Cheapest LEGAL Photoshop?

lucylucky

Fergie76 post reported.

Mr_Oink

tomstickland wrote: »

No go then.

No, but I'm happy with GIMP, Fotoxx and Inkscape for my day to day needs. If it were Windows or nothing, I'd choose nothing and change career.

That said any software that is (legally) free (in cost) for Windows users (paint.net included) is always welcome in my eyes - and a positive step.

patman99

You just have to remember that Paint.Net was created to forefill a project brief on a '.net' programming course by a group of 6 students. The brief was to create a program capable of opening a photograph, resizing it and saving it back to disc.
The GIMP was created to batch-process images (Photoshop was at the time, unable to do this).

Of course, over time, other people add routines for image blurring, layer masking and 1001 other things. The software therefore grows, and on occassion, gets a full re-write to tidy it up and make it run better.

For instance, both the free packages can use ANY PS plug-in or filter effect. So neither may have 'Puppet warp', but if this is a plugin it can be dropped into the right folder, and bingo, the effect becomes available.

Both the free programs have 'correction layers' (having used them myself), The GIMP can also use Adobe colourspace. The only thing I have found that Adobe PS can do that the free alternatives can't is white balance correction, so I use UFRaw as it is much better than the system built in to PS. As for HDR images, I put my trust in some free Linux utilities that produce superior images to those from PS CS5, as they use multi-point shift correction to check for camera movement inbetween shots.

Neither of the free alternatives are aimed at the pro-sumer market, but in the right hands they are a useful tool.

The main trouble with free and opensource software is that the sort of people who use the likes of CS5 or Avid or QuarkExpress believe there is nothing that can match them, and that 'free software cannot compete'. While this may be true of CS5, Cinnelera is a match for Avid and Scribus can do exactly the same job as QuarkExpress.

judderman62

call me an old traditional trousers if you will but I prefer to just get as much right as I can "in camera" and do the most minimal of after shot tweaking... but then I'm into photography not desk top publishing

Mr_Oink

judderman62 wrote: »

call me an old traditional trousers if you will but I prefer to just get as much right as I can "in camera" and do the most minimal of after shot tweaking... but then I'm into photography not desk top publishing

I once had the pleasure of working with a remarkable guy - both of us stuck in a crappy company 'picking cotton'. He took sports and racing shots with a huge Cannon camera costing an arm and a leg - with a mile long lens. He said the same as you Judderman, 'I get it right in the camera, because I don't like Photoshop!'.

That reminds me, I must go to where he is taking pictures and stand in front of him with my phone........ :rotfl:

MJDAWSON

Photoshop elements. £57

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0042D81NO/ref=asc_df_B0042D81NO1602860?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&!!!!!googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B0042D81NO

paddyrg

patman99 wrote: »

...use the likes of CS5 or Avid or QuarkExpress believe there is nothing that can match them, and that 'free software cannot compete'. While this may be true of CS5, Cinnelera is a match for Avid and Scribus can do exactly the same job as QuarkExpress.

As a professional Avid editor with a software background and a deep love of FOSS, Cinnelera is, I'm afraid, no match if you want to do anything serious with it. Ever tried script-based editing with audio sync on a serious drama shot coverage? It's a premium feature you get access to on expensive software. Just saying. Avid is not suitable for quick easy home movie editing, it's tools for jobs.

Now, if you want a better argument, suggest Lightworks which has just been open sourced - Linux builds will be along soon I'm sure, and that *is* industrial-grade and free. Yep, LW has been given FOSS freedom, so what was a dying but awesome industry tool is now going to go through a massive resurgence. I'm working on a series of video tutorials for it now, it's a little different but a far more convincing opposition to my £2500 Avid ;-)

culpepper

Not really answering your question,just wondering if an older version or alternative might not be enough
My OH works with photoshop daily as do I.
I have CS5 with all the bells and whistles for my 64bit XP machine but use the 32bit version which comes with it , as quite a lot of plugins dont like the 64bit version , he and his collegues who work for a big imaging company have CS2 and do the exact same job on fairly elderly apple macs(G5's I believe). The newer version does have some clever stuff but the older versions are adequate for photo editing and we have CS2 on our old macs at home. You can use elements for quite a lot of manipulation work ,a book on using elements for photo retouching would most likely give some pointers about work arounds . On the retouching forum I frequent,there are people who prefer paintshop which I think was bought up by Corel.
Irfanview has a little extra called thumbnails which is very like the Bridge program that comes with Adobe and I prefer it when needing to view folders of pics.

diable

spud17 wrote: »

See post #4;)

However, I've been told by someone who uses CS5 for video editing, so I bow to his knowledge, that the software4students versions are *lite* versions.

Its the Extended Version

Just had a look on the site and you can download a fully functioning 30 day trial version from Adobe.

A._Badger

culpepper wrote: »

Not really answering your question,just wondering if an older version or alternative might not be enough
My OH works with photoshop daily as do I.
I have CS5 with all the bells and whistles for my 64bit XP machine but use the 32bit version which comes with it , as quite a lot of plugins dont like the 64bit version , he and his collegues who work for a big imaging company have CS2 and do the exact same job on fairly elderly apple macs(G5's I believe). The newer version does have some clever stuff but the older versions are adequate for photo editing and we have CS2 on our old macs at home. You can use elements for quite a lot of manipulation work ,a book on using elements for photo retouching would most likely give some pointers about work arounds . On the retouching forum I frequent,there are people who prefer paintshop which I think was bought up by Corel.
Irfanview has a little extra called thumbnails which is very like the Bridge program that comes with Adobe and I prefer it when needing to view folders of pics.

Thanks for your comments. Sadly, this is where Photoshop's origins and its name can lead to confusion. For much photographic work, an older version, or even Elements, would do the job well and I'm using an older version currently.

Unfortunately, if you're doing illustration, those bells and whistles can make quite a difference, as far as I can see, and the 64 bit aspect looks like it will save a lot of time handling larger files.

It's looking like the 'friend in the States' route, so far!