Photo Shop

alancdavis · August 15, 2009, 12:57

Seen lots of talk about photo shop ... checked e bay and some are expensive ...some a stupid cheap and also alteratives are listed So ... How hard is it to use and what would be a realistic price to pay ?

SimonC_Here · August 15, 2009, 13:30

Pretty steep learning curve but there are many tutorials out there.
Of course you will be buying a legit version so check out adobes site for pricing.

Alternates are Gimp, Paint.Net, Picassa.

All free and all better than I could possibly be!

kentsmudger · August 15, 2009, 14:38

First question is really, what do you want it for? Unless you are taking photo-editing very seriously, Photoshop is pretty expensive IMO.

I have used Picasa and Gimp and they are both quite good at what they do. Picasa is free, good at the basic adjustments, with a few clever tricks up it's sleeve, and really, really easy to use. Gimp is also free, more advanced and a little more complicated, I never really got into it as i had stability issues with it, admittedly on a low-spec laptop computer, should be better on a more powerful machine. Note - All Photoshop-type editors will need a decent speed PC with good-sized RAM or they will bog down somewhat.

Mostly all I want to do to my photos is clean up the image, tilt, crop or clone out untidy objects from backgrounds etc, adjust the colour and contrast, maybe add a subtle border. On the other hand i can spend ages tweaking a shot, until it looks nothing like the scene in front of the camera, for the artistic effect. Warning - This can eat up a long evening in front of the PC!

I currently use Paintshop Pro, which is very good for what I need and, although complicated, you can get a handle on things quite quickly by just clicking on things to see what they do. Once you have an idea of what you want to achieve, google is your friend! Pick up a couple of photography magazines too, they have tutorials, mostly biased towards Photoshop, but many of the tools are in Paintshop Pro and called the same thing - just operate differently.

<Shameless plug>Have a nose at my Flickr page to see what I am doing with my pictures, not many of them are published straight out of the camera!</Shameless plug>

Ilogik · August 15, 2009, 14:43

once you grasp the basics its experimentation.

Going into my last year doing graphic design, Id say I learnt more stuff just doing tutorials and messing around on it.

Great site for car related stuff is

This will talk you through basic stuff and give you a grasp of the tools * CAR RELATED STUFF I.E Lowering, wheel swap, motion blur.

If you want to get down to grips with some real good shit

check out PSD TUTS.

As for the program, like anything on the tinterweb, you search and you will find. Aim for CS3 package.

if your serious about it get it mate, few bit of work i been messing around with

Car created using illustrator which was basic vectors then imported it to photoshop and made it look more finished
before

After

Some college project works

general messing around

Other mixture of illustrator photoshop

Illustrator

photoshop

onion86 · August 15, 2009, 17:06

You can also get a free trial (click 'try' rather than 'buy' on the Adobe download page and try it out for 30 days (currently CS4)

I've got CS2 and I must say I use Flash and Dreamweaver a lot more and only really use Photoshop for resizing images; I should really start using it a lot more as I like some of the stuff Ilogik has been doing.

alancdavis · August 15, 2009, 17:49

As always thanks guys......may be I will try yhe alternative free versions first to get the feel of it

Do we have a link ??

s:D

s:D

Ilogik · August 15, 2009, 17:56

Quote from: "alancdavis"As always thanks guys......may be I will try yhe alternative free versions first to get the feel of it

Do we have a link ??

s:D s:D

Are you on mac or pc?

alancdavis · August 15, 2009, 18:12

Bog standard XP

Anonymous · August 15, 2009, 19:24

GIMP is pretty good, i got photoshop and the following facial expressions quickly followed:

s:shock: :shock: s:shock: s:? :? s:? s:x :x s:x s:evil: :evil: s:evil: s:cry: :cry: s:cry:

its sweet if you can use it but i really dont think that unless you put a LOT of time into learning it, you will be be able to do much worth while (although dont get me wrong i would totally take classes if i had time, its a great piece of software and a great skill too)

shuttsies · August 15, 2009, 20:15

if you actually want to pay for it ...

check your local college/uni for photoshop courses...

I took an advanced PS course (learnt a fair bit actually) for £80.

While you are at a college/uni you are officiall a student!! which mean you can get a NUS card (costs £10 but gets you 10% off at lots of places and lasts the whole year) and you also can buy photoshop CS4 (latest) through the college/uni at student prices!! I was offered roughly £150 for the CS4 full retail pack.

If you don't want to go for the full thing then try the demo or the essentials version...

