Image Editors

Can anyone recommend any image editing software. I currently use Photoshop CS4 but the cost of upgrading Photoshop is getting a bit expensive and I'd like to get out of the cycle. I currently use ACDSee as my DAM software but quite honestly don't like the included editor at all.
I've tried a few others although the exact names of them escape me at the moment.
Does anyone use anything that they actually like and actually works other than photoshop, I'd love to see what else is out there.

Thanks
Carson

Lightroom.

Carson,

If CS4 is working for you you could use it until Adobe no longer supports it and then obtain a lower cost editor.

I'm not up on the latest PS alternatives, so others will have to chime in.

--P

Lightroom is what I use Carson. I rarely need to go into CS3 to do what I need done. I am a family, senior portraits and wedding photographer as well as commercial product. Works better than PS for most photographers. The upgrades do get expensive!

I plan on using CS4 for now, just want to stay ahead of the curve for once, I'm usually way behind.
I will take a look at the lightroom demo, the price does seem to be a bit more in line with reality.

Thanks
Carson

I'm in the process of downloading lightroom at the moment but will also take a look at PS Elements. I guess the first question that comes to mind is do either or both of these programs support cloneing and healing?

If you use a mac Apple's Aperture is great. When you just have to have photoshop for something Elements will do it.

For better or worse, usually worse I'm on windoze. I'll really prefer linux however for the next couple of months I'm still working for a living and need windows for that reason

Hey Carson, I've always been happy with the Elements program, and I've added Nik Software Viveza which is awsome for pinpoint accuracy for color and exposure control. Easy to use both these programs.

OK, initial impressions. I've downloaded and looked at lightroom, and I will give it a month, but my initial impression are not very good. I don't find the UI as intuitive as CS4 and I don't like having to import files to work on them. Also I use and like ACDSee as my DAM application and don't want to move all of that work and effort into lightroom, ACSSee is much easier to use and much more intuitive than lightroom IMHO.
I'm a believer in the axiom if you need to read the manual it ain't worth it , and I rarely look at a CS4 manual except for specific instances.
At any rate I will give lightroom a shot but I am still looking for an alternative so please keep the responses coming.

Just as an aside, Jeffery, do you used lightroom as your DAM app as well? Feel free to email me if you'd rather, carson@carsonwilcox.com

Thanks
Carson

http://www.gimp.org/

http://www.dl-c.com/

Thanks Phillip, I did try gimp a long time ago and found it very lacking. At this point I've removed linux from all of my pc's to free up space, it just wasn't moving fast enough which is really a shame, it is so much better in so many ways than windows, just didn't meet my current needs.

Photoshop's Bridge and Camera Raw features are essentially what Lightroom is all about. Then Photoshop proper goes way beyond that. Stick with Photoshop it's the king, and don't upgrade if you don't want to. Just learn and use the features you are comfortable with and add new ones as your needs progress. You will get frustrated with Elements eventually if that's your only option. Of course you could use both programs, PS and Elements in tandem. Also, there are no upgrades to Elements. You have to buy the full program all the time.

Richard,
I'm downloading elements right now, but I'm getting the feeling you are right and I'll need to stick with Photoshop, while it's true that there are a lot of tools in there that I'll never use there just doesn't seem to be anything to replace it with. So far I really don't like the lightroom UI at all just seems overly obtuse and unusable to me, maybe I'm just getting old and don't adapt well, not really sure what it is.

Phillip

I just gave gimpshop a shot, but it still seems a bit primitive from my perspective, I really am sorry to say. I have been a Unix software engineer for many years but these days I am working at being a photographer and I want my tools to work for me not the other way around. I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just that I want a tool to work with out me spending a lot of time on the tool itself to get it to do what I need it to do.

Thanks
Carson

I'll add a plug for Lightroom. I use 2.6 (haven't checked the beta version of 3.0 yet) and while it takes a little time to get the hang of the UI, that's true with anything, and must have been true for Photoshop.

The good things about Lightroom:
1. Does what Bridge and Camera Raw do
2. Works with Windows folders (create a folder in LR and it shows up in Windows Pictures folder)
3. While you do have to import photos to work with them, I just import ALL from my camera directly and work with them there. I hardly ever go to Windows, and I flip between a Library mode and Develop mode easily.
4. Allows you to clone and heal, use gradient filters, adjust exposure, clarity, saturation, sharpness globally and locally using the adjustment brush and the gradient filter; has a tone curve tool with training wheels; allows global hue, saturation adjustments finely tuned by the colors in the photo (a tool lets you increase saturation of a yellowy orangeish brown simply by draggin up or down in that color in the image); also has some special effects, etc.


Bad things about LR:
1. It doesn't do very well with the adjustment brush unless you are very careful with opacity setting
2. No way to do layers and masks (I use Nik for that on those few photos that really demand more than LR can do)
3. It isn't photoshop (but I don't know what I'm missing there

Thanks Marylynne, that really was a great response and helped me decide.

I'm going to stick with photoshop, I don't use camera raw as I convert all raw images to dng before processing and use ACDSee as my DAM app so I don't use bridge either. So from that standpoint I guess the learning curve for lightroom doesn't gain me very much if anything.

Carson

I just gave gimpshop a shot

Did you look at Picture Window Pro? http://www.dl-c.com/
It looks pretty capable and a lot cheaper than PS!

I have a trial copy of Picture Window Pro, but so far I don't think it will be a keeper