[machick]

Hi,

I am a college student who has really gotten into photography in the last year or so. At this point, I have outgrown iPhoto and am in need of another program. I have a lot of photos at this point and would like to be able to organize them and edit them on a higher level than what I can do in iPhoto.

I am not looking into professional photography at this point, but I will be doing some photography for my school's website and school magazine starting next semester. These two jobs would require me to be doing editing at a high level, but not at a professional level. I would like to be able to produce high quality photos for these purposes and for my own purposes.

How steep is the learning curve in Photoshop for someone who has never used it before? Does it sound like Photoshop would be a good program for me? If not, can anyone recommend anything that is on a level between Photoshop and iPhoto?

I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks,
machick

[Fahrenheit]

The joy of photoshop for me is that you can use it at the same simplicity of say MS Paint or iPhoto, but as you progress, you can find thousands of new features. For example, I don't use it very seriously, and just enjoy things like liquify and the clone tools etc, for making my friends look weird.

There are also many, many tutorials aside from the basic features that are very easy to pick up on.

Remember, there are also free alternatives to PS if you don't want to fully invest yet.

[rollercoaster375]

Maybe PS Elements?

[Yonzie]

From what you write, it sound more like you want Aperture or Adobe Lightroom instead of Photoshop... Anyway, Photoshop doesn't manage photos so...
Aperture is only $150 for students vs. the $300 (I think) for Photoshop, but it obviously lacks some features. The question is how much you need to edit your pictures.

Learning Photoshop... I think it's a bit like learning Word. You have to get some basic concepts (like layers) into your head, then it's pretty much smooth sailing. and like Fahrenheit says, they are a humoungous array of tutorials out there. It's truly mind-boggling.

Also, consider that CS3 is coming out sometime in the spring of 07 with universal binaries...

I'd wish there was a student rebate for Photoshop here... I get to pay full retail (like hell I am, they can stuff their $650 pricetag where the sun don't shine. Now, if it was a tool to make money with, then the price tag is justified, it's just that I don't.)

[Robo]

Originally Posted by Yonzie From what you write, it sound more like you want Aperture or Adobe Lightroom instead of Photoshop... Anyway, Photoshop doesn't manage photos so... Aperture is only $150 for students vs. the $300 (I think) for Photoshop, but it obviously lacks some features.

It's $400, but that gets you the entire Adobe Creative Suite - Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, Acrobat, and now Dreamweaver.

It normally costs $1,200.

Yeah, I'm never planning on graduating.

But machick, if you think $400 is still too pricey (as a fellow college student, I don't blame you), there are alternatives, like GIMP, which is like Photoshop except it's free. Also, you might consider Photoshop Elements, which is the "in between" app you describe. PSE will run you about $80.

[Yonzie]

Originally Posted by Roboman It's $400, but that gets you the entire Adobe Creative Suite

AFAIR, Photoshop by itself is $300 though. Not that I wouldn't recommend the pack, that's insane.

[Dave]

Just use GIMP. It's free, and not just for students. If there ever comes a time when you specifically need Photoshop for some reason, buy it then.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Dave Just use GIMP. It's free, and not just for students. If there ever comes a time when you specifically need Photoshop for some reason, buy it then.

The pain! The awful pain!

[FFL]

PS Elements for more robust image editing than iPhoto.

Aperture, or Extensis Portfolio, for better organization/management than iPhoto.

[rminkler]

paying full price for CS2 is absurd. I believe it's much cheaper to buy an old version and pay the upgrade price, or to buy elements and upgrade... for example, go to: http://www.ankhsoft.com/info-Adobe_Photoshop_7.html and buy photoshop 7 for 70$, then buy the any version to CS2 upgrade from adobe for 170$... Or just stick with photoshop 7, which many pros still use (although they probably use cs2 as well) because it is leaner and faster.

Or here is the any version to CS2 upgrade for 150$: http://www.compuplus.com/i-Adobe-Pho...e6t785hslzzu17

[admactanium]

Originally Posted by Dave Just use GIMP. It's free, and not just for students. If there ever comes a time when you specifically need Photoshop for some reason, buy it then.

please don't. if you plan on having any future doing anything with photography just go ahead and pick up photoshop or creative suite. gimp is indeed free but it's just not the industry standard. photoshop is easy to use. it's only as difficult and powerful as you are willing to make it. i've used ps for about 13 years professionally. you can do most of what you need in a relatively short about of time. the more advanced stuff take more time to learn obviously but at this point there's no reason to use anything else unless you're incredibly poor. even if you're incredibly poor and you plan on working in graphics arts in the future it's still worth it.

