Digital Photo Image Editing Software Question

[dr8track]

I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for an extremely user friendly image editing software program? Since I work in the television production business I have played around with full versions of Photoshop and found it a bit mind boggling. For digital photography I'm hoping to find something with much less of a learning curve. All my digital photography is just for personal enjoyment, not business.

I was considering Ulead's Photoimpact XL. Seems to be user friendly and have quite a few more features than Photoshop Elements 2.

Anyone familiar with these or any other digital image editing programs they'd recommend?

[Elysian]

dr8track, there is some great freeware that you can use. Just look at this page:

http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/gm...aphicedit.html

Yeah, what's easy, I don't know. I mean, Photoshop might be too difficult for you, but then again, you'll find the same common photo retouching tools in any other program (curves, levels, brightness/contrast, layers, etc).

My advice would be; make a list of things that you want to do with your photographs and then focus on this when you test a program. See, it's very simple; even a difficult program like Photoshop can be easy to use if all you want is cropping, resizing and adjusting the brightness of your shots.
I wouldn't advice you to use photoshop though, it's overkill for you. Try some of that freeware and I'm pretty sure that you'll find something you like. Keep a special eye on freeware that's still updated by the maker. Don't go for the old stuff, since you might run into compatibility problems.


Good luck ;)

[gahspidy]

Jasc paint shop pro 8 has lots of bang for the buck. . .street price roughly 50.00. And from what I have read , it is one of the easiest to use and offers slightly more than Adobe Elements. I use it and it has been more than great. It is only now that I have gotten more serious with this that I am considering possibly moving up to Photoshop for greater control and the ability to work on files that are 48 bit color depth. Something you can't do with any of the lower priced software.

[wburychka]

Jasc paint shop pro 8 has lots of bang for the buck. . .street price roughly 50.00. And from what I have read , it is one of the easiest to use and offers slightly more than Adobe Elements. I use it and it has been more than great. It is only now that I have gotten more serious with this that I am considering possibly moving up to Photoshop for greater control and the ability to work on files that are 48 bit color depth. Something you can't do with any of the lower priced software.

JASC has announced Paint Shop Pro 9 to be shipping in September. I've used PSP since its early shareware days, and one thing I have found is that, unlike many other products with frequent updates, the PSP updates are worth buying--or in your case, waiting for. If you don't have it already, I'd wait for version 9.

I use PSP8, Photoshop Elements 2, and Photoshop 7--yes, I use them all. Unfortunately, each has features not available on the others. Photoshop supports 16-bit color depth in TIF and PSD files--of course, some Photoshop functions are not available to 16-bit files, others work only with 16-bit. However, I have not found any detectable advantage to 16-bit color in my printed photos on the Epson 2200 up to 13x19 inch prints. Photoshop's biggest disadvantage, though, is its price, although if you have a friend or relative in college, you might look into the academic pricing.

Photoshop Elements 2 has a decidedly friendler user interface than PS7. For an amateur photographer, this program is very nice. Some functions buried in PS7 menus are on the PSE2 toolbar. Lots of automatic functions. A good print preview function. Pretty good panorama assembler.

PSP, on the other hand, has a number of capabilties unique to that program. Full screen preview, printing templates which allow optimum use of your expensive photo paper. A fully customizable toolbar--ever function available through the menus can be put onto the toolbar. This is very handy. The photo enhancing functions are extensive and useful. If I could keep only one of the three programs I use, it would be PSP. One thing, though. Be sure to buy the retail package and not the download. You'll want the PSP manual, which is pretty good, and the CD includes supporting files and useful and time-saving presets not available as downloads.

Have fun. I enjoy my "digital darkroom" almost more than taking pictures--and a lot more than my old real darkroom!

[Elysian]

However, I have not found any detectable advantage to 16-bit color in my printed photos on the Epson 2200 up to 13x19 inch prints.

That's because you don't know what the most popular use is for 16-bit.

During most adjustements (levels, curves, H&S) color information will get lost. You'll notice that when you suddenly see gaps in your histograms. With 16-bit you have more color information to work with, so it will have less negative influence on your final images if you plan to do some color/lightness adjustments.

Btw, I don't understand why you use 3 different imaging programs.
I can come up with a list of reasons not to do this, although I do understand that you probably have your own reason why you decided to work like that. Just seems a bit strange to me, nothing else.

