Being a fan of some the most creative photoshopped pics posted here, I've finally decided to purchase a suite of my own. Can any of you pros enlighten me with some suggestions as to wich program is best. I'm running XP Pro, 2.4 Mhz, 2 Gb ram. I would like to be able to place persons w/ different backgrounds; work panoramics relatively easy. I've looked at MS Photo editor and Photoshop elements as well as Photoshop CS2, but that looks to involved for a novice like myself.

Sorry about the rambling, but any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Gracias

PaintShopPro is a nice program that is less expensive and easier to learn to use then the Photoshop by adobe.

I have both programs and I use both programs. Photoshop has many intructional videos available to watch to get a better handle on the use of the program.

Photoshop is a more powerful program, but it does have a harder learning curve.

MickG said:

Thanks; exactly the kind of info I'm looking for, MickG

Ocean said:

CoJones said:

PaintShopPro can be purchesed at any circiut city / best buy type store and will run you around 99 dollars. You can get an older version on ebay for much less.

PaintShopPro is as simple to use as Microsofts Paint program, however you can do many more things with it. PaintShopPro also often comes with a grafics animator.

But PhotoShop is the best!

Ocean said:

I'm surprised that your profile pic hasn't grown all kinds of inappropriate heads already!

I agree with Mick, maybe start with PSP and then when you feel more confident use Photoshop.

LleeLlee said:

I went and did a course to learn it, but it was worth every penny, especially since work paid for it

charlottegelin said:

Even if work isn't paying for it, if you go with photoshop it will be worth the extra money to get the training. What I did was looked on ebay and bought several instructional videos on using photoshop. There are many how2s and I love watching instructional videos.

What I really really love more then photoshop is pemiere. That is a video editing software. I love to edit videos on my computer.

charlottegelin said:

you're lucky Charlotte, I taught myself. I love photoshop, it is the best out there.

MickG said:

Have you used any 3D modelling software?

try GIMP.

It's free and very powerful. It's also close enough to Photoshop to not be too confusing.

http://gimp.org/

If you are in school or know someone who is and would be willing to pick it up for you, you can usually get steep discounts on the full version of Photoshop, making in the same price range as cheaper competitors like Photoimpact or Paint Shop Pro.

If you're considering something in the $100 price range, I would probabbly go with Photoshop elements, only because if you ever do transition to the full version down the road, you will already be familiar with the layout, and what everything is called. The other programs each have their own "lingo" and bury features away in completely different locations.

If you plan on getting Photoshop CS2, keep in mind that it's a major resource hog. If you're computer isn't relatively new, it's almost unusable because it's so slow. If you're on an older system you might want to consider a used copy of Photoshop CS instead.

I usually use PSP. I recently got a copy of Photoshop, but haven't used it as much just because I've been using PSP for years.

LleeLlee said:

I have tryed to use illistrator among others. I never did get the training required to make it an efficient use. Seemed like alot of work to me. I understand the resultting effects and such things and can see the uses, but I am yet to get into that area of graphic rendering.

there is only one, the one and only, that is worth the time to learn, and a great asset to learn....

PHOTOSHOP for photo editing.

get on the photoshop train.

MickG said:

I use Illustrator every day for work, but only 2D stuff.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I haven't made up my mind just yet still doing a little research. Please keep them coming and I'll let you know what I end up with. Again Thanks

ufoclub said:

I mostly agree with this, there are other good programs too however. But what I like is the learning of the Adobe program like , photoshop, will also help you understand the useage of their other programs.

retina said:

oh god..don't give them ideas...time to change I think

MickG said:

Illustrator isn't necessarily for 3D rendering. If you are looking for something to do that you may want to check out 3D Studio Max or Maya.

Photoshop is aimed at "raster based" images. Meaning pictures that are made up of a bunch of pixels, such as photographs.

Illustrator is aimed at "vector based" images, meaning shapes made up of points and lines, that can be resized and distorted without any loss of quality. Flash animations tend to use alot of vector images in them.