New to photo editing, what software

I shot mostly film up to about 10 years ago, and then took a hiatus. Now I am getting back into photography, digital this time. What

would be a good starting photo editing, retouching software with room to grow? I use a Mac. Is the Adobe Photoshop elements given

away at discount with purchases at B&H a good start?

<p>Photoshop Elements is a good choice. It has a lot of capabilities and then if you decide to take the next step to Photoshop, it's a natural progression. I use Photoshop every day and have for years.<br>

Joe</p>

<p>Adobe Lightroom is now ported for the Mac. I've used it since version one on a PC, and my son, a convert to the dark side, now uses it on his iMac since the demise of Apple Aperture.</p>

<p>Lightroom is basically one-stop shopping for image management, non-destructive editing and export. I have Photoshop (and the entire Creative Suite), but use it only for the most specialized photo editing. Lightroom alone is sufficient most of the time, and actually prints better than Photoshop (because it has global printing tweaks).</p>

<p>As a plus, Lightroom will export directly to selected third party software, such as Photomatix (HDR), Helicon (focus stacking), and possibly Dropbox (internet distribution and sharing).</p>

<p>Lightroom is still available as a stand-alone program, but also part of the Adobe Cloud family. You can "rent" Lightroom and Photoshop together for $10/month. You download from the internet, but the software resides on your computer, useable for two or three months without an internet connection. There's no practical reason to use something far less capable, like Photoshop Elements.</p>

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<p>Adobe Lightroom is now ported for the Mac.</p>

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<p> <br>

Adobe Lightroom was first available on the Mac. It's never been "ported for the Mac."<br>

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Elements is fine if you're only working on a few images at a time and you don't need to manage lots of images.</p>

<p>If you go for the CreativeCloud version of Lightroom @ $10/month, they throw in PS. It's a deal you just can't beat.</p>

<p>Jeff is right. I was using Lightroom on my mac since the first beta arrived. It saved me from having to use Aperture.</p>

<p>It much depends on how much retouching you want to do, and, as Jeff noted, volume.<br>

The default recommendation is Lightroom, and it makes an excellent choice no doubt for most people. But it's not the only choice; alternatives as DxO Optics Pro, CaptureOne Pro are impressive products with respective strengths and weaknesses (as LR has). These programs are all great for the 'regular' image optimisations (i.e. colour editing, removing very small objects, adjusting contrast and brightness). Plus they have the means to work with large volumes of images quick and efficiently. All available Win and Mac.<br>

Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are editors that allow you to go way further; they can do whatever the previous mentioned products do, but less optimised for processing high volumes, and generally more labour-intensive. PS Elements has some limits (but it's not "far less capable" as claimed, that's mostly internet myth propogated by people who never used Elements). <br />For somebody who is getting his feet wet, I think it is a better match than full-blown photoshop (which can be intimidating and has a steeper learning curve). Whatever you learn in PS Elements carries forward if you ever more to Photoshop full. Alternatives here too, on the Mac a new program called <a href="https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/">Affinity Photo</a> that looks highly promising (and way cheaper), and on the PC there is Paint Shop Pro - but Photoshop has been the industry standard for years, so it's more of a default, so to speak.</p>

<p>Personally, getting started, I would download the trial version of Lightroom and spend some good time on it (with online tutorials as some available on this site), and see how that works for you. If it doesn't work for you, try CaptureOne or DxO (which are at least as capable, but their user interfaces are quite different). Photoshop Elements - for its price, it's a steal, but I wouldn't put my priority there. Personally, I use CaptureOne for >95% and PS Elements for the bits and pieces I cannot do in C1, and printing; I never warmed up to Lightroom (tried version 1 beta 1 and every trial version since, and each time I find its user interface a nuisance).</p>

<p>Adobe has a 30 day free trial on most (all?) of it's products. Just download and try to see which seems comfortable to you.<br>

<br />Photoshop may be a complicated program to use when accessing it's most advanced features but basic features are upfront and easy to find/use.</p>

<p>I, too, recommend Lightroom. I also like the $10/month CC plan, which gets you both Lightroom and Photoshop.</p>

<p>I'm not sure where you want to go and unfortunately not familiar with Macs. - I'd run freeware like Picasa, GIMP Rawtherapee or whatever came with my cameras (usually Silkypix) until I hit a wall. - $10 rent for Adobe's greatest software are fine, if you tweak 50 images / (lamest) month, but if your recent photo hiatus suddenly shouts for an additional nap, those $10 are a nasty hole in your pocket. (I might live long enough to owe Adobe 2 month wages that way.)<br>

The Lightroom trial might be too early until you have some 50 promising images to dabble with and something you can compare the experience to.</p>

<p>Coming from film, to get near the same quality, you'll want to shoot in Raw and convert to tiff or jpg using Lightroom, DxO, CaptureOne or the Raw conversion software that shipped with your camera. You'll be able to gain a stop or so of dynamic range and total control over color, contrast, etc.</p>

<p>Every serious amateur that I know that started out with Elements ended up with Lightroom.</p>

<p>Adobe hasn't written for Apple "first" since they bought Photoshop and started a dynasty. Lightroom may have been a response to Aperture, which most users thought was a superior product, and a lot cheaper. What was Apple thinking when their new management dumped Aperture? I guess Chrysler isn't the only company to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory ;)</p>

<p>Regardless, Lightroom is the last one standing, and a bargain at $10/mo. There's no long-term lease required - it's strictly month by month. Picasa and other programs have their followers, but they're large a dead end. None of their features are portable, including the learning curve. There is a lot of similarity between the work surfaces of various Adobe products, especially from generation to generation. Backwards compatibility is not Adobe's strong point, however.</p>

