Photoshop and Gimp

[Aperture Nine]

Originally Posted by Jamesc359

All is cool here. I hope this hasn't caused any hard feelings.

Good luck with the water droplets, don't get your camera wet.

Oh no, no hard feelings. Thanks, my camera made it, but me... cold and wet!

Take care

[PhotogMom]

Good info here...I think I am going to delve into learning GIMP...I mean it's free and I am by far a PRO at photo processing. Sounds like it will do what I need, I just need to do some reading and watching these tutorials.

[oldwolf]

*throws his two cents into this battle...errr....discussion*

I use Paintshop Pro X2. I've used it since the early days in Windows 3.1. It serves my purposes fine. I've also used the GIMP and have even bought books for it. The GIMP would work fine too if I spent more time using it.

If you're looking for a GIMP alternative that looks sorta kinda like Photoshop have you thought about GIMPShop? It's the GIMP but with modifications to make it look/feel a little like Photoshop. It was started by the person that owns the plastic bugs blog. Here's a link to the GIMPShop page where you can download it and find some tutorials.

http://www.gimpshop.com/index.shtml

In my personal opinion it comes down to the eye that captures the picture and the eye that modifies it. Use what you're comfortable with. *shrug*

Good luck with the GIMP.

[Jsqrd34]

If you do want to try out PhotoShop for a cheaper price, you can try PhotoShop Elements 5.0. You can go for the older versions of it. It doesn't give you all the latest effects available on the CS3, but it will give you a feel for it. You can even get the CD to download on your computer off of ebay for around $40. I have PhotoShop Elements 5.0. and it has worked good for me. I have not gotten into major editing just simple things, but just a thought.

[chins]

For general photogrpahy I would avoid using advanced editing tools like Gimp/Photoshop. If you are into such editing work its a different deal.
I have had my hands on Gimp and Photoshop. Photshop is abviously very powerful and more intutive than Gimp. But never the less, for a newbie, Gimp should fullfil most of the needs.

[ditch_azeroth]

there's a fine line between photography and graphic design. i know, i know. saying this is tantamount to opening a can of worms, but for me, IMHO, one should decide: do you want to be a good photographer or a good graphic artist? for me, i use photoshop to further enhance pictures and/or compensate for a weak sensor and lens in my camera. other people may disagree, but hey, that's just two cents from a poor bloke/broke like me. lol

[rodrigo]

My rule of thumb: if you are not sure whether you need Photoshop or not, you probably don't.

I would recommend trying The Gimp first, you will finds tons of resources to help you out (I particularly like the video tutorials at meetthegimp.org). Then, if ever come the day that you say "OK, I've mastered this thing and I need something more powerful", or "I need specifically this functionality from Photoshop and it is impossible to do it with the Gimp" it might be the day to spend big money on Photoshop CS3.

[JMBull]

I am fairly new but I have been using Gimp for a few years now. I am not very good yet but I am on the gimp group on flickr and they are a lot of help. I would someday like to try Photoshop but I have other things like new lenses and things like that, that I want to spend my money on. Gimp is free and I agree with the others here try it and use it and maybe someday get what you really want. Good luck.

[drec]

has anyone tried cinepaint? http://www.cinepaint.org/ doesn't work on windows but is free and supports 8,16 and 32 bit colour channels for those who want more than gimp's 8