Best Program for Serious Amature Shooters

[Twitch22]

Hello all!

I know this may technically be classified as a Software topic, but I decided to post it here in effort to get more experienced, focused opinions. Anyway...

I'm looking to get back into photography in a pretty serious way. I was a serious amature back in my high-school and college days, even dabbling a bit into some commercial/pro work. Digital imaging was just starting up as I was leaving college, so film and the darkroom were still king. We used film, negative and photo scanners to get our pics onto our PCs...no one used a true digital camera yet since a 2MP camera could cost upwards of $4,000!

Well, now that I'm settled down, I'd like to get back into shooting seriously again, for my enjoyment. I'm planning on buying/getting my first DSLR this X-Mas (Nikon D90 or Pentax K20D are leading candidates) to replace my various compact cameras. My question is, what software would you guys recommend for the serious amature shooter?

I really have no experience with the leading candidates, like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro Photo. I know of them, and of their prodigious power, but have never used them. My main software experience has been with ACDSee and little bit of Photoshop Elements and iPhoto, basic software that usually comes with a compact digital camera or your new PC/laptop.

I know that these programs are strictly for viewing and simple editing and correction, but I'm wondering just how much more features, power and flexibility I need. Also, I'm looking for PC-based solutions, since I build my own rigs and have plans to build a dedicated Photo/Video-Editing box. So my questions are:

- What additional features do you get by going with a pro-level software suite?
- Are these features applicable to the amature shooter, or are they only useful to the professional who makes his coin by "getting the shot".
- What are the big differences between Photoshop CS and Paint Shop Pro Photo?
- What about Adobe Lightroom2? What exactly is it and is it useful by itself, or is it a program best used in conjuction with Photoshop?

Ultimately, I want to share my pics, either by print or by file. But, I'd like to have some ability to control images and use effects, especially with night scenes, low-level light, wide panoramics, abstracts, etc. I'm just not sure how much program I need and which one to choose.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for any opinions or suggestions!

Twitch

 

[angry hampster]

Lightroom should be all you need. It's got mostof the features that photoshop does, but is more streamlined and frankly easier to work in.

 

[extra]

Shrug, canon's digital photo pro works good for doing the basics, especially in batch mode, on a bunch of pics from my slr--and it's free. Take 50 photos indoors under same conditions? Bam, white balance, etc, one of them, then apply to all of them and batch process and rename.. Individual photos get photoshopping as required. I just use elements. It's never been a limitation for what I do. I either print my own stuff or print on a fuji frontier...shrug. Yeah, yeah, you miss out on curves, I guess, but there's plugins that take care of that and work great! And noise ninja works just fine in elements. Shrug. For showing and most printing, etc, just use picasa, it works great.

 

[twistedlogic]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
Lightroom should be all you need. It's got mostof the features that photoshop does, but is more streamlined and frankly easier to work in.

I second Lightroom.

It will import, let you tag(metadata), sort and keep a database of all your photos. When you do decide to make a change to a photo, lightroom never touches the actual image, so all changes are non-destructive.

Plus the learning curve for Lightroom isn't as steep as photoshop or Gimp.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: twistedlogic

Originally posted by: angry hampster
Lightroom should be all you need. It's got mostof the features that photoshop does, but is more streamlined and frankly easier to work in.

I second Lightroom.

It will import, let you tag(metadata), sort and keep a database of all your photos. When you do decide to make a change to a photo, lightroom never touches the actual image, so all changes are non-destructive.

Plus the learning curve for Lightroom isn't as steep as photoshop or Gimp.

I third Lightroom. I'm an Aperture user on the Mac, but Lightroom is the PC equivalent. Combines Picasa with Photoshop - fast album viewing with good editing tools (basic but good enough for most pictures).

 

[ElFenix]

does LR have a good resizer built in or do i need to find a plugin?

 

[soydios]

The resizer works for me in Lightroom. The batch export resize is handy.

 

[tdawg]

Another vote for Lightroom. I've been impressed with this program since it came out. It's fast and easy to use with a good amount of editing options, gallery organization / cataloging is great, and outputting sizes for the web is painless. Combined with Picasa, getting pictures on the web to share with family and friends is a simple endeavor.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: soydios
The resizer works for me in Lightroom. The batch export resize is handy.

but what is the algorithm?

 

[soydios]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: soydios
The resizer works for me in Lightroom. The batch export resize is handy.

but what is the algorithm?

I have no idea. The same standard one from Photoshop?

 

[ElFenix]

just found out that lightroom uses lanczos resampling.

photoshop allows you to choose. i think the default is bicubic. which is fast but not very accurate.

Originally posted by: Kaido

I third Lightroom. I'm an Aperture user on the Mac, but Lightroom is the PC equivalent. Combines Picasa with Photoshop - fast album viewing with good editing tools (basic but good enough for most pictures).

how does aperture compare to lightroom? i notice it's about half the price.