<p>Corel's Paintshop Pro X7 is another you might consider. It has been a few years since I used it but it always seemed to be able to do most of whatever Photoshop could do and it was under $100 in price. You can find it online now for around $50-$70 and no monthly vig to continue using it.</p>

<p>Photoshop elements user here. Last version has a lots of good features, cannot remember anything else I have missed except clonestamp does not work in 16-bit color mode. Lately I have been stitching panoramas. I have used old core2duo PC with 4GB ram, even with panorama made of four 20Mpix jpegs I get memory use only around 3.1GB.<br>

<br />If You are going for Nikon cameras, You could try out View NX-i and Capture NX-D. Most camera manufacturers have some kind of program for browsing raws and converting raws to jpeg.</p>

<p>Short answer... Yes, it's a good start. Elements is a pretty sophisticated program with many of the tools found in the full Photoshop versions. But... even it can be pretty daunting to get started with, just like any of the other programs mentioned by the other posters. I used Elements for years and was very happy with it. But, Adobe decided to monkey with the RAW editor of some of the later version of Elements making it less appealing to upgrade and I switched to the full CC, subscription version. I now prefer CC to Elements but it was an adjustment.</p>

<p>If you do decide to grab Elements or the subscription version of Photoshop, I HIGHLY recommend you budget for a decent 'how-to' book from one of the reputable authors out there. Scott Kelby and his body of work comes to mind but there are others. It will be invaluable in navigating your way through the process of digital. Good luck and welcome to the club.</p>

<p>Tom</p>

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<p>Regardless, Lightroom is the last one standing,</p>

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<p>It hardly is the last one. Only Aperture left, the rest of the competition is alive, and giving LR a serious run for its money. If only you care to look beyond the Adobe offerings (which historically nearly all have been Mac-first programs, if you care to insist on their history). Lightroom is very good, but not the best at everything nor for everyone, so looking a bit beyond the obvious can be worth the effort.<br>

(Note: there is a free version for Sony only of CaptureOne 8. Well worth trying at that price)<br>

___<br>

Tom's advice to get a good book for the program you eventually get started with - most certainly worth it. Online videos, tutorials etc. are might useful, but paper is patient.</p>

<p>A comment about Photoshop 'How-to' books. When a new version of Photoshop comes out (we are at 15.x now) the books tend to assume that you know how to use the software and focus on the newly added features. For someone just getting started you might want to go online (Amazon, Alibris, etc) and get a cheap used book for a older version with more beginner material.<br>

<br />Also, be sure to check out the Adobe site for tutorials, videos and Adobe TV. There's a tremendous amount of info to help someone get started and it's all free!</p>

<p>If you're thinking about scanning any of you film at some point, Epson Perfection V-# series provided free software like Elements when you bought the scanner. I'm not sure if this deal is still available but check with B and H.</p>

<p>If you're inclined to go with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, rather than Lightroom (my suggestion), check out Affinity Photo first, available from the Mac App Store. I think the $10 discount expires today, or may have already. There's a free trial version on their website. Act fast!</p>

<p>For anyone just starting out, Photo is more than enough Photoshop-ness.</p>

<p>Thanks, Everyone<br>

What are some of the limitations of PS Light room 6? Can it stack pictures to enhance dynamic range? Does it allow me to manipulate the picture by layers or by pixels?</p>

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<p>Can it stack pictures to enhance dynamic range?</p>

 

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<p>Yes, HDR is built-in.</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>Does it allow me to manipulate the picture by layers or by pixels?</p>

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<p>No, but the way it makes changes renders layers not as important. If you are doing graphics with your photos, radical transformation, montage, etc., then you will need something like Photoshop. It doesn't sound from your question that these types of things will be required now.<br>

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You can download a free trial and start using Lightroom immediately.</p>

You guy choose and download a best free Photo Editors for Mac All are Better for edit Selfie, and other pictures using tool like crop, filters, background effect and much more on your MacBook Pro, Air, iMac Pro etc visit this page:

Try the free Darktable for the Mac. It is a pretty powerful program that is capable of doing lots of processing.

Also, why not try Apple's own Photos using extensions for extra processing power.

GR

<p>Adobe hasn't written for Apple "first" since they bought Photoshop and started a dynasty. Lightroom may have been a response to Aperture, which most users thought was a superior product, and a lot cheaper. What was Apple thinking when their new management dumped

 

 

I'm not sure most users thought Aperture was superior. I think as both products developed, most users decided Lightroom was the better product. This is an old debate that never had a right answer and was ultimately decided when Apple dropped Aperature. However I believe you are factually incorrect when you state that

"Adobe hasn't written for Apple "first" since they bought Photoshop and started a dynasty."

 

Per direct quote from Wikipedia.

"On January 9, 2006, an early version of Photoshop Lightroom, formerly named only Lightroom, was released to the public as a Macintosh-only public beta, on the Adobe Labs website. This was the first Adobe product released to the general public for feedback during its development. This method was later used in developing Adobe Photoshop CS3.

On June 26, 2006, Adobe announced that it had acquired the technology of Pixmantec, developers of the Rawshooter image processing software.[7]

Further beta releases followed. Notable releases included Beta 3 on July 18, 2006, which added support for Microsoft Windows systems. On September 25, 2006, Beta 4 was released, which saw the program merged into the Photoshop product range, followed by a minor update on October 19, which was released as Beta 4.1."

 

Not that any of this matters today, or to helping the OP but its best to try to be accurate when possible.

Edited January 12, 2018 by Uhooru