I didn’t buy the boxed version - just the download off the site.

There are many places you can learn how to use Photoshop. The links I gave above are great. The Photoshop Guys are part of a larger organisation called NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) and they publish many books as well as giving free tips online :)

You should try the trial from Adobe. it is fun to learn.

LOL

Microsoft Paint - it is a really basic drawuing program on Windows!

Oh, layers! That’s sure more than MS Paint can do. :P

Next you’ll be wanting to use layer masking. Goodness knows what after that!

[quote ayc]lol fair play, its a wonderful lifestlye ;) lucky us!!!!!!!!!!!!!
oh and please, noooooooooooo photoshop filters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! not cool!!!!!! lol[/quote]

On the subject of Photoshop, who in the right mind wants to use a 3px RED stroke on anything? I’ve not met anyone who has used that default tool setting. Silly adobe!

[quote plse_forgive_me_love]dollars GIMP??!! what r u tlkn about?!![/quote]

Dollars = the money required to buy photoshop.

GIMP = GIMP is the name of a free image editing software application found at http://www.gimp.com/. Many people quote GIMP as a free alternative to Adobe Photoshop…

Well then, it is Photoshop from Adobe if you have a dollars

or

GIMP if you don’t. Both let you do text and touching up and so on…

Also, try and get your hands on Adobe Photoshop CS3 even if it is just a trail. You might really like it. You can always save up, or get it for a birthday or Christmas depending on your circumstances. Adobe will offer educational pricing to high school students as well as college students.

Could you tell us what exactly you want to be doing with your editing software. For example, touching up/airbrushing. Adding text. Going to town with silly effects/filters. and so on…

When I’m not technically directing, I do enjoy pretending to be a designer. Or as they are branded these days, a ‘creative’.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 is the industy standard application that photographers and designers have been using for years. It is where the phrases ‘to photoshop an image’ and ‘that photo has been photoshopped’ come from.

With Adobe Photoshop you could start with a blank canvas and draw/paint a photorealistic landscape. It is that powerful. It also has tools for adding text to images and so on.

Adobe Lightroom is designed from the ground up for a photographer. As it helps you arrange your photos into albums, re-touch images - forexampe removing spots from peoples faces. And fix photo colours. It does not have the same text and graphics tools as Photoshop.

I can’t say I’ve really used the non-adobe photo editing applications all that much. GIMP editor can more or less do anything Photoshop can.

If your Internet is fast enough you might want to check out these two ‘podcasts’ to see profesionals showing you how to do cool stuff in AdobePhotoshop:

The Photoshop Guys: http://www.photoshopusertv.com/
Pixel Perfect: http://revision3.com/pixelperfect/bea…

Most of these professionals use photoshop on a Mac computer but the application is the same on both Mac and PC - I used to use it on PC and now I’m using it on the Mac.

Photoshop is one of these programs where you can do loads and loads of stuff and you never stop learning. I was 15 when I started and I’m 18 now and I’m still finding new ways of doing things or ways to do things faster!

Does that help?

adobe make IT industry standard design programs really. in industry you include things like me, graphic designers, as a job title. these programs are expensive.
but other companies make programs that do similar things, and in some cases are free, as mentioned above.
if you were a professional person, and not 15 lol, you would be expected to know how to use all these adobe programs. but as you are 15, you just want a program to edit photos right? so go for a free program, or trial dld or whatever you get hold of. don’t worry about an adobe difference or the things i have mentioned!!!!!!!!!! just get a free/easy program to get ;)
search for “free photo editing software” on google or something lol

Photoshop is part of the CS3 grouping of products but can be bought independantly for the prices quoted above (current today, source: adobe.com)

[quote ayc]i work in £’s lol[/quote]

Me too!

Adobe Photoshop C3 is $650 US. I’m Running Adobe CS3 Master Collection which has a load of Adobe applications and that sells for $2499. This is the professional application for both Windows and Mac that all the professionals use.

You sound like you might be a student. If you can provide evidence of your status as a student to Adobe you can buy the Photoshop CS3 application for the heavily reduced price of $299 (For the extended version).

Adobe also have another application specifically for photographers. It is a work-flow program called Adobe Lightroom. Student pricing starts at $99 and for that you get a powerful program for downloading pictures from your camera and doing basic editing.

All Adobe software can be downloaded from the Adobe website at www.adobe.com for a 30 day free trial.

You don’t make it clear in your post if you are looking for Adobe Photoshop programs or for photo editing programs that would allow you to ‘photoshop’ a photo.

For ‘generic’ applications, you might want to look at GIMP - it has most of the features of Adobe Photoshop but it is free. I can’t say I enjoy using it because I’m used to Adobe Photoshop, but it works. You can check that out here http://www.gimp.org/ and download for free.

I hope that helps - if you need any help, just give me a shout or post back here :)