This is not my normal type of post. If you have no interest in photo editing software, feel free to walk on by.
I had Photoshop on my old dinosaur PC. When I switched to Mac last year, I didn't have the funds to add a new version of Photoshop, so I got by with Gimp. Gimp is pretty great, and very similar to Photoshop, but not the most user-friendly. (Hey, it's free though, so you won't hear me complaining.)
So when the time came that I did have the money for Photoshop, I grabbed it up as soon as I could. I also added Lightroom to the package, because an overwhelming number of photo editors I follow rave about it. (And for just $89 with the educational discount, I couldn't pass it up.)
And now, I am a full-fledged Lightroom convert. My first editing experience in Lightroom (LR) was a photo of my daughter jumping on my bed. She was backlit, and my settings were incorrect, so in the image, she was completely dark. I struggled for half an hour in Gimp to correct it (before I downloaded LR), but gave up and planned to try again in LR.
It took me all of 10 seconds to correct it in LR.
Before After
Still not perfect, of course. LR can't fix my setting and angle errors completely. If I had taken the photo in RAW, my outcome probably would have been better. But I was so impressed with the instant improvements (and that I could actually see the expression on her face!) that I wanted to shout from the rooftop my love for LR.
So, that was me, shouting from my internet rooftop. You may now return to your regularly scheduled crafting.
