~ user/brooke re: photo editing software ~

uppereastgirl

I'm working on my Christmas list (I know that is ridiculous, but my family wants them ASAP! Crazy!).  I'm a novice at DSLR photography but hope to take a class soon so I'll get better-- new kittens are a good excuse.I was thinking of adding photo editing software to my list.  I'm using iPhoto now but think I'd like something more advanced.  What would you recommend for a Mac user that has the experience level I'll have after a beginner class and some playing around?Thanks guys!

Laurms15

Sorry to butt in, but my coworker teaches photography classes at a college in the city (adjunct prof she does our graphic design here) and she reccomends photoshop and adobe creative suite.

USER876

Unless you have ever used photoshop before or are really a self starter and have time to watch internet video tutorials,etc.  I would get adobe lightroom 2.  It does just about everything that photoshop does much easier and is much faster to use when processing a lot of pictures.  It doesn't use layer's though, so if you want to use layers or know how to use layer's, I would recommend photoshop, or the cheaper alternative, elements.You can learn a lot once you get it from following this bloghttp://www.lightroomkillertips.com/I took this picture a few weeks ago from the boat, I shot in raw and it was really overexposed from the sun and washed out...lightroom really saved it.[img]http://tinyurl.com/ybduas3[/img]

Brooke_TheSequel

For editing, we use a combo of Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop.Lightroom is amazing if you capture your images in RAW format.  You can still use it with JPEG, but you have some amazing latitude to color correct large batches of RAWs.  Basically, you have the tools you need for most editing (white balance, exposure, brightness, black point, highlight recovery, saturations and so on...) and you can apply corrections made to one photo to a whole bunch of similarly exposed images.  However, if you want to take it further, I suggest photoshop.  While lightroom is faster for doing multiple files at once, you have SO much more control manipulating a single image in PhotoShop.  You can add layers and masks so easily in the new CS4.  Actions, filters, personalized settings, etc etc make photoshop a truely fundamental part of our workflow.Each program has a decent learning curve.  And both can be overwhelming when you begin.  I've been working with PS everyday for almost 10 years and am still constantly learning the program.I think it depends upon your priority and how far you want to take it.  Create art one file at a time vs. go through an entire event of photos fixing them all.