Photoshop alternatives

Can anyone tell me what would be there next choice for photo editing. I know PS is the choice of most professionals, but what other software would be recommended for those who can't shell out the $700 for CS4.

You may want to look at Corel Paint Shop Pro X2. It is as close to PS as you can get without paying $700.00. You should be able to buy for about $80.00 or less. You can got to Corel's site and download a free trail copy.
MK

Try Adobe Elements, you can do almost every thing in it that you can in PS CS4, plus they often offer upgrades from it to PS CS4 for $299 or some thing like that. I think Adobe Elements is around 70-90 dollars

I agree with Lia's sugestion of Elements. All the 'typical' image processing tools are there and work in a very similar way to full Photoshop - so a lot of tutorials and processing instructions/advice will be easy to follow because the terminology and tools work in the same way.

I'd also endorse the use of Elements - pretty much does everything that I need to do post processing for a fraction of the cost of the full blown PS. My only complaint is Adobe's upgrade policy - having cut my teeth on Elements 4 only 18 months ago I've already upgraded twice to get to Elements 6. However this time I refuse to pay the asking price to move up to Elements 7 .............

Another vote for PS Elements.
Aside from the plethora of tutorials and books available to help you get started, you can migrate to the full version of PS for $299 in the future if you so desire.

You can also give Gimp a try. It's free and does alot of the samethings that you can do with PS

Picture Window Pro is pretty powerful - fairly intuitive, unless you are already familiar with the non-intuitive interface of PS. Lots of flexibility and great masking tools, etc. Work a look at $90.

I am very satisfied with PhotoShop Elements 5. The small amount missing from the "full blown" PhotoShop is stuff I would not use anyway. For $80, you cannot go wrong, and a lot of help is available on the web.

The one thing missing from Elements that is applicable to photographers is the ability to 'soft-proof'. If you count on being able to make your screen match your printer, you need to be able to soft proof: be able to view your image on screen through the same profile you are going to use to print. PS has this feature in all of the most recent versions. I don't know if Corel has it yet or not.

I have been using Photoshop Elements 6 until I changed my computer from a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit one and left myself with no choice but to upgrade to CS4. To be honest Photoshop Elements 6 did everything I needed it to do as I use Lightroom v2 as well!

So another vote for Elements! I believe v7 is avaiable as a 30-day trial if you what to give it a whirl! and see if its for you before buying!

If you think US prices are bad you should try UK prices as we pay a hell of a lot more for the same thing!

Another vote for GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). Very user friendly, does almost everything photoshop does, and it is free. Can't go wrong with it.

Before spending a cent, download the LR2 trial version and give it a try. You may be suprised at how powerful a photo editor it is, along with being an excellent databasing tool.

If you go the Elements route (which I recommend), be sure to get Elements and NOT Elements Premiere. The latter is for video editing.

For what it might be worth, until about a year ago, every image I had ever sold, either as prints or as rights, was edited on Elements 1 of 3.

Since we're voting javascript:%20x() I have both Paint Shop Pro X2 and Photoshop Elements and I vote for Paintshop over Elements hands down. Since you can download a free trial of both, why not try them and decide for yourself?

For pure photo editing, Picture Window Pro is still really hard to beat - and it has great color management.

For pure photo editing, Picture Window Pro is still really hard to beat - and it has great color management.