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Best Photo Editor for Your Buck
- Thread starter s.hoz
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http://www.pixelmator.com/
Seriously great piece of s/w - free demo - it's about as close to photoshop as you can get without all the bloat and yet absurdly only £30
Seriously great piece of s/w - free demo - it's about as close to photoshop as you can get without all the bloat and yet absurdly only £30
He' right!!
Don't bother with anything until you've at least tried pixelmator - It's for the most part 90% of photoshop for less than 1% of the price...
Do not let your experiences of 'shareware' or it's price put you off - this is a seriously quality piece of s/w
Photoshop Elements fits the bill nicely. OK not just as good as the full version of Photoshop, but good enough for many peoples needs.
And it's twice as fast because it uses, Core Image, which Photoshop, sadly, does not.
The only gripe I have about Pixelmator is that there is no size or image preview on JPG exports. Makes it unusable for my Web work, where I have to carefully adjust the image quality to get the best combination of file size and quality.
As soon as they add that feature, I'll probably move to it, and only use Photoshop when I need to run a 3rd-party filter.
As soon as they add that feature, I'll probably move to it, and only use Photoshop when I need to run a 3rd-party filter.
I use Graphic Converter to edit my photos. About the only thing it doesn't do well is red-eye. And one of the most powerful things is that you can do batch edits - convert all your raw edits to jpg with 90% setting, for instance. Or, take all your photos and resize them for ipod, web page, or whatever. Or, crop for a photo of a certain aspect ratio.
My usual workflow is to batch rename photo files using A Better Finder Rename. Then I prune out the bad shots using GraphicConverter (it lets you open a browser with preview). For red-eye shots and cloning out imperfections, I use software that came with my Canon camera (it's poor for everything else, but exceptionally good at letting you detail the corrections). Then back to GraphicConverter for further renaming/commenting, correcting brightness/contrast, cropping.
I've yet to find software that does as good a job at red-eye as the application that came with my camera. Most software either select or click on the eye area, and then paints the area black. My camera software will actually let you hand-paint/touch-up the red area, which allows for much more accurate red-eye.
Dave
My usual workflow is to batch rename photo files using A Better Finder Rename. Then I prune out the bad shots using GraphicConverter (it lets you open a browser with preview). For red-eye shots and cloning out imperfections, I use software that came with my Canon camera (it's poor for everything else, but exceptionally good at letting you detail the corrections). Then back to GraphicConverter for further renaming/commenting, correcting brightness/contrast, cropping.
I've yet to find software that does as good a job at red-eye as the application that came with my camera. Most software either select or click on the eye area, and then paints the area black. My camera software will actually let you hand-paint/touch-up the red area, which allows for much more accurate red-eye.
Dave
Apple's "Preview" will do the scaling that you want. When you do a Save As and select .jpg you then get a dialog box where yu can set the compression level
If you are doing critical work you really do need a program that knows about color profiles. The work that you send out to the web needs to be converted from whatever it was to sRGB.
Have you looked at Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0? How about Adobe Photoshop CS3? both of these offer maybe a dozen ways to deal with redeye. Ranging from the un-sophicticed "one click" to doing a color replacement on just the red or even pixel painting at high magnitication.
While we are on the subject of photo-retouch may times I'll add some slight whitening to the white of the eye too and maybe fix up color on the teeth as well. And then of course skin blemishes. You really do need to do all this work on layer so that you can adjust the effect by backing it out 20% or more. The better photo editing tools are are based on layers and masks.
That image you posted falls under the catagory "illustration", and will be best accomplished with Adobe Illustrator (or similar) and a Wacom tablet.
Photoshop is more for image manipulation than creation.
I dislike companies dominating markets as much as anyone, but you should bear in mind that anyone looking to employ you will expect you to be familiar with Adobe software. Also, you will find yourself part of a larger (and more helpful) user base if you use an industry standard bit of software.
Hope that helps a bit
Z.
Photoshop is more for image manipulation than creation.
I dislike companies dominating markets as much as anyone, but you should bear in mind that anyone looking to employ you will expect you to be familiar with Adobe software. Also, you will find yourself part of a larger (and more helpful) user base if you use an industry standard bit of software.
Hope that helps a bit
Z.
I've been tempted to look at Elements. Is there a try-before-you-buy version? You have to be careful with correction - if you make someone look too perfect it's obvious that it's an airbrush job. I've never gotten into layers because it tends to really expand the amount of time you spend on each photo, and I have a lot of photos. But I do like the ability to paint on a red-eye effect.
Dave
and Gimp is by far better and....free
If you want to create art, then GIMP is the answer, and it's free. Pixelmator is OK. It may end up better than Photoshop eventually, but as of now, I'd probably want PS, then GIMP, then Pixelmator. Illustrator and GIMP, actually.
For photography, same answer. Get The GIMP.
Best photo editor
ZC Dream Photo Editor & MagicEffect Photo Editor is preferable to you,i have bought them to my father as Christmas gifts and he was very hapyy ,because it is very easy for him to use and there too many effects to use
you can buy them from http://zcstar.com/
ZC Dream Photo Editor & MagicEffect Photo Editor is preferable to you,i have bought them to my father as Christmas gifts and he was very hapyy ,because it is very easy for him to use and there too many effects to use
you can buy them from http://zcstar.com/
The GIMP is clearly the best program for the buck/pound.
It is a free version of photoshop and works really well for most people.
It is a free version of photoshop and works really well for most people.
Photoshop at an educational discount is around 200 bucks. If you arent in school then find someone who is in school and ask them.
That image is not Illustrator, its most likely Photoshop. Illustrator would have a very difficult time doing those textures and it looks like he used custom PS brushes. Photoshop is the most universal program around, its not anymore a photo program as it is an art program. I would say its extremely more versatile in art than Illustrator, virtually everything you can do in Illustrator can be done easier in Photoshop because its not restricted to vectors and paths.
PhotoShop is the best all around program. Illustrator is great if you're into creating vector based images, as the above poster stated, but it may be overkill if you don't need the functions it offers. PhotoShop is to the point where you can almost do/design/create/edit/manipulate anything with less of a learning curve.
For art / photos try Adobe Photoshop Elements. For a more serious photography editor try Adobe Lightroom.
A combination of both would be great but that's getting serious money, depends how many images she takes, Lightroom is designed for processing hundreds of images. Photoshop is more of a single image editor in my opinion.
A combination of both would be great but that's getting serious money, depends how many images she takes, Lightroom is designed for processing hundreds of images. Photoshop is more of a single image editor in my opinion.