[Robo]

Originally Posted by Yonzie AFAIR, Photoshop by itself is $300 though. Not that I wouldn't recommend the pack, that's insane.

You're right. I've never seen Photoshop for Education sold alone (understandably, as the pack is only $100 more), but Adobe.com does have it listed for $300. So I guess that's another option, if for some reason you don't want Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, GoLive, and Dreamweaver for a steal.

Not to derail the thread, but can someone explain the difference between GoLive and Dreamweaver to me? I guess I always assumed that GoLive was Adobe's version of Dreamweaver, and LiveEffects was their version of Flash. I'm guessing I'm wrong.

[World Leader Pretend]

Adobe Student Select Pricing

Creative Suite 2 - $211.06

• Photoshop CS2
• Illustrator CS2
• InDesign CS2
• GoLive CS2
• Acrobat Professional 7.0

I like my college better.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by World Leader Pretend Adobe Student Select Pricing Creative Suite 2 - $211.06 • Photoshop CS2 • Illustrator CS2 • InDesign CS2 • GoLive CS2 • Acrobat Professional 7.0 I like my college better.

Only eighteen more months, only eighteen more months.

[Robo]

Originally Posted by World Leader Pretend Adobe Student Select Pricing Creative Suite 2 - $211.06 • Photoshop CS2 • Illustrator CS2 • InDesign CS2 • GoLive CS2 • Acrobat Professional 7.0 I like my college better.

But...but...the randomly-numbered Creative Suite 2.3 comes with Acrobat Professional 8, and Dreamweaver, so you can weave dreams, or web pages, or whatever. And...um...it's .3 better!

(And I'm guessing you'll get it for $211, too. Lucky bastard.)

[World Leader Pretend]

I'm not going to anger you any more by telling you that you can actually get it cheaper than the posted price above if you are in a photo or art class.

[colivigan]

Anybody here tried GIMPShop? It's apparently a hack of the GIMP to make the menus etc. much more like Photoshop. Might be a zero-budget alternative until you can afford the real thing ...

Any app that comes with a feature called the Deweirdifier is OK by me.

[World Leader Pretend]

GIMPShop didn't do anything for me, I actually preferred the normal Gimp to it.

[machick]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. My school has a Mac lab (can you imagine...a room full of nothing but iMac's...) with some of the software you guys have mentioned already installed. I'm going tomorrow to check it all out.

Again, thanks. I now have some great ideas and a LOT of exploring to do. The education discount deals from Adobe really sound great!

-machick

[Kraetos]

Originally Posted by Roboman You're right. I've never seen Photoshop for Education sold alone (understandably, as the pack is only $100 more), but Adobe.com does have it listed for $300. So I guess that's another option, if for some reason you don't want Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, GoLive, and Dreamweaver for a steal. Not to derail the thread, but can someone explain the difference between GoLive and Dreamweaver to me? I guess I always assumed that GoLive was Adobe's version of Dreamweaver, and LiveEffects was their version of Flash. I'm guessing I'm wrong.

GoLive was Adobe's version of Dreamweaver, but Dreamweaver was better, so when Adobe acquired it, they reduced GoLive to a "prosumer" level product, and made Dreamweaver the top of the line Website WYSIWYG.

Of course, they both suck, as do all Website WYSIWYG's. They produce awful, bloated, invalid code. Thing's get even uglier when you have more than one person, or in my case, literally hundreds of people managing the same website with 3 different versions of Dreamweaver. I get paid $8.25 an hour to fix the mistakes Dreamweaver makes, as do two others who work with me. If it wasn't for the three of us, my college wouldn't have a website, because it would be utterly broken.

If you're at all serious about web design, buy TextMate, Transmit, and CSSEdit. The trio costs $110 ($50, $30, and $30) and works so much better than Dreamweaver it's ridiculous.

[crazychester]

Ignore them. They're boys. The answer to your question is, no. No you're not.

[turbulentfurball]

Originally Posted by crazychester Ignore them. They're boys. The answer to your question is, no. No you're not.

Ignore her, she's a criminal.

[ast3r3x]

No, your not too much of a novice if you can afford it.

There is a decent learning curve if you've never used any version before, so I'd recommend getting a book like Photoshop Down & Dirty Tricks. It goes through with pictures, commands placement in the menus, and key commands for all of the steps in each project you do in it. I had a version from 04 or 05, but I thought it would be very useful for a novice and you'll learn some cool effects that you can use on your pictures too.

[crazychester]

Originally Posted by turbulentfurball Ignore her, she's a criminal.

He's right. Ignore me. I'm bad to the bone.