What Affordable Image Editing Software for Retouching?

[ssppss]

I am trying to learn how to edit and retouch photos. I am finding

it a very tough thing to do. I used to paint and draw and even

published in newspapers and magazine, so I was quite confident of my

abilities to make the computer do what I want. I am not able to do

much. I am not sure how to crop photos. I cannot seem to correct

colors and especially skin tones. I can see something is not right,

but I cannot make correctit. Usually, I am just undoing the numerous

changes that I make. I am wondering if it is not me but the

software I am using. I don't have Adobe PhotoShop; I have the

following image editors: ArcSoft's PhotoStudio, MS Pictur IT, Pixia,

IrfanView. What should I do? Should I just worth through the

softwares I have right now? Is Adob'es PS indispensible? I would

rather not dispense with the high cost of it. Which of the

softwares I have is something I should plough on?

 

Thanks for your suggestions and time.

-Surinder

[jespdj]

You could try Adobe Photoshop Elements; it's a "light" version of Photoshop, which is much more affordable than the real Photoshop and you can do almost anything with it.

<p>You can also try out Paint Shop Pro from <a href="http://www.jasc.com">Jasc</a>, I especially like the color correction methods in Paint Shop Pro 8 (you can point and click on your photo and tell it to make the point you click on a certain color, for example a predefined skin tone, and it adjusts the photo for you).

[ilan]

I also started editing photos a few month ago. There are several good photo editing programs. Some of them are:

- Photoshop - There is a less expensive version called Phototshop Elements.

- Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8 (http://www.jasc.com/)

- The Corel Draw packeage contains a photo editing program

- the GIMP - A free program running on Linux and Windows (http://www.gimp.org)

- Ulead PhotoImpact XL

 

I use Picture Window Pro 3.5 . I find it very useful and well explained. You can download a fully functional trial version from http://www.dl-c.com . You should download and read their tutorials. This should get you on the right path.

[afx]

I second Ilans advice. Download PWP from dl-c.com.

Better, download the manual first and read it.

It explains things quite nicely.

cheers

afx

[pmac]

I can third the PWP suggestion - if you don't have the time to climb the Photoshop learning curve, especially.

[emre]

You can just get an old version of Photoshop, say 5.x.

[rejamesuk]

just buy a magazine.... loads give away free versions of photoshop elements etc.

 

buy one like computer arts (£6).

 

not a photography one, they dont tend to do it so often.

[ssppss]

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I went to dl-c.com and downloaded many pdf files. That has been very eye opening. What do you think of Microsoft's Picture It? How does it compare with PSW or ArcSoft's?

 

I am going to look for magazines for free Photoshop Elements. Would you by any chance happen to know the exact name of the magazine(s)?

 

Thanks a lot.

-Surinder

[rejamesuk]

computer arts give away a free 30day demo of PS near enough every month.

 

but what you should really look out for is another mag called computer arts projects, this is an entire magazine that focuses on one piece of software per edition... just wait until they do a photoshop project, and hopefully they'll supply elements. they have prieviously.

 

you should just go to a large newsagents though and scour the mags until you spot one.

[richard_brown6]

If you are looking for an inexpensive, reliable, effective tool to use for image editing you cannot go wrong with PhotoImpact XL from Ulead. The cost is less than $100.00 US on their website (www.ulead.com). I have used PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro, PhotoStudio, and PhotoImpact. They are all good products and I still keep a copy of each loaded on my laptop but have not used anything other than PhotoImpact since I first used it several months ago.

[ssppss]

I through the PC Art Projects magazine and many other digital photography and PC magazine. They seem to 30-day demo versions or PhotoShop or other softwares; not fully functional software. I did not find any Elements offering, I will check again, though. Since Photo Elements is much less expensive than PhotoShop, I am inclined to purchase it too. My only issue is to purchase one (reasonably) good editing program and stick with it for a while; rather than jump around from one software to another.

 

Thanks.

-Surinder