Do you really NEED Photoshop?

[David R Munson]

Yes. I feel I need PhotoShop in all its glory. Could I do solid work without it? Well yeah. But I value the tools it provides as well as the time it saves over other working methods enough that I wouldn't want to be without it.

[Bill_1856]

I have PS7 on the Mac, and PS Elements on the PC. I find myself using only PS Elements, but perhaps after 50 years in a real darkroom I know exactly what needs doing.

[Darin Cozine]

I'vw been a long time GIMP user. It does everything I need it to do and more. However it looks like wingimp.org is now selling the software, which really makes it a pain to get the latest version. (you would have to download the source and compile it)

[Chad Jarvis]

Remarkably no one needed it for the first 150 years of photography.

[Bob._3483]

This question can be answered by completing the following questionnaire:

1) Are you a professional who has to deliver on budget and on time to put food on your table?

2) Are you a financially well endowed amateur?

3) Do you know how to obtain knock-off (warez) versions of Photoshop?

.

If your answer to all the above is "No" then PS Elements (or a different program altogether) will do you just fine...

If your answer to any of the above is "Yes", then by all means go for it (except in the case of the 3rd question of course, which would be totally wrong and really naughty and entirely reprehensible and quite illegal and possibly send you to hell for eternity (there - I think that's my get-out clause covered))....

Cheers,

[Ole Tjugen]

I have tried the full PS thingie - and didn't find it worth the exorbitant price. So I now use PaintShop Pro instead - at a fraction of the price it has all the functions I need. It's also significantly faster...

For things like resizing and making pics for the web, I use Irfanview. On the usability/cost scale, it is infinitely better than PS!

[Ralph Barker]

I think the humanities analogy Bob Moulton mentioned is a good one. It is entirely possible, for example, to write a novel using a vocabulary of say 150 words - English-Lite, you might say. Having the entire dictionary at one's disposal, however, is probably a real benefit. Then, it's a question of whether to use a pocket Webster, or the Oxford unabridged.

[Max Wendt]

Photoshop Elements is really quite good - MUCH better than the previous "LE" versions (and light-years beyond PhotoDeluxe). If you're able to do what you need, then don't worry about it.

Yeah, 16 bit is pretty awesome, but it wasn't even until the most recent version of Photoshop that the support was full enough to be completely useful (yes, I know it was useable enough in the previous version, but still very limited).

<soapbox> And not to get too "fire and brimstone" on you Bob, but there's no get-out clause that covers even mentioning 'warez' software. Aside from the fact that it's often broken and barely functional, it's stealing. Sorry. There are many, many ways to get a huge discount on software (educational, church, etc...). </soapbox>

[Tony Galt]

I have used PhotoShop at work, but at home I use an excellent program called Picture Window Pro produced by Digital Light and Color (do a Google on that name and you'll find their website). This is a very sophisticated program designed strictly for photography and not general graphics like PhotoShop. I have found nothing that I need to do with 4x5 or with digital camera files that I would require PhotoShop to do. Picture Window Pro costs about $99 and has gone through a number of versions which have improved it over time and added useful features. It was designed and programmed by the fellow that invented Lotus 123, one of the early spreadsheet programs. He is also an amateur photographer. The website included a number of white papers he has produced to guide users through the program's features and there is also a discussion forumn. Particularly, it has sophisticated sharpening, masking and image cloning tools.

[Leonard Evens]

Darin,

Wingimp.org certainly has the right to sell the Windows version of the Gimp for any price it can get, and perhaps their offer is a reasonable deal given that they provide a service. The prices do seem to be a bit high to me. But unless they are violating the GPL, it should be perfectly legal for anyone else to buy their distribution and then offer to give it away or sell it for less. I would be surprised if someone hasn't already done it. A brief search of the web suggests I'm right.

Of course, it you use Linux, you don't have to worry about such matters. I've always felt I should buy Linux distributions from time to time to suppose those companies which distribute it, and I think people should make contributions to gimp.org, which can be made through their website. But you don't have to keep paying through the nose for every little update.