Is PhotoShop really worth $650?

[GameDork]

Like the topic says..........

Or is elements just as good?

Or whats a good alternative?

[maraxle]

If you're going to need the advanced features, then yes, PhotoShop is worth the $650.  If you're going to do the stuff that 90% of people out there do, Elements should be good enough.  I'm sure there's a document on Adobe's site that details the exact differences between them.

[mahuti]

For a professional, absolutely.

For the average user, maybe not.

I used elements on my Mother-In-Law's computer one time... for the average stuff it worked.

Elements is missing the following intermediate functions which I use in creating & correcting arcade related stuff all the time.

Curves, Channel Mixer, Color Balance, CMYK, channels, Vector Pen Tool, Action recording (for repetitive tasks) Layer Masks (A MUST HAVE), Text on a path

for web production; Image slicing

For some of those, there are workarounds, and plug-ins & effects people have created to "cheat"

For me the biggest loss is Layer Masks. I use them in almost every file I have with photoshop. Instead of erasing portions of an image, you can mask them out, and change the mask to suit, rather than having to keep pasting (or storing a backup image on another layer) the image in if you screw up, change your mind, etc. Not being able to use CMYK or LAB color spaces sucks, too.

From what I hear, though, people unfamiliar with either, are initially happier with elements (for the price and ease of use) and won't miss the high-end features.

I may be off on a few of my features... anybody else that has access to Elements might want to chime in.

[SpamMe]

http://www.gimp.org/
Certainly worth looking into, price is right, what have you got to lose?

[maraxle]

http://www.gimp.org/
Certainly worth looking into, price is right, what have you got to lose?

As much as I have tried to like GIMP, I just can't recommend it.  Maybe 2.0 is better, but 1.x had an awful user interface.  Technically, yes, it can do a lot of what PS can do, but the interface (at least in 1.x) looked and acted like it was designed by programmers for programmers.  Clunky, ugly, hard to navigate, but every option was buried there somewhere.  Like I said though, I haven't tried that new 2.0 version, so that could be completely fixed by now.

[patrickl]

I have always been a fan of Paint Shop Pro. Even though I have Adobe Photoshop, I still sometimes use Paint Shop. PhotoShop is better for collorcorrection stuff and editing pictures. PaintShop is better for straightening out pictures (for then vectorizing the artwork), for saving image files (much more control over the jpeg parameters) and I love the browse directory function of PaintShop. But I guess I could have bought some plug-ins for Photoshop to do the same. I now use both programs on a regular basis though.

[Harakiri]

Nop, get the copy!

[Radical]

The Gimp is free and fine for most people and even some professionals.  You didn't say whether this was for home/fun or professional use. (?)

As of version 2.0 which just came out recently The Gimp is officially supported on Windows.  Gimp 2 has a vastly improved interface compared to the old version.  If you have not spent a lot of time in Photoshop then you won't have (m)any problems with the interface.  I learned on The Gimp before Photoshop and I have to say I like The Gimp better.     However, in my honest opionion I think both interfaces suck to some degree (not enough context sensitive menus).

I use The Gimp almost every day and highly recommend it unless you have some specific requirement for Photoshop.   I have to admit that I have not used it much under Windows.  I've always mostly used Linux so I can't comment on how well it works on Windows currently.

A lot of skills and techniques you learn in The Gimp are very similar to Photoshop and vice versa because the interfaces are somewhat similar.

It's free so you can try it out without commiting to anything.  If it does what you need then you're all set.

... but if this is for a professional deal then all bets are off, I'd go with Photoshop and then use both of them.

[SNAAAKE]

Ya can always use paintshop,I use it all the time and I do pretty much everything I EVER need to do with paintshop 7.I have photoshop too but paintshop works just fine.

[hulkster]

i dont know dude, spending $650 on software is absolutely rediculous unless you are going to be making money doing stuff in it.  i mean, if i was really good with photoshop, and i knew i could make money, then yeah, it would be worth it, but to just spend that much money (overpriced by about 500 bucks in my opinion) on a few cds???!?!??!  thats crazy.  i know its illegal, but if you just want to play with it, go get somebody elses copy and install it.  no thats not what i did, i dont even have photoshop but its a suggestion.  just depends on what you want it for.

[zaphod]

If you have a specific project you need to use it for, the 30-day trial is a nice, legal way to use it.  I can't count the number of different products I did that with when finishing my grad degree.

Paintshop gets me by in most cases.
 

[Lilwolf]

Home users -

Gimp - you can do a TON... but yet.. not as easy..  But try it!  nothing to loose!

PaintShopPro - Great app.  Does a lot!

Photoshop - Get a slightly old version... you can get them fro about 50-80 last I looked.  Does a great job.

Photoshops main advantage is the plugins.  But each of these you also have to purchase...  

Anyway... photoshop is a TON of money... And you can get almost that good for MUCH less... to free.