I've been really enjoying my camera in the last few years. I have a Nikon D80 and it does a pretty nice job of capturing things the way I want. Still there are always outside factors that come into play such as lighting, weather interference, viewing angle, unwanted elements etc. I use Picasa as a quick viewer and often will play around a bit in there before taking it into my photo editing software to make the actual changes. Picasa 3 is free and is a gem as far as simplifying things, but it doesn't quite cut it for me in terms of quality of output. I have Photo Paint and it does a good job, pretty much comparable to Photoshop in my opinion. But the interface is heavy and the learning curve fairly steep on both programs. I've had Photoshop pushed on me and purchased CS2 but I just found it more than I really wanted to deal with. I took some online photo courses last winter, just to force myself to break through some learning curves with my camera. From there I joined a photo club and was surprised at the number of professional photographers who have shelved Photoshop in exchange for the more streamlined Photoshop Elements 8. At less than $100 it is a very powerful program that is very user friendly. I'm sure there are some things photoshop does that Elements doesn't, but I'd never get through it enough to find them. I have made far more progress in Elements and that has actually helped me learn and understand PhotoPaint and Photoshop as well, though I admit I almost never use them. There are a number of plug ins available that work in Elements - Topaz Labs, Nik Software, OnOne Software, Alien Skin and Photo Essentials 3 are great tools. This is getting long here, so I'll stop for now, but I would recommend anyone who wants to improve their photography take the time to download the trial and try it out.
[ May 22, 2010, 09:47 PM: Message edited by: Kelly Thorson ]
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Hi Kelly, that's all quite interesting. I find I love photoshop, and also have CS2, but I kept version 7 on an old computer, and often use that moreoften as it boots up more quickly, and still does what I need in 97% of the cases.
A friend got P'shop Elements, and asked me to help them into it- and I found I absolutely hated it. I did eventually find where certain options or commands were- the same shortcut keys brought them up, but they were under different drop-down menus.
For really quick & dirty edits, I use an old version of AcDsee which I like- I have that set as the default image viewer, for batch renaming, converting, rotating, etc. A bit rough for some things, but for rapid bulk photo renaming, I find it great. (It was free with an old computer magazine here ages ago. I'm sure it's been superceded, but version 5 still works well.)
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
I am a Nikon Fan!
For 20 years I had a Nikon F SLR with 4 lens ... macro, 55,135 & 300 zoom. Some ar**hole busted the van window and stole the lot. Insurance only got me a mediocre SLR and a digital Canon A30 which I still use as a workhorse as it is compact and takes good pics.
Then seventh heaven ... Sue brought me a Nikon D60 twin lens kit with a 4G card! Magic! Beautiful camera.
You can edit shots in camera to a certain extent, but I download using a card reader.
I use a combination of Microsoft Office Picture Manager and Corel for quick easy editing for e-mails etc. Photoshop for anything else.
I LOVE NIKON!
Posted by Preston McCall (Member # 351) on :
As I said in an earlier post, my Nikon Cool Pix 5600 has had some problems. I hate the fact that it does not turn otself off and runs down the batteries incessantly. Tried settings, but no go. The cover for the batteries is also flimsy and I have to keep it taped shut.
As far as the useing of the camera, the on switch is too close to the snap button and frequently I get the thing just where I want it and I accidentally shut it off. Bad design.
Now my old F Body SLR is still fabulous, but who wants real photographs anymore when the digital ones are vastly superior for the computer. I have it and an old Mamiya, along with a couple of other SLRs in a box that will probably never reopen in my lifetime.
Point being, I am unimpressed with the hardware quality of my Nikon and some of the design. Love the pics and use Corel Photo Paint for all my editing. It is not hard to learn at all and I did not take a course.
Posted by Kelly Thorson (Member # 2958) on :
I think everyone has their preferences, likely based on what they are used to and their experiences. Elements 8 is lightweight version, but I just find it does what I need in a simpler setting. These days my mind is prone to jamming if it gets overwhelmed. I think there are a lot of people who are like that and I think Elements will work well for them. Some of you Photoshop gurus will likely hate it like Ian, but as I said, I was surprised at the number of professional photographers who are using it as their main editing software with Photoshop as a backup.
Posted by Kevin Gaffney (Member # 4240) on :
I personally love iPhoto. Apart from the excellent way it displays all my photos, it has enough built in editing tools for 97% of touch up work. The rest, I do in photoshop. The slide shows with appropriate backing music can really bring photos to life
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
Gee Kelly, you are about 6 months too late with this topic. I would have bought Elements instead of Photoshop CS4. I guess I should have researched Elements before I purchased PS.
Ian, I don't know if it's a platform difference or if Adobe has improved boot time, but PS CS4 boots up faster than PS 6 did on my PC. I was amazed the first time I ran it. I just booted it up with the stopwatch... 9 seconds from click to ready to open a file.
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
I think Elements is really good. I wish it used the same key commands as Photoshop, but overall it's a great program.
Posted by Michael Clanton (Member # 2419) on :
I'm with Kevin- iPhoto is great for some things, Photoshop for the rest... but I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Corel's PhotoPaint, another workhorse photo editing program... I love the fact that is seamlessly integrated with CorelDRAW and the rest of the suite... I also use Picasa quite a bit, but not so much for image editing.
Posted by Dana Stanley (Member # 6786) on :
I think if all your doing is photo editing, elements would be fine, just not for intense design work. I used elements, then when I went to school I got CS3, and at first didn't see the big difference, but when we got into design with Photoshop, I could see why I needed more than elements.
Posted by Donna in BC (Member # 130) on :
Thanks Kelly! The info looks great. I attempted to download the trial but as usual, my system doesn't have the requirements... no big surprise here!
Posted by Doug Bernhardt (Member # 1568) on :
I'm a big fan of PShop and hated elements the first time I saw/tried it. I really only use it for photograph editing and couldn't live without bridge and camera raw, so can't comment all the wonderful ways I've seen others using it. BUT, I got Kelby's book on P Shop and it's a great starters "kit". After that there are some other really obscure author's that dig waaaayy deep into it that I now find fascinating reading. Hey....Don't give up just yet.
