New Lens or Photoshop?

[andrewdryburgh]

<p>In advance - thanks to all frequent users of this forum who post a wealth of knowledge. I have learned A LOT from just perusing the threads on p.net. I wanted to get a survey on your opinions regarding the following...<br>

<strong></strong><br>

<strong>My Background: </strong>I'm a new DSLR user, merely a budding hobby at this point, but I'm loving every minute of it. I have been using a Nikon D60 w/ kit 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 lens since mid-November. I've been very pleased with the results that I've been getting. However, the artist and/or gadget-head in me has been itching to get a new toy. A small part of me wants to try and squeeze out a bit more sharpness/contrast from my photos, but I mostly want to play with a new toy and explore the creative opportunities it holds. I'm still in "saving up the $$$ mode right now", but I know that I with my budget I can either get some photo-editing software (photoshop or equivalent) or a new lens (I was thinking maybe the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G AF-S Auto Focus Nikkor Lens, but I have more research to do.) I have no experience with photoshop, but I am pretty computer-savvy and pick things up fairly quickly. As for what I am shooting, it's anything and anyone I find interesting.</p>

<p><strong>My Question:</strong> Knowing what you know now, if you were in my shoes and had a limited budget, would you spring for the photo editing software or a new lens of equivalent (or less) value? What software/lens would you choose?</p>

[mike_earussi1]

<p>Hard decision, it's a tradeoff. Photoshop can help salvage a lot of poor photos but a good quality lens, like the 50 f1.4 can help produce a lot of good ones. So the real question is what's more important to you now?</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>There aren't many good free or cheap lenses. There's plenty of good free and cheap photo editing software. Get the best lenses you can fit into your budget - that's never a mistake.</p>

[scotbaston]

<p>if your not familiar with Photoshop, I would suggest Lightroom 2... excellent workflow, plenty of easy to use/tweak settings, cheaper and uses the same Raw engine as Photoshop. <br>

then put your savings from not buying PS into getting a new/better lens</p>

<p>I can't recommend a Nikkon lens as I am a Canon user and don't know the range... but the 50mm f1.4 can't be a bad choice</p>

<p>for note, I own both PS CS4 and LR2 and bang for buck LR wins everytime</p>

[umesh_bhayaraju]

<p>If you want to learn art, then buy a photoshop. Even with medicore pictures in hand, with photoshop you can create great art and produce incredable pictures. If you buy a good lens, you will learn and explore photography. you will learn the use of light. So, it boils down to "lens" for "photography" and "Photoshop" for "art". both are good. the result matters.</p>

[ronald_moravec1]

<p>You can not progress without a photoediting program, Gimp for free, Photoshop <br />Elements for $100, NX2 for $150 at Amazon.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.capturenx.com/en/index.html">http://www.capturenx.com/en/index.html</a></p>

<p><a href="http://www.moosepeterson.com/D3/media_center.html">http://www.moosepeterson.com/D3/media_center.html</a></p>

<p>See how he works with NX2 at the bottom of the page.</p>

[andrewdryburgh]

<p><strong>Mike</strong>: salvage poor photos or produce better ones? I may be leaning towards producing betters ones to start instead of having to salvage poor ones.</p>

<p>I thought of one more item to add to the "would you rather" list. Maybe instead of photo editing software or a new lens, maybe a speedlight to explore different lighting opportunities...</p>

[allardk]

<p>I agree with Lex. Get Raw Therapee, the GIMP and a nice lens. Then if you don't like the programs you can put something like Lightroom on your list for the next purchase. If you are a hobbyist, and it is photography you are interested in, photoshop is nice but more than you need. Get a lens with a large maximum aperture. Control over depth of field is such a nice gadget. Looking through your viewfinder and seeing your subject come into focus from a distant blur is much more fun than adding adjustment layers. I'm not familiar with the Nikon lens line-up, but if experimenting is what you like a set of two budget-line fast primes is maybe better than one expensive one. If the market has done its job I guess a 50 1.8 and a 28 2.8 will set you back about the same amount as the 50 1.4. If you like playing around with stuff and making your own mini-studio the speedlight is a good investment too. Get one that you can use as a slave for more experimental fun.</p>

[john_demott]

<p>When I started to get serious about photography as a hobby, I took a few courses which included not only taking photos but developing and printing them in the darkroom. IMHO, if you want to get more deeply involved with your photography, you have to understand the whole process--it makes you look at your photos more closely and with a different appreciation. Today, that means working in the digital darkroom.<br>

When Photoshop and digital photography became more popular, I took a course at a community college in beginning photoshop. That is still a good way to go, because not only will you have a chance to learn about digital image processing and Photoshop, but as an enrolled student you can qualify for Adobe's educational discount which allows you to buy Photoshop at a <strong>much</strong> reduced price. You could also buy a 50mm f/1.8 and still be money ahead compared to the full price of Photoshop.</p>

 

[paddler4]

<p>I say get software, not a lens. Editing software is not just for fixing mistakes--it is an ESSENTIAL part of getting good images that look like what you want. To take one simple example: digital images have less dynamic range than your eye. Straight out of the camera, they often seem dull as a result and need to have an increase in contrast in the midrange of brightness, at the expense of contrast at the extremes--in essence, reallocating more of the limited dynamic range to the brightness range that you will most strongly perceive. This takes just a little bit of time in an editing package but can have a truly dramatic effect on your images.</p>

<p>I have experience with only a few packages. Someone suggested Lightroom. It is a very nice postprocessing package for dealing with RAW images, it provides a great database for your images, and it has high-quality but basic editing--brightness and contrast adjustments, sharpening, noise reduction, color adjustments, etc. (I don't like its tone curve tool, but that is not a dealbreaker.) It does not offer a lot of additional editing that you will get with some other packages, e.g., layers, various tools for correcting problems with the image, etc. If you qualify for a student discount, you can get lightroom for under $100. For a more complete cheap editing program, you could go with something free or photoshop elements, but I ended up choosing Paint Shop Pro, which is well under $100 but has more power than Elements. So one cheap option, which I used for awhile, was Paint Shop along with the free postprocessing software that came with the camera instead of lightroom. All this assumes that you are shooting raw. If you are shooting JPG, for now (until you are persuaded to shoot raw) you will have no need for postprocesing software and you can just use an editing program like elements or paint shop pro, which will keep you happy and learning for a long time for under a hundred bucks. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

[nathan_meador]

<p>Get the faster lens. It will allow you to take shots in a wider range of situations, especially dark indoor/outdoor scenes where a flash is not practical or allowed. As others have said, look at what you can download for free, or even trial versions to see if you really need them. The 50mm 1.4 sounds good, or even the Sigma 30mm 1.4, which gives you the 50mm on a crop sensor camera. IMO, better to have taken good shots the way you want in the first place, you can always get software later and go back and tweak pics.</p>

[debby_c]

<p>Hey Andrew...<br>

Been in your shoes. I suggest going to ebay or amazon and picking up a quality program for editing. I am mentally challenged and found <strong>photoshop elements</strong> easier than photoshop and went online to free tutorials and learned alot more. Picasa.com is a free editing program I first used. You can purchase older versions of great editing programs cheap once a newer version appears. I still use photoshohp elements 5 although 7 is out now I think... and recently purchased Lightroom2 for $99.00 thru with an educational discount offered. They both are my favorite. Lightroom2 is like the bomb and my new addiction!!!!</p>

[aldrich]

<p>I use photoshop, but I believe Corel Paint Shop Pro X (or whatever roman numeral they're up to now) does just as much as full-blown photoshop for like $139. You may be able to do both that and a lens.</p>