Forums > Digital Art and Retouching > what programs to use

Photographer

HIGH CAL PRODUCTIONS

Posts: 3

Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

i would like to know what are good programs to use for retouching and how much do they cost.

Jan 03 13 01:20 am Link

Photographer

Images by MR

Posts: 8908

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

I use adobe elements 9.   Cost $49. cdn

Now you can get elements 11 for $79. cdn

Jan 03 13 01:39 am Link

Photographer

Pelle Piano

Posts: 2312

Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

The "standard", most widely used is Photoshop, its about $20 / month if you "rent" it and about $550 if you buy it, or cheaper with student discount.

Photoshop Elements is a simplified version of Photoshop at a fractoin of PS price.

There is also a similar free sofrtware called GIMP with many of Photoshops features.

There are also a lot of free online editors like www.pixlr.com that just loads in your browser.

Jan 03 13 01:44 am Link

Photographer

HIGH CAL PRODUCTIONS

Posts: 3

Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

thanx guys.

Jan 03 13 04:44 pm Link

Photographer

Rik Williams

Posts: 4005

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

If you are a home user or hobbyist, save your money and go with Photoshop Elements.
It has all the features of Photoshop that you are likely to ever need.
However, if you are planning to enter the graphic design or photography business, you will need to know industry-standard Photoshop, which offers many more advanced tools and productivity enhancements over Photoshop Elements.
Even though there is a greater knowledge requirement and initial cost for operating photoshop, the extra is well worth it and is clearly visible in the potential results.

All the best.

Jan 03 13 05:18 pm Link

Retoucher

Joann Empson

Posts: 430

Walnut Creek, California, US

There's also the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), which costs as much as you want to donate.

You can download GIMP at gimp.org. It's available for Mac OS X, Windows, and GNU/Linux.

Jan 09 13 10:29 pm Link

Photographer

KA Style

Posts: 1583

Syracuse, New York, US

Adobe offers the Creative Cloud for less that $30 a month. You'll be able to use ALL Adobe programs and always the latest version.

Jan 09 13 10:49 pm Link

Photographer

KonstantKarma

Posts: 2513

Campobello, South Carolina, US

GIMP is wonderful and 98% of what I use. However it isn't easy to learn - You have to look for reference material, watch youtube tutorials, find the replacement names and tools for the photoshop ones, etc. The GIMP Bible is a good resource.

It's very powerful, very in-depth and very free. But not intuitive.

Jan 10 13 08:21 am Link

Photographer

KonstantKarma

Posts: 2513

Campobello, South Carolina, US

KA Style wrote:
Adobe offers the Creative Cloud for less that $30 a month. You'll be able to use ALL Adobe programs and always the latest version.

It's $50/month. With retailmenot, you can get your first month for $30.

Jan 10 13 08:24 am Link

Photographer

KA Style

Posts: 1583

Syracuse, New York, US

KonstantKarma wrote:
It's $50/month. With retailmenot, you can get your first month for $30.

Ah, I must be claused in then. I pay $29.

I like the cloud because I can host websites and I love playing with Illustrator. I still have to play with Dreamweaver.

Jan 10 13 02:52 pm Link

Photographer

click snap

Posts: 468

ACE, Texas, US

I use element 10 and I really like it.  I upgraded from CS2.

Jan 10 13 02:58 pm Link

Photographer

KonstantKarma

Posts: 2513

Campobello, South Carolina, US

I have an older version of Elements (7, I think?) that I use just for filters like Topaz.

It doesn't appear to have dodge and burn tools, so I use GIMP for my heavier retouching.

Does the newer version of Elements have d&b?

Jan 12 13 06:54 am Link

Photographer

B R U N E S C I

Posts: 25319

Bath, England, United Kingdom

Rik Image wrote:
However, if you are planning to enter the graphic design or photography business, you will need to know industry-standard Photoshop, which offers many more advanced tools and productivity enhancements over Photoshop Elements.

So how did photographers manage before CS6 came out? Or CS5, or digital photography? hmm

Personally I think that unless you're planning a career as a commercial retoucher or you 'style' is so heavily dependent on PS that your images are nothing without it, then the 'full' version of PS is overkill and a waste of money for the vast majority of photographers.

I 'get by' just fine with LR4 (mostly) and the occasional foray into Elements when I need to do a bit of extra work (liquify etc.).




Just my $0.02

Ciao
Stefano

www.stefanobrunesci.com

Jan 12 13 07:02 am Link

Photographer

Thomas Art Studio

Posts: 97

Carthage, Tennessee, US

KonstantKarma wrote:
I have an older version of Elements (7, I think?) that I use just for filters like Topaz.

It doesn't appear to have dodge and burn tools, so I use GIMP for my heavier retouching.

Does the newer version of Elements have d&b?

I have used Elements since 2 and it had dodge and burn on tools, however on 9 which I use now to save space for added tools the dodge and burn tools have been added to the sponge tool spot on the tools. If you right click on the sponge tool it will allow you to switch the active tool to either dodge or burn tools. The liquify and several other tools are now stacked as well.

Jan 12 13 07:58 am Link