I have recently purchased a new DSLR and I am wanting to purchase some photo editing software. Photoshop keeps being refered. My questions are, is photoshop a good tool for a begining? Is photoshop being recommended because it is a familar name(are there others just as good or better but not as well known?) Are there different versions of photoshop that are better suited for a beginer? I am not looking to get crazy with editing but would like to touch up some photos.

Good editing skills are a part of the step up to DSLRs. Photoshop elements is easy to use and there are many how to videos available on utube. You can purchase it for around $80. There are free tools such as picassa, gimp, etc. that you can play with but if you go the purchase route I would go with PS elements. If you have questions about it you will find plenty of people on here willing to help.

The learning curve on Photoshop is pretty steep, to the point of being discouraging to someone totally new to photo editing. Photoshop Elements is much better but I think that you would be better served by starting out with a free editor like Picasa which actually does a pretty darn good job. Then when you are comfortable you will know what you need and how much to spend. Certainly no harm in downloading Picasa and giving it a try and if you are not satisfied, buy something more sophisticated. I have Photoshop Elements but still find myself defaulting to Picasa because it is so much more user friendly.





Minimal correction to lighting, contrast and tone to correct exposure, using Picasa





Again, minimal editing to correct lighting , contrast and a slight tweak to saturation using Picasa





I liked this photo right out of the camera, but this is an example of a little more in depth editing with Picasa, for effect


Most important...have fun with it!

quote lindylair: "The learning curve on Photoshop is pretty steep, to the point of being discouraging to someone totally new to photo editing. Photoshop Elements is much better but I think that you would be better served by starting out with a free editor like Picasa which actually does a pretty darn good job. Then when you are comfortable you will know what you need and how much to spend. Certainly no harm in downloading Picasa and giving it a try and if you are not satisfied, buy something more sophisticated. I have Photoshop Elements but still find myself defaulting to Picasa because it is so much more user friendly.







Minimal correction to lighting, contrast and tone to correct exposure, using Picasa







Again, minimal editing to correct lighting , contrast and a slight tweak to saturation using Picasa







I liked this photo right out of the camera, but this is an example of a little more in depth editing with Picasa, for effect



Most important...have fun with it!"

Thank you for the tip. I will try it out.

i use a combination of picasa and paint.

Several photo editing programs have trial use installations. I tried a bunch and settled on one I like and found easy to understand.
Bibble Lite, was my favorite now it's Corel AfterShot Pro (Bibble's replacement).
This one made it into an edition of Lakeland Boating.
Just a slight touch up on saturation and lens correction.

butthead

In my opinion the best software out there is Adobe's Lightroom. You can download a free trial from the Adobe site. Photoshop is very powerful but (in my opinion) can be overkill and difficult to learn. Lightroom allows non-destructive and selective editing, and it does it really well. It is very user friendly as well.

Thanks Steve, I will look into that one as well.

Trent

Lightroom would also be my suggestion.

If you download torrents, you can pick up a free version.

http://kat.ph/adobe-photoshop-lightroom-4-3-final-64-bit-chingliu-t6897199.html