editing software

[subhuman]

My wife & I are having a computer built for our home, I was talking to the guy
that worked at the computer shop,about what we were wanting a computer
to do and I said I wanted one that had enough memory to do everything with pictures
(enlarge,change color,enhance,etc.....) he said we could go to a store like,circuit city
best buy or the like & buy software or he said you could even download free software on the internet
like google etc......What is your recommendations, Thanks...........
(Its kind of sad not only do I have to learn how to take pictures,learn about composition,
exposure,learn all about what all the numerous buttons on the camera do, but now
I have to learn all about computers).............wow I am so overwhelmed lol..........

[another view]

It's all part of the learning process. Trying to master everything at once is asking a bit much - it's more like the old (really bad) joke:
Q "How do you eat an elephant?"
A "One bite at a time"

If I were going to use Adobe Photoshop CS2 (or upgrade to 3), I'd make sure to get 2gb of RAM. Processor speed and all the other stuff is nowhere near as important as the amount of RAM when working with Photoshop. I'm using CS on my XP Pro powered machine with 512 and it's not bad, but with Vista plus a newer version of PS you'll need more.

You may not start out with the full version of Photoshop which is the industry standard, but even Photoshop Elements uses a lot of memory.

[WesternGuy]

Question to help clarify things. Am I right to assume that, if you are going to be working with pictures on your new computer, you have a digital camera (?). If you do, most of the ones that I know of come with a CD full of software that allows you to manipulate your digital photos. My digital Rebel came with a CD full of software that I used for a little while, until one day I was walking through Costco and they had Photoshop Elements for about $40 less than anyone else, so I bought it and find it does much more than I will ever need. Let us know what kind of camera you have.

I agree with another view, 2Gbs of memory and the biggest hard drive you can afford. Pictures take lots of space on the drive.

I can appreciate a bit of how you feel. Fortunately, when I took up digital photography, I had been a film photographer for many years and had also worked with PCs for many years. My fun was sorting out the new digital camera and the digital image processing once I got the pictures into my computer. All I can say is one day at a time, one button at a time.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

[subhuman]

Do I have a digital camera? Yes I have one, but I have had a film SLR,(Rebel T2)
for 2 1/2 years and I like it& have gotten used to it, my wife bought me a little
HP digital camera that has the little printer with it....its hard getting used to because
it is so small. and the batteries do not last more than 30 min. of shooting,
with the live view off, I need to call HP. But probably what I will only be wanting to do at first (until I'm ready to fork over $800 -$900 for a digital Rebel) taking my film pics and
enlarging , changing from color to b&w making it look as good as possible & printing on
photo paper,thats all I will be doing till I get a digital SLR............

[another view]

WesternGuy is right, the HP probably came with a basic image editing program. Adobe Photoshop Elements will probably give you much more control over your images, and it's less (probably a lot less) than $100. Being a more powerful program, there is more of a learning curve but spending the time will help you get exactly what you want out of your images. Scott Kelby's book series are a great way to get started, like Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 for Digital Photographers (or whatever version of Photoshop you use).

[freygr]

It's all part of the learning process. Trying to master everything at once is asking a bit much - it's more like the old (really bad) joke:
Q "How do you eat an elephant?"
A "One bite at a time"

If I were going to use Adobe Photoshop CS2 (or upgrade to 3), I'd make sure to get 2gb of RAM. Processor speed and all the other stuff is nowhere near as important as the amount of RAM when working with Photoshop. I'm using CS on my XP Pro powered machine with 512 and it's not bad, but with Vista plus a newer version of PS you'll need more.

You may not start out with the full version of Photoshop which is the industry standard, but even Photoshop Elements uses a lot of memory.

If your doing Panoramas, You will need at lest 1 GIG of ram on a Windows XP computer. I myself would not go to Vista for at least one year. Vista has some major problems.