Photoshop

I need a bit of help as i'm new to birding and photography  and as i'm now semi retired and have a lot of time on my hands its something I want to get into. However I would also like to get into editing my photos and this is where I need the help. what Photoshop product should I get to do the basic editing.

When searching the internet it looks like I could spend the best part of £3billion on Photoshop as there seems to be so much of it.

  • Am in similar position Phil, currently looking into Corel Paint Shop Pro X8 Ultimate as  have been seeing in current reviews that it is comprehensive & easy to use & much more affordable at £55.99 on Black Friday deal ... but do not know enough to recommend purchase!

  • For a first step you could do worse than Picasa - it's a free download: http://picasa.google.com/. The editing options are quite limited compared to Photoshop but if you are brand new to this kind of thing it'd help you get started without any outlay, and once you have explored what it can do you can decide whether to go for something more sophisticated.

    The Gimp: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ is another free software package - it is much more powerful than Picasa and approaches Photoshop in terms of what it can do, but personally I don't find it very inuitive to use (I use Photoshop CS4 usually but that's a pretty old version).

  • Personally I tend to use Photoshop Elements. It gives you much of the power of Photoshop but is easier to use and much cheaper. Full fat Photoshop is only essential if you want to prepare pictures for professional, printed publication. Paint Shop Pro isn't bad either. The Gimp is pretty rabidly user hostile ;-)

  • I would endorse Stuart's suggestion of Photoshop Elements. It is surprisingly powerful and sophisticated but has guided editing to get you started. It has a good cataloging system and all the editing tools you are ever likely to need.  If you are quick there's a good Black Friday bargain HERE and there may be others.

    I use Adobe Lightroom for post processing my photos. It is very good but more expensive so probably not something to plunge straight into.. 

    I had Paintshop Pro which Wendy referred to,many years ago but haven't kept up to date with it so I don't know what it's like now.

  • Photoshop Elements is reasonably priced (keep your eyes open though, you often find it this time of year around half price) and I've used it for a number of years.  You may find the software that comes with the camera does everything you need as well - eg DPP for Canon DSLRs is very powerful

  • Thank you all for your input, it looks like I will have to do a bit more research before I make a purchase.

    My camera is a Panasonic GH4 mirrorless and my telephoto lens is a 100-300 equivalent to 200-600 on a 35mm camera, its a bit high spec I know for a novice but it was a gift.

  • Hi-

    I have Photoshop Elements and it works brilliantly with colour or b/w

    S

  • Nice cameras are nice to use - makes the learning that much more pleasurable :-)