Lightzone...gonna give it a try

[trooplewis]

I downloaded the trial version.

I am not a PP kind of person, but the more photos I look at the more I realize how a little PP could help many images.
Don't intend to go over to the dark (RAW) side, I think 10mp jpegs have enough detail that Lightzone can handle it.

Why Lightzone and not CS4 or Adobe Lightroom?  The learning curve looks to be much less, and a lot more intuitive.

I have the trial version of CS4 and I open it and just stare at it, don't even know where to begin.

Only thing I'm curious is if LIghtzone can do make parts of images transparent like PShop can. I could really use that skill on the potd sites for some of the smaller images and headers...

[KCook]

Lightzone?  Got a link to their site?

clueless

[trooplewis]

http://www.lightcrafts.com/lightzone/

[KCook]

Thanks.  A lot of those before/after samples look like the application of equalization to me.  Which I do use a lot.  But not exactly a revolutionary feature.

Kelly

[ngc1514]

No doubt that Photoshop, in most of its more recent incarnations, is intimidating. 

The solution is to learn that most of what Photoshop offers is of little use to digital photographers and more useful to the graphic designers.  Once you learn that... the emphasis should be on those features that are useful to photographers. 

I've found Scott Kelby's The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers the single most useful tool to learn Photoshop around. 

Rather than starting with "How to Open a File" (a skill most of us already possess), Kelby gets you right into Photoshop and shows how to correct common photographic problems.  Yes, it's a simplistic approach, but it covers enough of the basics that you gain a sense of how to use Photoshop. 

The books (in different flavors for different version of PS) are well worth the money.