learn me a couple things, please

[syf350]

I've never quite understood all the didfferent editing stuff...photoshop, lightroom, elements, scooby doo, etc.

what's the difference with them and what does each do? I don't do a lot of post, and dont know that I care to learn. Other than some level adjustments i can get done is picasa, or nikons NX software, I dont know i need much more. so sell me on something i should want, but don't.

what are the best laptop/screen types for photos? I have a 2 or 3 year old laptop with a screen that changes with every different angle you view it at. I cant do any photo work on it because by the time i look at the pics on a regular monitor at my office you'd swear I was drunk when i did them. So what kind of display do i need in a laptop to keep this from happening?

[Grey Ghost]

I think LR and Photomatrix are good for the people that shoot a thousand pics of one subject or shooting event. They can quickly organize, delete, keep, etc...all those shots. Think of them as organizers. Nothing can beat PS for intense post work. You click on one tool and get multiple options from there....endless options and amount of time that you want to spend on an image. You can also batch process, if you had good even exposures across all the images. You never know how people are viewing your photos - a smartphone, desktop, laptop, ipad, etc...no telling what some stuff looks like on those things. Pros will color calibrate their monitor.

[carlton_fritz]

A program I use is Picturenaut for creating HDR images.

[Nitro-C5]

Originally Posted by syf350

I've never quite understood all the didfferent editing stuff...photoshop, lightroom, elements, scooby doo, etc.

what's the difference with them and what does each do? I don't do a lot of post, and dont know that I care to learn. Other than some level adjustments i can get done is picasa, or nikons NX software, I dont know i need much more. so sell me on something i should want, but don't.

what are the best laptop/screen types for photos? I have a 2 or 3 year old laptop with a screen that changes with every different angle you view it at. I cant do any photo work on it because by the time i look at the pics on a regular monitor at my office you'd swear I was drunk when i did them. So what kind of display do i need in a laptop to keep this from happening?

You are asking a lot of different types of questions here. I will give a simple overview response and then respond again if you have follow-up questions.

Lightroom: Good for RAW files, large amounts of shots, great for making organization, great for basic image adjustments. If you shoot RAW and are going to shoot alot this is one of the few programs that I would highly recommend to every person as it is very intuitive and built much more for the photographer in mind.

Photoshop (full version): Will do everything you can possible imagine to an image. Can be difficult to understand how to use. You will not use 90% of the features unless you are into graphic designs.

Elements: Think of it a waterdown version of PS. More simplistic to use.

Scooby Doo: I believe he is a dog

Personally I would never use a laptop to edit photos as the sizes are smaller and screen (typically, however not always are lesser quality)...that being said I know alot of people that do. In that case they almost always choose Apple Notebooks. If you really want to get into it you need a high quality Monitor that you can manually adjust Brightness, contrast, saturation and RGB color levels...you need to have it calibrated.

At the end of the day, if you are shooting mostly snapshots in JPEG that you are not going to print at larger sizes then you are going to see only a small benefit to buying more PP software then what you are currently using

[Nitro-C5]

Originally Posted by Grey Ghost

I think LR and Photomatrix are good for the people that shoot a thousand pics of one subject or shooting event. They can quickly organize, delete, keep, etc...all those shots. Think of them as organizers. Nothing can beat PS for intense post work. You click on one tool and get multiple options from there....endless options and amount of time that you want to spend on an image. You can also batch process, if you had good even exposures across all the images. You never know how people are viewing your photos - a smartphone, desktop, laptop, ipad, etc...no telling what some stuff looks like on those things. Pros will color calibrate their monitor.

You are right on with you assessment of Lightroom, however Photomatix is software for making HDR images.

[Grey Ghost]

Originally Posted by Nitro-C5

You are right on with you assessment of Lightroom, however Photomatix is software for making HDR images.

You're right! I meant Photo Mechanic.

[syf350]

so biggest difference between lightroom and elements?

[Nitro-C5]

Originally Posted by syf350

so biggest difference between lightroom and elements?

Those programs are not really used for the same purpose so not an easy question to answer. Kind of like saying what is the difference between a camera phone and a DSLR. Both will take pictures however used for different purposes.

Think of it as Lightroom for cataloging, organizing and doing RAW image manipulation. If you are not doing a lot of complex editing I would highly recommend Lightroom as you will probably not need anything more.

Elements will just simply give you more options and control for advanced editing. Things like stitches pan aroma images together...cannot do in Lightroom, easy to do in Elements. If you want to crop out images an paste parts onto another image, cannot do in Lightroom, easy to do in elements. Etc...

[syf350]

but can elements do everything lightroom can, or should someone have both?

[Grey Ghost]

Originally Posted by syf350

but can elements do everything lightroom can, or should someone have both?

Have you tried GIMP? It is free, and has lots of options.

You're a Nikon shooter? What do you want to do with your images?

[syf350]

Originally Posted by Grey Ghost

Have you tried GIMP? It is free, and has lots of options.

You're a Nikon shooter? What do you want to do with your images?

I think i downloaded gimp once. But i just dont know how to do a lot of stuff so it seemed kinda overwhelming.

And i don't really know what i'd like to do since i dont know how to do any of it. Think i'd like to learn more so i know more about whats available for me to do. I definitely don't want to get into the Photoshopping that is no longer photography and is now graphic arts though.

[Nitro-C5]

Originally Posted by syf350

I think i downloaded gimp once. But i just dont know how to do a lot of stuff so it seemed kinda overwhelming.

And i don't really know what i'd like to do since i dont know how to do any of it. Think i'd like to learn more so i know more about whats available for me to do. I definitely don't want to get into the Photoshopping that is no longer photography and is now graphic arts though.

What might help out the most is if you post up a few pics of what and/or how you are currently doing Post Processing then maybe do a Google search for some images you would like to create. If we know what you current level is, and what you are trying to achieve the comments here may be more helpful to you

At the end of the day there are countless ways to PP and/or edit an image. I'm with you on Photoshop...although I do use, I very rarely go overboard as it really blurs that line between a Photographer and Graphic Artistic. I'm not a Bad Photog, but I'm definitely a terrible Graphic Artist