adobe or corel for beginner

[hillbillyjake]

my wife has just gotten a new camera (olympus evolt e520) and a new laptop ( dell 1525) for Christmas and was looking for a good photo editing program and was interested in these. any help would be greatkly appriciated. if there is some thing else that you guys are using let mem know. she is just staringn and i know nothinf of the photography thing so all helpp will needed. thanks

jake

ps the programs she is looking at are adobe phototshop elements 7 and corel paint shop pro photo x2 ultimate

 

[FrozenZJ]

I use photoshop and I like it. I have no experience with the other program but if it has effects and layers then I would think it would work also.

 

[mhiscox]

I have both programs and like them both. Not a lot to choose between them, I don't believe. Both are well-developed and are easy to get started with (maybe a slight advantage to Corel, though others might disagree) without a big learning curve.

I've also used ACDSee extensively, and find it a little more efficient for finding, sorting and organizing photos at a slight cost of editing power.

All in all, introductory photo editing is one of the areas where there are multiple good programs and you probably will be happy with either choice. It might be worth taking cost into account. (Also, if you think that someday you want to use the big Photoshop, that speaks for using Elements as it would give a headstart on the Photoshop interface).

 

[Michael Slade]

Get neither. Get Lightroom.

 

[rokklym]

I have Corel paint shop pro X2 and its a pretty good program, a great way to learn about photo editing and has a good interface that makes it easy for a beginner to use. It is cheap enough, so why not try it? Photoshop is more of an investment, but Elements is a good program and a great way to break into the Adobe family.

You might also want to download GIMP for free! http://www.gimp.org/

 

[mhiscox]

Get neither. Get Lightroom.

Most certainly.

But for those of us not qualified for academic versions, aren't we looking at something over $250 for a single Lightroom license, versus about $50 for each of the other two?

 

[hillbillyjake]

i'm not sure on the light room cost but the adobe i s around 80 amd the corel 60. not a big enough diffference to worry about if the adobe us 20 better. she seems to be very interested in photography so i may take the suggestion of strting with adobe/stick with adobe idea. it may be easier tp learn one system and stick with it. i will suggest the light room to her but that seems a little out of budget right now. thanks again

jake

 

[Michael Slade]

I have Corel paint shop pro X2 and its a pretty good program, a great way to learn about photo editing and has a good interface that makes it easy for a beginner to use. It is cheap enough, so why not try it? Photoshop is more of an investment, but Elements is a good program and a great way to break into the Adobe family.

You might also want to download GIMP for free! http://www.gimp.org/

I would also suggest getting GIMP. It's a good program and one I would suggest for anyone on a budget or just wanting to get into digital imaging. Save your pennies for Lightroom, get GIMP to start learning inexpensively.

 

[rokklym]

I would also suggest getting GIMP. It's a good program and one I would suggest for anyone on a budget or just wanting to get into digital imaging. Save your pennies for Lightroom, get GIMP to start learning inexpensively.

I've only had Lightroom 2 as a trial, so I can't say I know a lot about it, but it seems its designed for a serious amateur / pro for large batch processing. Lightroom does have some very cool features and I am going to buy it and Photoshop as a combo someday. For somebody just getting into photography, it might be a bit much. I have an alternative to Lightroom, Lightzone. It is a pretty cool program, not sure if it is really worth the $100+ I spent for it but I use it nearly every day.

Most of the photo editing programs are similar in the fact that you can learn the basics that apply to all programs like layers and other things. I really like Corel, Its easy to use and you can do most things that you can do in photoshop. In fact, in tutorials for photoshop, you can follow right along in Corel, it just takes longer for find things since actions are named and located in different area. My girlfriend and I both have full versions of Adobe Elements, I have 5.0 and she has the newest one, 7.0 I think. We aren't very impressed with them so far.

Gimp is cool, and free, but just like photoshop, it has a steep learning curve. Be prepared to spend some time reading. If you have aspirations to become a professional photographer, then you would probably be best off to just start out with photoshop since that is the industry standard.

Enjoy that Olympus too, very good cameras! I have an E510 and the E520.