Help Buying Image/photo editor...

[TwoRails]

Hi All,

I use Paint Shop Pro 7.x, but was looking for something for my wife's computer. She is a total beginner. I just tried Microsoft's Picture It Digital Image Pro, and that program, IMHO, is junk.

How about Adobe Photo Elements 2?? Anyone use that one?? Any good?? (I also have Adope Photo Shop 5 le, but that would be even harder for my wife to learn than PSP).

Any other decent packages for a beginner out there?? One's that actually work??

Thanks!!

TwoRails

[audiyoda]

I found the new Picture It! to be pretty darn good -- better than the other entry-level programs out there. Very easy to touch up pictures, very nice effects and filters, good color handling.....as good as it gets for beginners. I use Photoshop for my video work but my wife finds it just too expansive -- too much for what she needs. She really like's Picture It!. And I've got to say, I'm not a huge fan of M$ software, but this one's pretty well thought out.

-Craig

[morriswindgate]

A really simple to use program is ArcSoft Photo Studio (Link Below). It has a lot of built in one click stuff and allows lots of tricks.

http://www.arcsoft.com/products/soft...otostudio.html

[TwoRails]

Hi audiyoda,

Interesting.... I must admit I didn't spend much time with it at all. I gave it a couple of basic tests. The first one was Red Eye. It failed that test, to me, because it had no control over at least the size. To get rid of just one Red, I had to go thru the "wizard" about 8 - 9 times just to basically spray paint the eye. To me, that's not easy nor intuitive.

The other test was to print. I could not find any option to place the photo anywhere but center, larger or smaller, but still center; nor could I find anything else in Help. Burning a full sheet of paper for one photo is too wasteful (unless that's what I want, of course).

If I missed something on the above, please set me straight... I haven't taken it back to the store yet.
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Hi morriswindgate,

Thanks for the link. I give it a serious look!

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Thanks

TwoRails

[glc]

I hate to say it, but Adobe Photodeluxe is the best I've seen for a newbie. The only pain in the butt is trying to save stuff as a jpg, it's not a simple "save as", you have to export.

[FarOut]

PhotoElf, a lot of bang for the buck - $25.00. www.photoelf.com for a look.

[TwoRails]

Hi glc,

What version is current for Photodeluxe?? I've got v2.x around here somewhere, as well as Photo Suite 4, and a few others I've totally forgotten about...

Hi FarOut,

I'll be checking out that (and the other) link(s) this weekend. I'm so short on time the next few days, I shouldn't even be here !! LOL



TwoRails

[glc]

Photodeluxe is up to 4.0 now. It's discontinued and replaced with Photoshop Elements.

[audiyoda]

Hey TwoRails -- which version of Picture It! do you have -- we've got M$ Picture It! Digital Image Pro 7.0. For red eye, it's as simple as click the Touchup button on the left, zoom in on the eyes and click. Then click on auto fix and it's done. As for printing, there's a help button on the print tab that comes up that details how to maximize your paper.

-Craig

[TwoRails]

Hi glc: Elements 2 is getting some rave reviews, and is supposed to be better than the PhotoShop 5.0 LE I have.

Hi audiyoda: It's the same, DIP 7. (LOL, I just made a pun! DIP! sorry, unintended... ) I tried the Touchup for Red eye. Still no luck. I tried to find an "Advanced" method / menu, but no luck.

What I mean by no luck is it still did not wipe out the red eye. It just looked like I used the Spray paint tool and sploched a little paint on it. After numerious cycles, and clicking on different parts of the eye, I finally got it to go away.

Don't know if you've ever used Paint Shop Pro, but it's red eye tool is simply great. Can control size, shape, color, glint size and shape, tone, brightness, etc.. Maybe I just expected too much.

(Just for giggles, I cropped out the red eye from a 1.8 gig jpeg if you wanted to play with it.... the crop is only 11K)

We tried again for her (my wife) to print out a photo. This time it was to go into a hanging Christmas tree star. She was not happy after trying all she could, and I could not find how to print in just the corner of the paper, at the specific size I wanted...

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In general, DIP 7 is now removed from her system. When installing it, it stated it wanted to do some IE and OE updating, and didn't give me a choice not to. OE has not worked right since it's been installed and I tried everything I could think off.

Now it's un-installed, and now she can get her email again. Go figure..??!!?! This is the first problem she has had since I built the box several months ago.... Oh Well...



TwoRails

[jamesrpm]

Check this one out , easy to use
http://www.photomeister.com/index.htm

[TwoRails]

Hi All !

Finally got time to spend at the above links! I have to say I don't see a bad choice I know that they don't list absolutely every command, but I did like the PDF option in PhotoMeister -- a little different.

I think what I'll do is go thru all the programs I have (and had forgotten about when I did this thread) and see if there is one I already have that she likes.... Load 'em and let her play with them a bit. Since she has never done any of this before, maybe just getting her use to the process may be a big help by itself.

I'm saving a link to this thread for future ref.... just in case

Thanks, All!!

TwoRails