Andrea Sullach on "Any alternative to Photoshop?"

Andrea Sullach — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:40:20 +0000

Just to resume the original question: yes, Photoshop is surely quite ahead in front of any competitor but, as kirpi noted, unless you really need it for some reason, other software is more that good enough.
Gimp is quite fine. I agree with Lisa. There is also a USB flash drive Portable Gimp ready for download. No need to install it, and you can have it with you anywhere :-)

kirpi on "Any alternative to Photoshop?"

kirpi — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:58:04 +0000

As a general rule, each job requires a set a specific tools, and this is true for photography as well. So, there is no one single advice for all.

If you are overly serious about your photographs and shoot a lot of images in raw format, chances are that you will adopt Lightroom along with the complete Nik software collection. Indeed, Lightroom is expensive: you might try and download the latest Lightroom 3 beta for free (it will be disabled once the stable version is made available) or you can have fun and test the interesting blueMarine project for your workflow.

If, instead, you just want to "try and retouch" you images, I suggest you definitely start with Gimp, available under Linux, Mac and Windows, as it is the best multi-purpose, flexible and easy to approach image editing software around, with scripting capabilities and lots of plug-ins. Also, many tutorials for Photoshop can also be used with Gimp.

Although Gimp is planned to eventually work with high bit-depth and non-destructive editing, if your need is to handle images deeper than 8-bit (which is the case for black and white photographs) then CinePaint is probably a better choice right now.

Angelina on "Any alternative to Photoshop?"

Angelina — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:40:07 +0000

Why, Lisa?

Lisa on "Any alternative to Photoshop?"

Lisa — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:51:27 +0000

True there is a long list for you to choose from, but I would start with Gimp.

Andrea Sullach on "Any alternative to Photoshop?"

Andrea Sullach — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:08:16 +0000

Another one you might want give a look at is IrfanView. You can pair it with a Gimp for effectively handling your photographs.

Lisa on "Any alternative to Photoshop?"

Lisa — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:15:14 +0000

GIMP is the answer. Open-source and a whole community eager to help you. Try it!

Angelina on "Any alternative to Photoshop?"

Angelina — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:22:22 +0000

I wanted to try and retouch my images but Photoshop is very expensive!