Anonymous · August 15, 2009, 20:47

If you're a student, then you can get the entire Adobe range for silly money, like 10% of the RRP.

If you're not, then maybe you know someone who is... s;)

s;)

Anonymous · August 15, 2009, 23:57

Photoshop is a fantastic tool but you need to learn the basics and then KEEP PRACTICING.
If you don't keep using it it is very easy to forget. I learnt all the basic stuff at college 10 years ago but now only ust a small percentage of what he prog is capable of.
Likewise Dreamweaver and Director which I have forgotten all about now.

Anonymous · August 16, 2009, 07:23

Probably better waiting for CS5 now too, check out some of the new features s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

Anonymous · August 16, 2009, 08:38

I find photoshop really fun and useful. Even if its just for cropping, but you can do some creative stuff using it. Recently went to the 'ring with a couple of the boys, didn't take the '2 unfortunately. When we got back i put all the pics of the week onto a dvd, when they all seen the following pic of a couple of their cars they wern't too happy. s:crazyeyes: :crazyeyes: s:crazyeyes:

aaronjb · August 16, 2009, 10:58

Quote from: "Dan M"Probably better waiting for CS5 now too, check out some of the new features s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

Damn! I had to check the date of that posting to make sure it wasn't April 1st - that's some very, very impressive automagical algorithms. Do want.

onion86 · August 16, 2009, 11:41

Quote from: "aaronjb"
Quote from: "Dan M"Probably better waiting for CS5 now too, check out some of the new features s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

Damn! I had to check the date of that posting to make sure it wasn't April 1st - that's some very, very impressive automagical algorithms. Do want.

OK, that actually looks amazing! Can you do similar with CS2? I should really do some tutorials...

enid_b · August 16, 2009, 15:53

i did an advanced photoshop course a few years back for work. it was very interesting and even as we left i think that we only scratched the surface.

most of the stuff a normal person (i mean not in the graphics/photography) world would use about 10% of its features.

i would suggest using a free program for minor adjustments.

Ilogik · August 16, 2009, 17:58

Quote from: "aaronjb"
Quote from: "Dan M"Probably better waiting for CS5 now too, check out some of the new features s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

Damn! I had to check the date of that posting to make sure it wasn't April 1st - that's some very, very impressive automagical algorithms. Do want.

Christ that looks amazing! Shocks me how far programs have come on. Problem is, if they make it look as easy as that, everyone will be doing it lol.

Anonymous · August 16, 2009, 19:28

good as it is, i REALLY cant understand how they can justify charging this much for ANY piece of software....

brace yourself...

Anonymous · August 16, 2009, 19:54

If you use it properly, it's worth every penny and more. It truly is an incredibly powerful piece of software.

aaronjb · August 16, 2009, 20:00

Quote from: "djbenny1"good as it is, i REALLY cant understand how they can justify charging this much for ANY piece of software....

brace yourself...

Easy - people buy it to use for their job, not to play around recolouring cars at the weekend s;)

s;) And if you're an advertising agency charging hundreds of thousands of pounds for an advert, well.. that's small change.

Same way we justify selling network kit that costs a quarter of a million dollars.. you wouldn't buy it to run your home network, but that's not what it's designed to do.

Ilogik · August 16, 2009, 22:04

Quote from: "aaronjb"
Quote from: "djbenny1"good as it is, i REALLY cant understand how they can justify charging this much for ANY piece of software....

brace yourself...

Easy - people buy it to use for their job, not to play around recolouring cars at the weekend s;) s;) And if you're an advertising agency charging hundreds of thousands of pounds for an advert, well.. that's small change.

Same way we justify selling network kit that costs a quarter of a million dollars.. you wouldn't buy it to run your home network, but that's not what it's designed to do.

That packaged is like the complete works from Adobe, you could do a hell of a lot with that kit. A good workman needs good tools and Adobe have the market well and truely cornered.

The sheer amount of stuff that is possible with photoshop is amazing, in the hands of a pro some of the stuff that can be created is mind bogling.

m http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUgyezb7Mqw m

philster_d · August 17, 2009, 14:31

Quote from: "Dan M"If you're a student, then you can get the entire Adobe range for silly money, like 10% of the RRP.

If you're not, then maybe you know someone who is... s;) s;)

If you buy the student licence to be used by a non student surely thats software piracy? s;)

s;)

Anonymous · August 17, 2009, 14:41

Nope, Jo used it once and we went competely by the book in obtaining it. There's nothing to say that she can't give it away after purchase...

uktotty · August 17, 2009, 14:44

Not piracy Phil, thats fraud!

Photo Shop

uktotty