Playing with the idea of going with Photoshop instead of Paintshop Pro I'm using now. So if there are some people using or knowing both try to convince me to use Photoshop in the future
Thanks
Interesting question Jos! I'm not a user of Paintshop because at least early on it wasn't available for Mac. However I began using Photoshop in my job in 1992 and played with it for several years before that. Perhaps these questions will be important to your thoughts:
1. Where is Photoshop headed?
2. Are there reasons to wait longer before deciding?
1. In my experience Photoshop was not initially intended for photographers, rather it was for graphic artists. Only a very small part of the large and expensive program was useful to photographers at first, and only minor changes have been made to change that since 1994. Many more useful tools have been added, but it is still not a program aimed at photographers.
2. I think there are reasons to wait before deciding to buy Photoshop. Lots of other programs (including Lightroom from Adobe themselves) are emerging in the wings as replacements. Lightroom is hailed by those familiar with it as an attempt at a fresh start by Adobe, a departure from Photoshop that attempts to better integrate contemporary photographers' needs including RAW formats, digital file organization and retrieval, and much more into a central photo processing program related to, but different than Photoshop. A second beta version is available online from Adobe for download and testing, but to my knowledge it's not for PC's yet. Luminous Landscape has an introductory article and tutorial on the first beta and a frequently updated article on the second beta, as well as a forum for users. Adobe has their own forum for users/testers of the beta, and it's my impression that there is a lot of crossbreeding between the two.
I have not downloaded the betas yet because I'm on a very slow dialup connection. However I have seen enough to convince me that it's best to research Lightroom and wait till it is released before choosing between it and Photoshop. If it lives up to expectations, I think it will make Photoshop obsolete for my needs. You ought to check the links I provided and begin your own research before deciding to buy Photoshop.
Like John Christopher I used PSP (up to version 9) for a lot of years before switching to Photoshop. I still use both, depending on what I'm doing. If I'm creating an image from scratch (which I do fairly often) I'm more likely to use PSP -- partly because I know what I'm doing with it, partly because it is easier to do many of the drawing type functions that I want to do. (I teach math and draw a lot of diagrams -- also create titles and backgrounds for a digital yearbook I do with my technology club at school.)
However, if I'm doing photographic work I almost always use Photoshop now. (Although I like the noise reduction routine on PSP.) Photoshop just seems to have more range and options for adjusting and working with the photographic images. It is also the industry standard for the time being.
That being said -- Photoshop is very expensive and you can do a good job of adjusting photos in PSP for a lot less. I guess it depends on what you want to do with the program and/or the photographs or images.
I only switched from PSP to PS last year and still use PSP in some instances. Personally I prefer Paint but switched because of Jpeg image degradation. I understand that problem has now been corrected with the latest version, PSP X.
Discussion
3 repliesThanks
1. Where is Photoshop headed?
2. Are there reasons to wait longer before deciding?
1. In my experience Photoshop was not initially intended for photographers, rather it was for graphic artists. Only a very small part of the large and expensive program was useful to photographers at first, and only minor changes have been made to change that since 1994. Many more useful tools have been added, but it is still not a program aimed at photographers.
2. I think there are reasons to wait before deciding to buy Photoshop. Lots of other programs (including Lightroom from Adobe themselves) are emerging in the wings as replacements. Lightroom is hailed by those familiar with it as an attempt at a fresh start by Adobe, a departure from Photoshop that attempts to better integrate contemporary photographers' needs including RAW formats, digital file organization and retrieval, and much more into a central photo processing program related to, but different than Photoshop. A second beta version is available online from Adobe for download and testing, but to my knowledge it's not for PC's yet. Luminous Landscape has an introductory article and tutorial on the first beta and a frequently updated article on the second beta, as well as a forum for users. Adobe has their own forum for users/testers of the beta, and it's my impression that there is a lot of crossbreeding between the two.
I have not downloaded the betas yet because I'm on a very slow dialup connection. However I have seen enough to convince me that it's best to research Lightroom and wait till it is released before choosing between it and Photoshop. If it lives up to expectations, I think it will make Photoshop obsolete for my needs. You ought to check the links I provided and begin your own research before deciding to buy Photoshop.
However, if I'm doing photographic work I almost always use Photoshop now. (Although I like the noise reduction routine on PSP.) Photoshop just seems to have more range and options for adjusting and working with the photographic images. It is also the industry standard for the time being.
That being said -- Photoshop is very expensive and you can do a good job of adjusting photos in PSP for a lot less. I guess it depends on what you want to do with the program and/or the photographs or images.