Free online digital slr tips, photography tutorials, camera techniques.   In addition to the plethora of cameras and accessories out there, there is also a dizzying array of software options to choose from. Some of these programs can be free, while others will set you back hundreds of dollars. Because there are so many different options, I'm providing this guide to hopefully help you decide what software options out there are good for your own purposes. Get Only What You Need Often times, someone will spend a ton of money on a camera and feel that he or she will need some expensive software to go with it. Unfortunately, this almost always leads to a large waste of money. For a lot of common tasks, there is free software out there that will perform faster and be much easier to use than some of the more expensive programs. The best way to start if you are absolutely unsure of what you need is to start with free software like Picasa and then upgrade only if you begin to desire more features. Summary: Start with free software and buy something only when you feel you absolutely need it. Free Software Free software is awesome precisely because its free. However, there is a lot of free stuff out there that, to put it blatantly, just sucks. I have two recommendations. The first one is a an amazing piece of photo management and editing software called Picasa. This software is the best free software for doing quick one-click edits on your photos; it also includes a number of fun filters and image enhancement options. I highly recommend downloading it to get started. Another fantastic piece of free software is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). However, understand that GIMP is a much more advanced piece of software and is not for quick easy edits. Also, editing multiple photos is much slower than in Picasa. Summary: Picasa is the best software for absolute beginners. Photoshop vs Lightroom Well, now on to the big boys. So you've decided that you've outgrown the free software and need something more powerful. Well, there's a lot of programs out there, but the clear market leader is Adobe. Adobe has two programs that can be used for photo editing: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. A lot of people ask me what the difference between the two is. To put it simply, Lightroom geared towards photographers in that it is designed in such a way as to minimize editing time for a large number of photos. Lightroom allows the user to create preset photo edits that can be applied to a number of photos at once. All edits are non-destructive, so the originals are always kept. On the other hand, Photoshop is geared more towards graphic designers and is more for editing one image at a time. With Photoshop, you have a dizzying array of tools at your disposal to create the ultimte image. Summary: Lightroom is more geared towards photographers. Point and Shoot | Digital SLR | Post Processing | Buyer's Guide | Links Back to Main Digital camera help, tips on digital cameras, and camera techniques. Canon Powershot camera help and Nikon digital camera tips. Canon SLR and Canon camera tutorials. Nikon SLR, Panasonic, Casio, and Pentax digital camera technique. All content on these pages are Copyright 2007-2011 Yu Jiang Tham. No content from this website may be used or duplicated without express permission from the owner. Please email support@facethelight.com for more information. FaceTheLight.com is part of The Happywalrus Network - Get Free Stuff and Make Money!