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Post by caseyrook AKA Mechelle on Aug 15, 2017 19:42:20 GMT
Anyone know any good Photoshop alternatives (besides the incredibly annoying to use GIMP)?
I'm mainly looking for software that you can download and is affordable.
It doesn't even have to be sophisticated, just complex enough to add/delete parts of an image and manipulate it.
NOTE: My problem with Photoshop is that I'd rather pay for it once a year instead of paying for it once a month.
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Post by backroadjunkie on Aug 15, 2017 20:36:29 GMT
Yeah, I hear you.
I own Create Suite 5, and haven't upgraded, since there wasn't a whole lot in CS6 that interested me, then they went subscription, so I haven't bothered to upgrade.
I'm not exactly sure what you want to do with it, but if Photoshop Elements can do what you desire, it might be the way to go.
If you *need* the features in Photoshop, you might want to see if you can buy an old license. (Not sure if you can transfer license, though.)
If you're going to school or are associated with a school, or know someone who's in that position, you might want to see if CS6 is still available via their edu program...
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Post by beren44 on Aug 16, 2017 0:16:13 GMT
Anyone know any good Photoshop alternatives (besides the incredibly annoying to use GIMP)? I'm mainly looking for software that you can download and is affordable. It doesn't even have to be sophisticated, just complex enough to add/delete parts of an image and manipulate it. NOTE: My problem with Photoshop is that I'd rather pay for it once a year instead of paying for it once a month. I'm curious why you find GIMP so annoying. Granted, it is a native UNIX program, so it has some small hiccups under Windows, and I presume Mac as well, but the help system is VERY comprehensive and useful, and can guide you through most any problem, or instruct you on what to do. It is an extremely powerful program. |
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Post by caseyrook AKA Mechelle on Aug 16, 2017 1:32:16 GMT
Anyone know any good Photoshop alternatives (besides the incredibly annoying to use GIMP)? I'm mainly looking for software that you can download and is affordable. It doesn't even have to be sophisticated, just complex enough to add/delete parts of an image and manipulate it. NOTE: My problem with Photoshop is that I'd rather pay for it once a year instead of paying for it once a month. I'm curious why you find GIMP so annoying. Granted, it is a native UNIX program, so it has some small hiccups under Windows, and I presume Mac as well, but the help system is VERY comprehensive and useful, and can guide you through most any problem, or instruct you on what to do. It is an extremely powerful program. I'll stick with GIMP if I can't find an alternative to the two. My main problem is that it's saturated with fatures and settings. Also, I'm having a hard time with learning with the tutorials because my brain is my brain. I learned Photoshop in high school Photography class. |
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Post by Hari Seldon on Aug 16, 2017 2:32:59 GMT
Just downloaded GIMP and agree it isn't very intuitive. However I was able to muddle through it and make a a crude poster. I'll post it in the poster thread.
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Post by beren44 on Aug 16, 2017 2:59:34 GMT
I guess I would totally agree with you all, if I had learned easier to use programs in the first place. I understand how GIMP could seem 'clunky' and too feature-laden. I guess I am lucky in that it is the first comprehensive photo editing software I learned, so I just muddled my way through it until I got used to it. Frequent use DOES make it easier, though, for what its worth.
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Post by Hari Seldon on Aug 16, 2017 3:21:50 GMT
I guess I would totally agree with you all, if I had learned easier to use programs in the first place. I understand how GIMP could seem 'clunky' and too feature-laden. I guess I am lucky in that it is the first comprehensive photo editing software I learned, so I just muddled my way through it until I got used to it. Frequent use DOES make it easier, though, for what its worth. I should bear in mind that you did say it was originally a UNIX program. I haven't done much with UNIX in the last 20+ years (I scripted and coded on the same system I used for the USENET boards). The layout of the features will probably eventually make more sense, but at present I'm not finding things where I would expect them to be. |
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Post by backroadjunkie on Aug 16, 2017 7:38:45 GMT
I guess I would totally agree with you all, if I had learned easier to use programs in the first place. I understand how GIMP could seem 'clunky' and too feature-laden. I guess I am lucky in that it is the first comprehensive photo editing software I learned, so I just muddled my way through it until I got used to it. Frequent use DOES make it easier, though, for what its worth. When I started editing (20+ years ago), it was Photoshop v4 vs. GIMP, and Photoshop was the FAAAAR superior product, and GIMP used to crash twice as often as Photoshop. (That means GIMP would crash every 10 minutes, instead of 20 on the Mac.  ) 10-15 years ago when Adobe started bundling their photo/video software, I looked at GIMP again, and again chose Adobe. With Creative Suite, and Photoshop's integration with Premier and Encore, it still wasn't a contest. Photo and Video editing (and DVD authoring when I used to do that) workflow still makes for the superior product, though I understand GIMP has gotten much better. |
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Post by beren44 on Aug 17, 2017 15:22:08 GMT
