What kind of Editing software do recommend for a beginner photograper?

[fosheezy]

Hi everyone this is [whispering] Fosheezy i have a question i'm a beginner in photography my question is i think I want to invest in an editing software but what i want is something that will make the colors pop!! like the reds red the oranges orange I was on something called,"Adobe photoshop express "and in the saturation process i just fell in love how you can make the colors really come out. what could u recommend for a beginner who knows nothing about photoshop? yet easy to master?
[whispering] Fosheezy

[jfrancho]

I would have to recommend either Lightroom or Elements, leaning heavily toward LR for you. Elements is a lot more like Photoshop - its a photo editor. Lightroom will do just about everthing from downloading to raw conversion, to organizing, to adding "pop," to creating slideshows, etc.

[fosheezy]

What I'm sorry JFranco I didn't understand a word you said. could u please repeat....in english?
I'm sorry I must seem slow to u, to not understand.
[whispering] Fosheezy

[Malakor]

I would give Google's Picasa a try. It's free, and if you feel you want more control then move onto the above suggestions.

[Mr. Pickles]

What software came with your camera when you bought it? There is probably something in there that is cheap and easy to use...

Google's Picasa is a good "beginner" tool to use. Easy to find and download. From there, you can find other choices, some may be too complex or hard to use. As JF pointed out above, Adobe's Lightroom is a very good application that does more than just editing. Might be too much for you now.

Adobe also makes Photoshop Elements, which is a kin to a baby brother of Photoshop itself. Adobe's latest venture is the Express on-line version you played with. Photoshop Elements (PSE it is called sometimes) is a lot better than Express, and is a lot faster. Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3 (CS3 is the latest) is more complex and has more features, and is harder to use and master than PSE is.

Other options to look at are Corel's Paint Shop Pro, which is a good alternative to PSE and PSCS3, or the GIMP, which is a free open source program but some find it hard to find "help" in using.

[sds39]

I agree with Picasa for starting. I started with PhotoBrush from this site
Multimedia, Graphics, Video and DVD authoring systems for creative users and moved up to PhotoShop Elements.

[Sagelike31]

Paint.net was what I used when I first started and helped me understand Photoshop much better when I finally got up to it.

[fosheezy]

Thank you all for your suggestions and tips i do have Picasa and i do like that one, as for my camera I don't know what came with it i'll have to find it.So maybe I should familiarize myself more with Picasa be for I invest in someting with a lot of features that i'm not comfortable working with.
Thank you again.

[whispering] Fosheezy

[dougsmit]

For so many of us, what makes software work or fail is how well we can adapt to the learning curve and controls. I recently was forced to replace my old software which was not Vista compatible. I bought Photoshop Elements 6 and am very happy with it. They have added a lot of really nice features but it has enough automatic features that beginners should be able to get started before getting in too deep. There are many complicated features when you are ready to take them on. I would avoid any program that does not have provision for lightening and darkening sections of the image rather than the whole thing. This comes up too often to ignore. For under $80 (Wal-Mart) I recommend Elements 6.0.

[Alfred D.]

Fosheezy, Picasa is probably your best bet at this point in your development. When you're familiar with it, and want more features, you may want to upgrade to using Helicon Filter (a FREE download).
For the next step after Helicon Filter – don't skip it, the difference will be too big for you – you may want to consider either Lightroom or Photoshop Elements (not Photoshop, the big one. And expensive!).

[fosheezy]

Thank you all for all your WONDERFUL suggstions!! This is an amazing site! For you to take time and to help a struggling Beginner photographer,just amazing! Thank you for helping me make up my mind as to the suggestions,u suggested.[whispering] Fosheezy