Can anyone tell me what wold be the best program for restoring my old photos? I'm new to this and very much need some input on it. Thanks for any help you can offer.

Sharon Lee

Hi Sharon, welcome to RetouchPro!

I've been using versions of Photoshop Elements for over two years. So far, I've found I am limited only by my own experience as far as being able to restore photos. Elements is more economical than the full Photoshop program but still has most of the same functions.

I've also been able to follow most of the restorations and tutorials posted here even though they were done in Photoshop.

If cost is a factor, I highly recommend Photoshop Elements 4.

MaryLynn

A great many members here use Photoshop, because of the flexibility it affords. However, it has to be said it is not the most intuitive programme to use, and it does come at a price.

At the lower cost end, both Elements, and Paintshop Pro are excellent programmes, and will certainly serve you well for your Restoration needs.

Many of our members use these programmes, and the results they get with them speak volumes for how effective they are.

As in all things, it's the skill of the user that will determine the quality of the output. This comes with patience. instruction and practice, but anyone here will be glad to help you with everything but the patience (that has to come from you I'm afraid).

Good luck with your restorations.

Gary

Gary is right about patience, instruction, and practice. I'm having fairly good luck with "basic" things in PhotoShop Elements 3.0 - enough to consider an upgrade to 4.0. However, I'm a past user of Paint Shop Pro version 6, which qualifies me for a relatively cheap upgrade to Paint Shop Pro X (now part of the COREL product line).

If I asked for a comparison of these two products, I rather imagine it would be a near 50-50 split.

I think the BIG DIFFERENCE, whatever program you select (the three mentioned in this thread seem to be the primary ones) you will simply need to get in and learn what it can do...levels, masks, curves, vectors, and all the rest (I still don't understand what all the programs can do).

Good luck.

As important as software is, I would also recommend you buy a copy of Katrin Eismann's "Restoration & Retouching". It is designed for Photoshop but the techniques work in Elements and Paint Shop Pro as well as any software supporting layers. It is the "bible" on retouching.

take a look at Konvertor, a very capable one: www.konvertor.net

I'm a big fan of Photoshop but I know a couple of people who swear by the GIMP (which is free). Here's where you can get it: The GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/)