I guess I would totally agree with you all, if I had learned easier to use programs in the first place. I understand how GIMP could seem 'clunky' and too feature-laden. I guess I am lucky in that it is the first comprehensive photo editing software I learned, so I just muddled my way through it until I got used to it. Frequent use DOES make it easier, though, for what its worth. When I started editing (20+ years ago), it was Photoshop v4 vs. GIMP, and Photoshop was the FAAAAR superior product, and GIMP used to crash twice as often as Photoshop. (That means GIMP would crash every 10 minutes, instead of 20 on the Mac. ) 10-15 years ago when Adobe started bundling their photo/video software, I looked at GIMP again, and again chose Adobe. With Creative Suite, and Photoshop's integration with Premier and Encore, it still wasn't a contest. Photo and Video editing (and DVD authoring when I used to do that) workflow still makes for the superior product, though I understand GIMP has gotten much better. yeah, I'm sure the other products have better workflow for serious editing, especially video. The thing about GIMP is, it is sort of a cross between photoshop, and Corel Draw. It has some super features for creating original artwork. It uses both vector-based and raster-based algorithms, which is kind of unique, at least to the best of my limited knowledge. I am certainly no expert. I agree its biggest drawback is not finding things under the menus you expect them to be, and just the sheer NUMBER of effects, filters, etc. Still, for single photo editing, I got pretty proficient with it. LOL, it only took me a solid year of self tutoring. When I find time, I will post some examples. I have been using it for around 8 years on a PC under Windows, and apparently they must have gotten some bugs worked out, because it very rarely crashes on me. And when it does, if you work in its native file format, and export when you are ready, to a JPG, GIF, PNG, etc, but save the work in GIMP format (XCF), anytime you open the file you can step back through every change you have ever made to it, even if it was years ago. It has an unlimited history buffer of editing moves. I am curious if photoshop or other programs allow that feature. It has saved my butt on a few occasions. |
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Post by backroadjunkie on Aug 18, 2017 10:05:50 GMT
yeah, I'm sure the other products have better workflow for serious editing, especially video. The thing about GIMP is, it is sort of a cross between photoshop, and Corel Draw. It has some super features for creating original artwork. It uses both vector-based and raster-based algorithms, which is kind of unique, at least to the best of my limited knowledge. For drawing/artwork, that's the domain for Adobe Illustrator. (Part of the CS bundle.) Photoshop was meant for image manipulation, Illustrator for creating artwork. (Though both overlap, they are not the same thing.) That could be why GIMP seems so... crowded. That was years ago. Today, no piece of software should crash, and even if it does, it shouldn't take the OS with it. (Back in the bad ol' days of unprotected memory, no program was safe.) I don't think I've had Photoshop crash on me in years, and I do some pretty serious memory intensive stuff in it. Premier, on the other hand, can crash on me after hard use. (There might be a memory leak in there someplace. It is quite impressive when I get all 8 CPU cores cranked up to 100%, though.  All the programs I extensive use (photoshop, premier, sometime illustrator and encore) all have a history, but only for the current session. The amount of steps is a user settable parameter. (1000 steps in Photoshop, I generally keep it at 25 so my memory doesn't get eaten alive. Generally I've found if I have to go back that far, I'm better off restarting at my last save point.) One of the things to keep in mind about the open source guys, is they generally react to the program they're trying to emulate. There has been some innovation in some programs, but generally the features in the GNU suites are already in their commercial software counterparts. Don't get me wrong. I still use a lot of open source software, (Filezilla, Thunderbird, Firefox, Notepad++), but for things like imaging and media creation, it's Adobe all the way for me... |
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Post by caseyrook AKA Mechelle on Aug 18, 2017 21:37:20 GMT
In case anyone's interested:
I gave up on GIMP. I sat at my desk and TRIED but it defeated me like most first person shooter video games. I don't understand the instructions, in regards to the different features and settings and the meaning of the words.
I bought a subscription to Creative Cloud Student for $10 a month. If I need to i'll end it to save my money.
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Post by backroadjunkie on Aug 19, 2017 22:41:46 GMT
In case anyone's interested: I gave up on GIMP. I sat at my desk and TRIED but it defeated me like most first person shooter video games. I don't understand the instructions, in regards to the different features and settings and the meaning of the words. I bought a subscription to Creative Cloud Student for $10 a month. If I need to i'll end it to save my money. Are you sure Photoshop Elements doesn't do what you want? (You can get a free trial on Adobe's site.) There are sometime pretty darn good deals for Elements on Amazon. It's even came bundled with scanners I've bought. |
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Post by caseyrook AKA Mechelle on Aug 20, 2017 1:00:43 GMT
In case anyone's interested: I gave up on GIMP. I sat at my desk and TRIED but it defeated me like most first person shooter video games. I don't understand the instructions, in regards to the different features and settings and the meaning of the words. I bought a subscription to Creative Cloud Student for $10 a month. If I need to i'll end it to save my money. Are you sure Photoshop Elements doesn't do what you want? (You can get a free trial on Adobe's site.) There are sometime pretty darn good deals for Elements on Amazon. It's even came bundled with scanners I've bought. Honestly I don't understand the difference between all of the different Photoshop options. I just bought the cheapest option I saw after clicking on the 'Students and Teachers' tab on the Adobe website.. I have Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom. |
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Post by backroadjunkie on Aug 25, 2017 17:33:47 GMT
Are you sure Photoshop Elements doesn't do what you want? (You can get a free trial on Adobe's site.) There are sometime pretty darn good deals for Elements on Amazon. It's even came bundled with scanners I've bought. Honestly I don't understand the difference between all of the different Photoshop options. I just bought the cheapest option I saw after clicking on the 'Students and Teachers' tab on the Adobe website.. I have Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom. Photoshop Elements is sorta akin to a Photoshop light. Doesn't have all the features, but doesn't cost what Photoshop does, either. (It's generally about $60 on Amazon, but goes as high as $80 and as low as $40...) It's a product you actually buy and own, not rent. As I said, Adobe has a trial you can try to see if it fits your needs, so it doesn't cost anything to try it out. (On the other hand, I understand Lightroom is a very useful tool. I've never used it, I've got a lifetime license to Thumbs Plus, so have used that product...) |
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