Which Adobe Photoshop software do I need?

[daisymommy]

I need something for a "photographer dummy" ;) (yes, that's me!) who is also not terribly software inclined either.

I want to be able to organize all my photos into albums, and edit/retouch them to look nice, just for personal use. Nothing over the top fancy. If it's too complicated to figure out, I probably won't use it alot.

It seems like there are several different versions, so what do I want?

Thanks!

[LD92599]

Photoshop elements; version 9 is the most recent.

[Karenn]

Are you set on photoshop? I use the free picasa software from google to do all of that. I tried a free sample of photoshop and it really overwhelmed me. Picasa was easy for a novice like me to learn, and free. I can do basic retouching, crop and fix red-eyes so I'm happy. :)

[khm]

I actually still prefer Picasa for organizing. The images seem to load a lot faster, etc. They are also now hooked with Piknic, for more advanced edits. Though, Picasa can do quite a lot. Crop, straighten and warmify are my favs.

Typically whatever edits you do are only "visible" in Picasa, your originals, if opened elsewhere are original. If you save your edits, it automatically backs up the original, so that you don't mess it up.

I have every adobe thing there is and I try to love the organizational tool (Bridge) because it should make things easier to stay all in adobe products, but yeah, I continue to go back to Picasa for viewing and basic edits!

[MMEand1]

You can download a free 30 day trial of PS Elements to see if it is something you might be interested in.

[tmahanes]

[QUOTE=khm;2896979]I actually still prefer Picasa for organizing. The images seem to load a lot faster, etc. They are also now hooked with Piknic, for more advanced edits. Though, Picasa can do quite a lot. Crop, straighten and warmify are my favs.[QUOTE]

I have Photoshop and Picasa and use Picasa almost all the time. Very easy to organize!

[daisymommy]

Wow thanks! I've never even heard of Picasa! Where do I find it? Just Google it? Is it something I down load and keep on my computer? The only thing that worries me is that my edits don't become permanent (?) I would want them to, once I've made my pictures look nice.

And that's awesome that I could try Adobe for free for 30 days! I assume I just go to their website for that?

FYI...No, I'm not set on Photoshop, it was just all I really had ever heard about.

[fumofu]

Another vote for Picasa. It has all the functions an amateur needs, it's easy to use (very intuitive ), and it's free! Plus the fact that your originals are kept is great. Oh, and it's free! It's the Google photo app - should be easy to find.

[gcc2k]

I've never used Picasa, but it sounds like more of what you are looking for. I have Photoshop Elements and love it because you can do amazing things with it. However you have to devote A LOT of time to figuring out how to use it. It's not the most intuitive software, and if you're not a software person to begin with, it's probably not worth the ~$80.

[Karenn]

Yep, just Google "Picasa" and I'm sure it will turn up. :) You download it on to your computer. I've never had a problem with the edits not being permanent. It's not like they just "undo" themselves. It just means you can always get to the original if you need it.

[khm]

It's actually a google product. :)

http://picasa.google.com/

[daisymommy]

Can you organize all your photos with it, into albums?
Are they stored on the web (like Shutterfly), or in albums on your hard drive (but within the Picasa program?)

Thanks for answering all my questions :)

[Melbel]

Another vote for Picasa here! You definitely can organize into folders. I have found it helpful to name the folders by date, starting with the year for easy sorting (i.e. 2010 10 24 for an album created today, sometimes with a description such as x birthday after the date). My folders are saved to my harddrive. There is a way to sync to the web, but I have not attempted to do so.

[khm]

Yes, you can create albums. I initially have my pics sorted by folders titled year-month (2010-01) on the hard drive. This is "non-negotiable", for me. I just dump them that way regardless of what they are.

Then, you can create albums of various photos stored in various folders. You can also give photos a "star" to designate a fav.

Any edits you make will ONLY show up in picasa, unless you save it. So, if you edit ABC.jpg, you can only see those edits in picasa. If you open it from your windows explorer, it will be the original.

You can SAVE the ABC.jpg and it will automatically move the original to a subfolder in the same location and save your new one there.

They are not stored on the web, unless you do so manually. I have downloaded a button for quick export to Facebook and to Flickr. So, I can easily store mine on the web, but Picasa itself isn't "the web". It is a viewer of the photos on your harddrive.

[daisymommy]

Ooh! I'm using it now! I think I'm going to like it! I can't believe how fast it found my thousands of photos and organized them all already. That was one thing I was dreading having to re-do.

Thanks everyone for your help and for suggesting this program. Can't wait to have some time to play around with it!

[JoyNChrist]

I was just going to add that if you want some higher-level editing power in the future, you should look into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (version 3 is the latest). It's much easier and more intuitive than Photoshop, but it has a lot more editing power than Picasa or other free programs. It's also a great organizing tool.