jhelms

iTrader: (2)

I'm getting more serious as a photo-hobbyist - I shoot with a D200 and so far have held off on shooting in raw and/or doing much post-processing at all. Prior to now I've really concentrated on getting the pics as correct as possible in-camera. Out of my 22k pictures uploaded on my website the extent of my post-processing with them has been using the free version of google's Picasa to do cropping and some minor contrast corrections (no joke, I'm almost embarrased to admit that).

I'm signed up for several photo classes at the local university this quarter and have gotten more serious in shooting varied subjects; more events, more portraits, and have helped with a few weddings recently as well.

So with all that said, I think I'm ready to start doing some actual post-processing to get my pics to 'pop' more.

I looked at Lightroom, Elements and the full blown CS3. It looks like I might find everything that I need in Elements, but then again I don't want to make that purchase and then realize that there's a ton of reasons that I should have bought CS3.

What do ya'll think? Thanks in advance...

phantomzer0

iTrader: (17)

Honestly CS3. Don't even mess with the others. Most classes teach the newest version of Photoshop anyways.

Plus if you wanted to learn some other stuff on your own at sites such as good-tutorials.com or pixel2life.com you will find most are authored for CS3.

Good luck man, photoshop is fun as hell once you know the basics. You can literally do anything.

jhelms

iTrader: (2)

That's the answer I was afraid of mostly because I was going to pick up the elements 7.0 pic/video combo ($114 preorder price from amazon) instead of having to wait to come up with $500+ for CS3.

Someone said there was a good student discount for CS3, but not sure how much or how you go about getting that; am I overlooking any other better way to get it?

Morbid

iTrader: (34)

Free? Well, sort of. Easynews.com, $10 per 20GB of transfer or every 30 days, whichever comes first. Why pay over inflated prices for software?

GTOSE

iTrader: (1)

CS3 seems pretty great! I just dunno how the hell to use it.

phantomzer0

iTrader: (17)

Yeah the student discounts are pretty hefty. All you need to do is be a registered student at any school, go to the bookstore on campus and buy it.

Or you could download it like suggested earlier.

Mcheap

Whats that? Buy a rapidshare account 50gb limit that gets reset every 5 days..

Photochop

iTrader: (74)

Theres a reason Adobe is the industry standard. That said, it is expensive. You could probably get a student discount on it if you look around though. If you're going to get serious about it, go with the print design package (don't remember the name - comes with CS3 photoshop, illustrator, indesign, bridge - I think, and a couple other small nicknack programs). Elements does have some basic features for simple contrast/level corrections like you mentioned. Your camera should take very good shots and you shouldn't have to spend just a ton of time editing them if you shoot in good lighting, etc. PM me if you have any questions about it, I'm a graphic designer fulltime and use the suite daily.

GTOSE

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the tutorial site!

This program really woke up now that I know how to use it.