Photo Editing-It aint no Baby Elephant
63Nikon Capture NX
Keep it Simple
Photo editing ain't no Baby Elephant!...................Say what?
Well, in a previous article I said that entering into digital photography was a bit overwhelming to me. Learning what I needed to know in order to produce quality photographs was a daunting task. I wondered how I was going to get it all done. I decided to take it a little at a time. It was a lot like eating an Elephant. You just have to do it one bite at a time. That's just what I did. I learned it a little bit at a time until I felt comfortable that I knew what I was doing.
Digital photo editing can be confusing and complicated to a newcomer. For me, it was no Baby Elephant. Photo editing was a huge gray pachyderm that I had to subdue and devour if I wanted to compete in the world of photography. The first thing I had to do was pick a starting point. For me that was choosing which software to use.
How does one choose which photo editing software to use? Good question! I wanted something simple yet powerful. The more simple something is the better I like it. However, I didn't want to sacrifice powerful photo editing tools on the altar of simplicity. I started out on my journey by going to the internet and reading up on the various options available. There are a lot of photo editing software options out there. I started by eliminating the programs that come installed on a new computer. For me that was iPhoto. It's there ready, willing, and waiting. I just don't use it. It's too basic. Next I looked to see what the "Big Boys" (high profile photographers) were using and narrowed my choices down to 5. I took those 5 and narrowed it down to just 2.
These are the 5 I looked at (in no particular order):
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Lightroom
- Apple Aperture
- Photoshop Elements
- Nikon Capture NX
There are others to be sure, but these are the ones I chose to research for my photo editing solution.
Adobe Photoshop is a great photo editing program. It was just too much for my finite, minimalistic brain and too complicated. It has too many bells and whistles for what I need, and it's a little pricey for me at around $700. Lightroom was pretty good - not too many bells and whistles and the price was better at about $300.00. It's just my taste, but I didn't like the way Lightroom was laid out. It was a little clunky for me. Aperture looked good and was right at the top of my list. The price was appealing at $200. It has a good layout and good tools. I put a check mark by that one. Then I looked at Capture NX by Nikon. Wow! It was simple, yet had powerful tools. It could do everything I needed and do it quickly. The price was great at $180. This was now my front runner. Photoshop Elements caught my attention also. It was inexpensive and powerful. It could do everything I needed and then some. It has some of the bells and whistles of its big brother, Adobe Photoshop. The only problem I had with PSE was that it was a little complicated. I put is second on my list.
So, which one did I choose? I chose two. I never was good at making decisions. I chose Capture NX as my main editing solution. I also chose PSE in order to do some of the things that NX can't do, like writing text on a photo, making watermarks, and so on. I just upgraded to PSE 9. I'm waiting for Scott Kelby's new PSE 9 book to come out so I can learn my way around the program. However, just yesterday I discovered an add on for NX2 called Color Efex Pro 3.0 that might take over some of Photoshop Elements' duties. I don't know for sure yet. I'll have to play around with it a little more.
For now I'm happy with my Capture NX2/PSE 9 combination. I can do everything I need to do. I can get my photographs in and out quickly. When I have time I can play around with some of the features I don't use very often, try new things, and see what I can come up with.
So you see, photo editing ain't no Baby Elephant. There's a lot to chew on. I don't know that I will ever eat the whole thing. Just when I think I might be getting to the end I look and see that I haven't even scratched the surface. The main thing is pick software that you like, learn it, and use it.
Happy shooting,
Ken
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