Digital art or just trying to get the best picture, what software to use?

[Slone Fries]

After losing my computer and all of its software at the begining of the year.  I have found myself trying to reload software and trying to figure out what would really be the best software to have.  I always have enjoyed Photoshop but after viewing there site I realized that I might be missing out not using some of there other software for my photographs.  Wether I am wanting to get the best photgraph for a print or because I am using it as a reference for my painting, I want to hav the best photo that I can have.  For instance another Adobe program seemed to clean up and add much needed deapth to photographs.  What is your experence in this area?  Any advice?

[Donald Kennedy]

Dear Sloane, Sorry to hear of your computer crash, may I recommend that you go to "Tiger Direct" or some to similar site and buy stand alone hard drive with at least a tera bite of storage, if you can afford it, its not very expensive especially it backup your photos, art and other images don't forget backup your programs as well, since the hard drive is a stand alone drive, you can unplug it until you need it like at the end of the day o for archival reference and storage. Don't forget to backup at the end of each session, "good habits are just as as easy to learn as bad habits". I also have a Epson 1800R Stylus printer that use archival paper & inks it also use oversize archival paper. I never print more than a 100 image and when I sell a print it comes with a letter that is a declaration that the digital image will be destroyed after the 100 print is made, also I embed a watermark within the image that is unique to each work of art, add a date to the watermark. I use Photoshop "Bridge" organize my images, since I can see the work in each folder. When utilizing Photoshop you can scale the work as a reference for larger paintings and blow them up to fit your paper size, print them and past the prints together and you can either trace them or use a ponce wheel and pounce the images to a canvas. I find tat Photoshop is the most flexible software although I do own Corel Painter 10, but it will take me much longer learn the program as well as I know Photoshop CS3. All the best, Donald

[Walter Scott Fenton]

I agree with with you Donald, a photoshop is a vital tool an online artist must have, CS3 is priced fairly low, mainly because it is already outdated, and CS4 is already out! The program in 3 has everything you'll ever need , and takes lot of practice to master!

[Christine Rossi]

Hi Sloane
I use a mac so I mostly use iPhoto and then Photoshop when I have to. I try and get the best photo I can initially so I don't have to use Photoshop, but sometimes I like to "Push" the photograph. I use Photoshop to montage photographs and also when I photograph my art to make it look as much like the actual work as I can. Illustrator works to large format a photo so you don't have to have a HUGE photoshop file.
Also get a supplementary Hard Drive to store photos on so if your computer crashes you won't lose everything.

I know there are newer programs designed for PC's but I would never have a PC.
Good luck with your quest. I am interested in finding out about new programs too.

[Tom David]

Sloan:

I use both Adobe Photoshop CS and Photoshop Elements. Elements is less expensive to buy and probably about everything you'd want. You can also download Google Picasa for painting because it is free and accesible to ever artist to use. Just got to wwwpicasa.com and download it. Correcting images in other image-editing programs follows the same basic steps as Picasa. So if you use Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or Photo Paint Shop, the only differences between them are the names of the tools and how to the interface is laid out. As with most software, Picasa comes with no instructions, so you'll either have to play around within the program to get your bearings or go to YOUTube where you'll find short tutorial videos to help you get going.

Your photos will only be as good as your printer.