features that Lightroom has, but it takes full advantage of multi-core systems, it's efficient, and the workflow fits my style more (ie. you can make multiple versions of photos and with with layers easily). You can save Windows licensing fees by running it on Linux too!
    
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post #8 of 10
Just noticed that Lightroom 4 got released and with a very good pricetag of 149$, so now i can highly recommend it. This is the moment i've been waiting for, goodbye photoshop and hello lightroom.
post #9 of 10
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlbertMwugabi View Post

Just noticed that Lightroom 4 got released and with a very good pricetag of 149$, so now i can highly recommend it. This is the moment i've been waiting for, goodbye photoshop and hello lightroom.

You do realize they are completely different tools right? I would not shove off photoshop that easily lol.
post #10 of 10
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Webster View Post

You do realize they are completely different tools right? I would not shove off photoshop that easily lol.

I do know that, but for pure photo editing purpose, not for heavier manipulation or other purposes where photoshop rules. I'm the kind of person who not manipulate my photos other then the basic adjustments, not such as moving objects and similar things, the photo shall be taken just as i want by the camera , not made in photoshop afterwards. I'm still gonna use photoshop for panoramas and HDR, so i'm not gonna give it up that easy, but the workflow is so much better in Lightroom, in my opinion that is.
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