What software do we generally need

Hi

Photography never enjoyed such a good visibility as during the last few years I think. Shops are filled with new camera models, the 2nd hand shelves are full, in many families each of the family members own a digital camera and the magazine shelves are packed with magazines writing about photography.

Among all this the hobbyist has to decide on what software solution is best for his or her needs. I like to discuss this need, what do you think the "photographer's" software toolbox should look like?

Lets say there is no right or wrong. Please tell us a little about your own choice you currently use and secondly what you like to have installed on your PC.

Siegfried

Hello All!

Well good question and curious to hear what everyone says!

I'm currently using Lightroom 2, Hugin (http://hugin.sourceforge.net/) for Panoramas and I just got Photomatix for HDR, haven't tried it yet though.

Lightroom 2 is just magic and I recommend it to everyone! In my opinion a much much better tool for photographers than Photoshop ..... as long as you do not want to do any fancy things or graphic desgin etc.

Here a cool site: www.lightroomkillertips.com

Hugin seems to be great, but needs time to be mastered .... it's still a little bit of a battle.

As mentionned in anohter post I'm missing the framing in LR 2 though.... so I don't know if I need to get again PS Elements 6 or 7.

Another point, just got a 24 inch iMac and it's just SO MUCH MORE FUN to see photographs on such a screen !

Happy New Year to everyone !

(Canon G9 / Stiched with Hugin, tweaked with LR2)

Hi Everyone,
I agree with Budha - for photographers Lightroom is probably the best, easiest and most intuitive piece of software to come along in many, many years (and yes I have been trying most of them out for many, many years).
What Adobe did was to sit down with a lot of professional and advanced amateur photographers and asked them, "What would you like and need in photo software?" (Well, maybe not in those exact words but you get the general idea.) The problem with Photoshop is it was designed for graphic artists, not photographers. It is arguably the best (and definitely the most confusing) piece of imaging software out there, but there is a lot of stuff that us (photographers) don't need and will probably never use.
Now I agree that there are things that Lightroom cannot do as well as Photoshop, but they are also things that the average photographer will not use very often.
Steve

Hi Buddhamountain

I looked at your Flickr page and congrats your pictures just looks great.

In the above postyou say you added a 24" monitor, if I may ask is that the Mac PC you added or only the screen.

I also added a screen recently and must say the difference is awesome, my 520 looks 100 times better, no soft pictures...plenty detail and the colors are great

Best

Siegfried

Hi Siegfried

Thank you for your answer and congrats. There's room to improve, but it already got a bit better with that G9. I am already dreaming about the EOS50D, the Sigma 10-20, a fisheye and so on .... phuiii

The iMac 24 inch is an "everything in one" deal, in other words the 24 inch screen comes with the mac inside. The details & colors are just amazing and it's fast too (3.06 GHz) which is great for working on photos.

Regards,

Reto

Hi guys
Do we need the addition of premiere to make slide show or additionnal work in still photography, because adobe offers that in a bundle software package

Best
Luc

Hi Luc

I took the combo offer when buying PSE6 and never really used it. With PSE7 I did not and do not miss it.

My PC is a 3GHz Pentuin 4 HT and at the time reasonably fast. With PSE6 it was also not that old, 2GB ram, 2 hd's and mem well managed....Premier was or is extremely slow when building the final move...

I ended up using Movie maker from MS and it works great for still slide shows.

Premier can do much more and if you into mobile movies, youtube and other special apps then Premier is great I believe...myself litlle experience

Hope that helps

Siegfried

While Premier is not the easiest software to use once you get the hang of it its very good. Sony Vegas is also worth a look.
I edit all my clients showreels on Premier and it gives pro results.
I also use Nero for burning discs.
But most of the stuff I do could be done in Movie Maker.
And yes Premier is very slow at rendering, but the files do come out well with no faults.

Thanks to you guys, I will be avoiding making mistake by purchasing that combo.
Best
Luc

This site has an article evaluating photo software editing
http://www.pcphotomag.com/software/processing/buyers-guide-2009-image-processing-software.html
Good reading to all.
Luc

Hi guys
I was ready to spend another 50$ + tx for getting essentials 2, for its CUT IT OUT feature, when I suddently realize that with my paint shop pro photo X2 educational edition (plus Coreldraw graphics suite X4 for 133.95$us) I have that fonction called COLLAGE that does exactly that without spending an extra dime. I have tried it and it works so easily. Even for those who prefer Elements to paint shop, its a chance for you that Corel is there and stop Adobe to ask to much for its software. This is what competition is all about.


Have a nice day
Luc

Hi Luc

Interesting info you placed. Its difficult to think off, personally I started with PSP many years back and had great joy with it. I always saw the articles about PSE and over time really wanted to work with it.

I then started using PSE in the different versions and really learned to appreciate it a lot. So much so that when I last year bought CS3, the student version that I realized when starting to use it that its not interesting for me.

I always kept my copy of PSP 9 on my PC and even later picked up 2 versions later that was offered in a old product box in a shop...

It never lost its exciting factor and many good photographers only use PSP.....

It seems to me that the most recent versions plus marketing is really good, I will not be surprised if they pick up speed a lot in the future...certainly whish they do....

Best

Siegfried

Hi Siegfried
An also interesting point that I forgot to mention is that they are also including free of charge an updated version of Lynda.com training videos (49.95$us) and files. I called Corel a few days ago to get the updated version of PSP X2 ultimate that offer quite a few add-ons and free softwares, for 29.95$, such as Corel photo paint essentials 4 that show you how to convert a pic in an artistic paint, also included is media recovery software in order to recover files deleted on your hard drive, or on a usb memory card, and a background remover. The Mediaone plus software (included in the education package)with its picture frames and projects, with video editing :trimming, extracting frames, creating projects, collages, greeting cards calendars, album pics, certificates, magazine cover, is a great value.

Regards
Luc

Hi Luc

I am one ahead of you....;-)

I did get the Ultimate with the free add ons....

The dissapointing part is with Essentials the most important part is left out and to get the full functionality you have to buy the full version.....its worth it....great things you can do with it in a artistic way.

The Lynda part I did not know off. I like her site and did try it for a 7 day special I had at one stage. Problem she is really expensive....

Have you tried the full Corel DRAW software....I see one can get the home school version for a very low price?

PSP is very powerfull doing the post cards, related projects and much more. Are you good with using tubes?

You should post a picture or a few giving some feedback on what you did using PSP.....I think a lot of guys will enjoy that....

Best

Siegfried

Hi Siegfried
The Lynda part I did not know off. Yes its directly on your CD if you requested a CD or an education version that always comed on a CD by mail, and its there the full Lynda.com training for PSP with an add-on for the X2 version was downloaded when I bought the upgrade for 29.99$cdn. I bought the Corel Draw Graphics suite X4 educational. PSP X2 (not the ultimate)+ CorelDRaw suite X4 for a total of 133.99$cdn, shipping was free for Canada. As far as having tried CorelDraw, I didn't find the time to use it, but your other question concerning the tubes, I tried them yesterday, and they are fun to use for pictures with children, as far as beeing good using them is another matter. The next three weeks will be very busy for me, but after easter time, I should have plenty of time to spend and see what I can do with CorelDraw. I found essentials 4 that comes with the package quite interesting and fun to use, but I have to say that I have not looked to the upgarded version. I took a few minutes this morning to look at some of the training high quality videos included on the coreldraw suite x4, and in my program list it includes photo-paint X4 and PowerTrace X4.

Best regards and
have a nice day

Luc