Editing software

[Killem all]

My wife is wanting to get into photography. Why would be the best software to purchase. What do y'all think about Photoshop elements.

[TexasBob]

I asked about elements a while back on here, and the responses were basically to go with lightroom. If know anyone who is in school or works for a school, you can get lightroom through adobe education for $100, not much more than elements- that is what I did and it is amazing.

[Shane]

x2 on Lightroom. It's easier.

[Hawg]

I like Elements 8. I haven't needed to do anything that I can't do in Elements. My wife found a great deal on Elements when she got it for me ($29 at Sam's over Christmas), so i"m using that.

I used the Lightroom 3 beta and really liked it. It was pretty easy and there are lots of presets available that get great results quickly and easily.

If you're looking into saving some money and are using Windows, check out Paint.NET. It's FREE! It works great. Also, another free editor that works great is GIMP. There are some forums and tutorials out there for each program. Plus, there are some good plug-ins as well that work like actions or presets in Elements and Lightroom.

[apbowhunter]

I was wondering the same. I downloaded the beta to Lightroom and enjoyed it, but wanted to know if there was something better out there?

[WyoBull]

Go with Lightroom 3. I have LR2 and am getting ready to upgrade to LR3. It is very intuitive and I can highly recommend it.

[Shane]

I just got a message this morning that Lr3 is now available for purchase/upgrade. The beta version is good through 6/30.

[scotty]

Lightroom here as well. I'm going to upgrade to LR3, but a newer, faster computer is first. Mine is about 7 years old and is ssslllooowww.

[Shane]

I got a new one a month or so ago, Scotty. 4gb RAM and a much faster processor makes a big difference. Lr runs like a dream for me now. It was really slow on my old machine.

[scotty]

I got a new one a month or so ago, Scotty. 4gb RAM and a much faster processor makes a big difference. Lr runs like a dream for me now. It was really slow on my old machine.

My system is so old LR's not supposed to even run on it. It hangs up all the time. It's really frustrating when I have a big job to get done. What should take minutes can take hours. I'm really looking forward to the new computer in July.