My patience for my imaging software has finally hit the wall. It has crashed one too many times. I am looking for advice in upgrading to an imaging program that is quick and allows me to present clean and professional proposals. I have looked in the archives here and haven’t found any useful feedback on cdplants.com’s products (except to go buy it. I want to know details from folks who use it!). The cost is close to the cost of Adobe’s Photoshop (I already have a bank of plant images that I have made over the years in my computer). So, any advice out there? Would Adobe Photo Business Deluxe do the same thing without all the bells and whistles of Photoshop? Thanks in advance.

I actually use two programs for my digital imaging.

I switched to Adobe photoshop about 9 months ago and now use that for most of my designs. The drawbacks are that it is kind of a pain to learn and it’s expensive.

If I’m doing a "quicky" I go back to the old migrofix picture publisher that came with cd plants. I think that this is partially due to being so comfortable with it.

I would say that for most purposes you would be fine with the bare bones package.

Unless you are really into digital photography or are obsessed with doing high end images I would save your money.

After doing proposals with both programs I can say for sure that the customers won’t be able to tell the difference!

JK

You might try Paint Shop Pro. Now part of the Corel Software family, it is easy to use, inexpensive, and has many great PhotoShop features. You can download a 30-day fully-functional trial version. Price is $99.

You’ll find it at:
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pfid=1047024307383

Tim

Firstly don’t purchase Adobe Photo Business Deluxe. Adobe no longer supports this program. The substitute would be Photoshop Elements,and $100.00,although I have seen it for as low as $60.00. (Try Costco) Adobe Photoshop is definitely the best, however lots of bells and whistles that you will never use and a very steep learning curve.

The images you receive with CDplants (plants and containers) will far surpass any that you have gathered over the years. If there is any chance of attending TPIE this next week, do so and see how CDPlants actually works yourself. I do not believe anyone who has invested in this program has anything bad to say about it. CDplants shares our booth every year at CalScape, and believe me there is never one tine during the five hours of show time that there is not a line of interiorscapers waiting to see just how the program works. They do more talking and demonstrating at that show than any of the other vendors with booths.
Rick W.

I use a spread sheet template (excel)for the written part and simply attach a colour copy of the basic interiorscape plant list brochure. The nice part is that the light requirements are listed so they don’t go begging for Cactus in a dark room etc..

Rolande

Why not try using Microsoft PowerPoint for your presentations? You can save the slideshow to a CD and give it to the client for viewing on their computer. It’s easy to learn, allows you to put your "before" and "after" virtual compositions in a dramatic, animated presentation program with special effects, backgrounds, layouts and even music if you like. This works well for sending presentations to faraway home office staff for review and approval and is VERRRY impressive and professional in the image it confers upon your company.

The software gives you the ability to e-mail, burn to CD, run as a slideshow on a computer screen for an audience of one or projected on a whitescreen in a conference room full of people, whatever works for you and the prospect. It is easily edited, can contain digital images, text (such as price quotes), etc., and most high school kids use it for their school projects nowadays. Give one a few bucks and watch ’em go, if you’re not into doing it yourself.

Clem