Best Software editing to use

[frazer-ish]

Hi everyone

Im just after peoples opinions on the best software to use for editing. I currently use a macbook pro so I am open to apple software.

Currently I have the free trials of elements 10 and aperture 3 installed and first impressions have drawn me to aperture for its simplicity and quality. My initial concerns was the lag time but the trial has proved this not to be a problem.

Obviously elements can do more serious editing like cutting elements of one photo and placing in another (i think anyway) but I don't really do this anyway.

Peoples opinions on what they think is best will be really useful.

Thanks again

[jet_kit]

Simple.
The best software is what you're happiest with. No-one can say that Elements is 'better' than Lightroom, or Corel more 'featured' than Adobe. Only you know what you want to do with the software and what you feel most comfortable with and that's where you need to make your choice.

[donoreo]

It is what you feel most comfortable with. For the easiest to find help, that would be any version of Photoshop (except Lightroom, hardly ever see magazines use it - but still lots on the web).

[GeoffWessex]

I'd stick with Aperture if you're happy with it. You may want to do some editing with layers in the future and you'll want something more, but I'm sure it can wait. If/when that point does come along, I'd recommend Elements as you're not going to be working with it full-time and it wouldn't be worth shelling out for CS5 or the future CS6.

[donoreo]

Yes, I forgot to mention that. Do not buy PS CSx. There are very few features that most people need. Of course, if you really want it, do what you want. I mean that like my wife means it when she says "do what you want", which, of course, all the married men know what that means

[frazer-ish]

Thanks for all the replies. At the moment I think Ill stay with aperture and see how it goes, either way the programs arnt going to 'break the bank' (to much).

Iv never even heard of coral so Ill have to take a look (just for knowledge above all), but photoshop CS5, is defiantly not an option far to expensive for the amount of editing I need to do and far to time consuming.

Thanks again =]

[nick_gray]

Corel are perhaps better known for their illustration product CorelDraw, but they added photo editing and manipulation to their suite with the inclusion of Corel PhotoPaint (which is the equivalent of Adobe Photoshop CSx). In 2004, Corel bought JASC who wrote Paintshop Pro. Corel have aimed this product at the home user/occasional user and have priced this to compete with Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Having worked for Corel and used their products for a number of years, I succumbed and switched to Adobe about a year ago, mainly because of the number of tutorials, books, articles and forum posts on Photoshop when compared to PhotoPaint.

Personally, I use Photoshop CS5, but I purchased it as part of an Adobe suite of products that I use for work. I agree with the others that Photoshop Elements is more than capable of doing most, if not all of my photo editing work and if I was starting out again, this is what I would purchase, especially considering the price difference of stand-alone Photoshop at £550 versus Elements at £60.

Regards

Nick

[beatnik69]

you could try pixlr.com. It's a free online editor where you can do a lot of the basic tasks you would do in Elements.

[wave01]

hi i am a mac user and my work flow is use aperture to do my RAW conversion and elements 9 to do anything more with and that seems to work for me. I would suggest pse9 or above as its has the layer mask option in