[gahspidy]

JASC has announced Paint Shop Pro 9 to be shipping in September. I've used PSP since its early shareware days, and one thing I have found is that, unlike many other products with frequent updates, the PSP updates are worth buying--or in your case, waiting for. If you don't have it already, I'd wait for version 9.

I use PSP8, Photoshop Elements 2, and Photoshop 7--yes, I use them all. Unfortunately, each has features not available on the others. Photoshop supports 16-bit color depth in TIF and PSD files--of course, some Photoshop functions are not available to 16-bit files, others work only with 16-bit. However, I have not found any detectable advantage to 16-bit color in my printed photos on the Epson 2200 up to 13x19 inch prints. Photoshop's biggest disadvantage, though, is its price, although if you have a friend or relative in college, you might look into the academic pricing.

Photoshop Elements 2 has a decidedly friendler user interface than PS7. For an amateur photographer, this program is very nice. Some functions buried in PS7 menus are on the PSE2 toolbar. Lots of automatic functions. A good print preview function. Pretty good panorama assembler.

PSP, on the other hand, has a number of capabilties unique to that program. Full screen preview, printing templates which allow optimum use of your expensive photo paper. A fully customizable toolbar--ever function available through the menus can be put onto the toolbar. This is very handy. The photo enhancing functions are extensive and useful. If I could keep only one of the three programs I use, it would be PSP. One thing, though. Be sure to buy the retail package and not the download. You'll want the PSP manual, which is pretty good, and the CD includes supporting files and useful and time-saving presets not available as downloads.

Have fun. I enjoy my "digital darkroom" almost more than taking pictures--and a lot more than my old real darkroom!

wburychka,
I have the capability of scanning my negatives in 16 bit (48 bit) color doubling the file size. I don't because Jasc psp8 cannot edit these files, so I continue to scan in 24 bit. Do you know if the new version will support 48 bit? I will be going to their sdite to see what they are saying. I like this program alot and their support seems to be excellent. Just a few months ago, they sent me a cd in the mail with an upgraded version ,I had 8 and this one is 8.10. They said they had smoothed out some known bugs and issues. But wow, instead of waiting for me to find out and dowload updates from their site, they just sent me a new cd version of the program. Great customer service I say

[gahspidy]

[QUOTE=Elysian]That's because you don't know what the most popular use is for 16-bit.

During most adjustements (levels, curves, H&S) color information will get lost. You'll notice that when you suddenly see gaps in your histograms. With 16-bit you have more color information to work with, so it will have less negative influence on your final images if you plan to do some color/lightness adjustments.

Elysian,
I was always wondering about the color depth issue. Most of my images when I ask Jasc to count colors fall between 250,000 to sometimes just over a million colors. So I kept wondering if using 48 bit color would make any sense when I am barely using the 16 million provided with 24 bit. However you mentioned something that I had heard before. About doing adjustments and losing color information. I notice sometimes in images especially with smooth color backgrounds like night skies or cloudless sky areas that sometimes the color drops abruptly showing a string of what seems to be pixels with sudden abrupt color drop outs. Is this a direct affect of using 24 bit (8 bit) as opposed to the 48 bit ( 16 bit)?

[Elysian]

I notice sometimes in images especially with smooth color backgrounds like night skies or cloudless sky areas that sometimes the color drops abruptly showing a string of what seems to be pixels with sudden abrupt color drop outs. Is this a direct affect of using 24 bit (8 bit) as opposed to the 48 bit ( 16 bit)?

Yes, that really could be the reason Gary, but it could als be that the color settings for your graphics card are set to 16-bit instead of something like 32-bit or higher.

[gahspidy]

Yes, that really could be the reason Gary, but it could als be that the color settings for your graphics card are set to 16-bit instead of something like 32-bit or higher.

The card I have is a ATI Radeon 9500 pro set at 32 bit colors ( the highest setting). I have a viewsonic 19 inch crt set at a viewing temperature of 6500k. I would hate to spend hundreds on photoshop just to resolve this condition sometimes if it is not really the solution. Could this also be from the colorspace that I'm viewing in? I have both monitor and jasc set for adobeRGB and scan my negs with the scanner set for adobergb output.. But when i open the images in Jasc and look in the color management window, it tells me the files are originated in sRGB, so I am really not sure what colorspace I'm actually working in.