[Lance2000]

Don’t know if this has been posted before but anyone got any suggestions on the best video and photo editing tool. Just want smoothing nice and easy to use with good results. I have been looking at the Adobe systems but new to all this so would like some help in choosing.

[MarkE19]

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 is highly recommended for digital photos as is Adobe Premiere Elements 2 for video editing.

If you search this part of the forum for 'Premiere Elements' you should find loads of advice and comments on it. If you go into the photographic section of the forum and search for 'Photoshop Elements' then that will do the same.

Good luck,
Mark.

[senu]

It depends on what you consider easy.They are all learnable .However I find that Premiere Elements compared to Premiere is easy but amongst its own peers is less so. More features mean more of RTFM
There are several favourites at the sub £100 level (Sony Vegas Movie Studio+ DVD is one of my favourites) dotted in thse forums.
For Photo Editing Photoshop Elements4 is easy to use but has enough under the bonnet to not make you outgrow it in a short period. I use it in addition to the full Photoshop.
All the programs require some time investment but Mark is spot on when he says there is no shortage of help

PS; If you like the sound of Adobe Premiere Elements2 and or Photoshop Elements4 there is a "bundle" which can save you up to £20 off the cost of each . Indeed ,at the Xmas PC World sale I got the bundle for £75 ( normally £99) as a present for my niece.
Each normally goes for £59.99.

Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements are both good software, but ohhh sooo sluggish to run unless one has a really powerful PC. With somewhat older computers and less memory like 256 or 512Mb, I would highly recommend Magix's Movie Edit Pro. Not only is it easy to start with for beginners, but you also have all the tools you can think of. Better still; - everything is real time until you want to transfer it to tape, but more important is that you see right away what you do with any effect, title, audio edits etc. And - it's got a very good built-in DVD burning program, too, with lots of menu choices and either auto or manual chaptering for DVD's. All integrated, and for a mere 50 quid. For audio editing it's superb, too, with reverbator, equaliser and much more.

I've used an older version from 2004 a lot as well as the 2005 version, both for photos to make slide shows and video editing, and as a media teacher I am able to compare ME Pro to Adobe's full version Premiere 6.5 which is OK, but does less than ME Pro.

The software comes as an e-version for download from the net or delievered on cd's. Once you have registered your CD product online, you are entitled to another copy of the program cd as a backup.
Kaare Nilsen
Norway

Originally Posted by MarkE19

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 is highly recommended for digital photos as is Adobe Premiere Elements 2 for video editing.

If you search this part of the forum for 'Premiere Elements' you should find loads of advice and comments on it. If you go into the photographic section of the forum and search for 'Photoshop Elements' then that will do the same.

Good luck,
Mark.

[senu]

True kaare,... ..
APE2 requires at least a P4 ( sse) and more than 512m of ram.

The Sony Vegas Movie Studio+DVD costs about £70 and will run on a 800mhz system with 256m ram. It runs well and should the need for something more substantial arise One can move up to Sony Vegas itself which shares the same GUI

The reason for mentioning Premiere( elements) is that the original poster also mentioned the need for photo editing and Photoshop Elements does complement Premiere Elements.
Im not sure how slow the Photoshop elements is as I have both Versions 3 and 4 ( as well as Photoshop CS2) on the same machine on different instances of windows xp on a multi boot system. It does have a P4 3.0g spec with 1 g of ram but it is now almost 3 years old! ( Approaching retirement ??:not quite)
Niether program is slow on that system. The other is a fast(er) AMD64 3800 fx system with 1.5g ram It is fairly more youthful!

Where possible , it pays to get a system with the most grunt one can reasonably afford as even if one far exceeds the minimum specs it makes for a fluid smooth experience while editing ( either photo or video)

PS: Magix should give you a commision
In past threads relating to software for begginers it as always come up as one on the favourites but magixs marketing seems weak and people pass it as if it isnt a seriously usable sofware

[Lance2000]

Just like to thank you all for the help !!
I ended up getting Photoshop CS2, finding ok although some parts are quite complex, but think that is just due to me being new to the program, I can see this subsiding over time and a little more practice.

Reg

[senu]

....congratulations.
You can use the software simply by practising and finding stuff out daily. You could pose questions on the forums or get magazines such as "Digital Photo" which feature cd rom based tutorials . There is often more than one way to achieve a certain effect.

Clearly though, there are some things youll never find by trial and error ,( so complex is the software)
Far better than trying to reinvent the wheel , you would save yourself a lot of man hours by getting a book ( i recommend the photoshop cs2 book for digital photographers by Scott Kelby)
One weekend with it will move you from newbee to one notch up in no time.
As it happens Photoshop is detailed enough to enable Some folk make a living simply by teaching others how to use it! Just depends how far you want to go with it

All the best.. I take it the video editing software is yet to be decided.
PS: Scott Kelby doesnt give me a commision He simply knows his stuff and writes good books