# Photoshop...worth the money?



## DKF

Is Photoshop Elements or Lightroom3 worth the money over the free downloaded Picassa, Gimp etc.?  I have been using Picassa for several years and have been generally satisfied, but is an upgrade to Photoshop worth it?  Thanks for any and all advice.


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## rjwolfe3

Not at full price, in my opinion. I have Gimp 2 and can pretty much do anything that photoshop can do. I just wish I knew more on how to use it to its fullest potential.


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## DCBluesman

You can pick up PhotoShop Elements 6 for $10-$15 through many closeout/liquidators on the net.  That makes it a pretty good buy.


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## jimm1

I really like it. Wait to you see it on sale though. Costco puts it discouted often.


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## ken69912001

Which of these programs work on the Windows 7 platform?


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## ldb2000

It all depends on what you are going to use it for and how much time you are goint to devote to learning it's capabilities . There are a number of free photo editing programs that will do a great job of editing photos . For simple editing like color corrections and resizing I use irfanview , it's fast and easy to use and it's free and it has several nice editing tools . Gimp is free open source and can do almost anything that PSE can do but has a similar learning curve . Picassa is free and works well , I'm just not a fan of Google spyware .

Edit ; Ken as far as I know all the ones I mention will work on win 7 . I know irfanview does and they all work on Vista so they should work on Win 7


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## Rmartin

I've had Elements 3 which I got with a wacom tablet I bought at least five years ago. I've never paid to upgrade to the newer versions, but I'm very satisfied with what it can do. I've also spent several years learning to use it through online classes. There are always different ways to do the same thing with elements. You get out of it what you put into it.


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## rjwolfe3

I use Gimp 2 with Windows 7, I can't comment on the rest because I can only afford the free programs.



ken69912001 said:


> Which of these programs work on the Windows 7 platform?


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## JimMc7

I use Picasa to organize and do minor editing (crop/adding text/re-size).  I also have Photoshop Elements but I rarely use it (adding symbols/arrows to photos is about all).  PSE is not intuitive (to me !) and it is painfully _slow_ in my experience.

If I had it to do over, I would skip Photoshop Elements purchase.


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## jskeen

I like picasa for most things, but the absolute refusal of google to add a simple resize button finally drove me to download gimp2, and while not exactly intuitive, it will do what you want it to, eventually.


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## jimm1

I have Elements 7 and Windows 7. I enjoy Photo Shop.


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## MatthewZS

The image preview feature on windows vista and (i'm guessing) windows 7 allows for cropping and some basic color balance editinig...... which is like 85% of what I do to pen photos.


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## el_d

I got Elements 6.0 with Windows Vista and Its pretty much all I need, Im not a PS guru so the full suite is way too much for me....


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## ctubbs

I still use PS 7.  Wonderful program but a bear to learn.  I've been using it for years and still do not use all its capabilities.  Heck, I cant even find all it does!  There are many really good free or nearly free photo programs out there that do anything anyone other than a full fledged graphic artist could want.


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## sbwertz

jskeen said:


> I like picasa for most things, but the absolute refusal of google to add a simple resize button finally drove me to download gimp2, and while not exactly intuitive, it will do what you want it to, eventually.


 
Download the free VSO Image Resizer.  

Sharon


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## sbwertz

ctubbs said:


> I still use PS 7. Wonderful program but a bear to learn. I've been using it for years and still do not use all its capabilities. Heck, I cant even find all it does! There are many really good free or nearly free photo programs out there that do anything anyone other than a full fledged graphic artist could want.


 
I have Photoshop CS, which, like you, I don't use to capacity.  I've found Elements has all the features in Photoshop that I use regularly.  Occasionaly I have to fire up the full program, but mostly Elements does the job.

Sharon


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## glycerine

Like others have said, I think it all depends on what you're using it for.  Do you do alot of photography or just for pens?


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## moke

I really can not imagine that you would need more than infranview, gimp or Picassa for pen photos utilization. I own and operate a Photographic studio, and we specialize in sports "team" photos....we still do weddings and seniors and so on, but we make the bulk of our living on sports teams. Some of the leagues in this area are huge. 200, 600, even 1200 kids in a league. All in all we photograph around 20,000 kids a year. Needless to say we spend a fair amount of time on computers. We generally use production software to convert our files and do some minor corrections. Any correction that is more than a click or two we use PS CS4. I have it on all our computers. It is very expensive, and as was mentioned very deep. I have two people that all they do is graphics, and they along with me may use 15% of the programs capabilities. They may only know 20% of it's abilites total. It is a very deep program. We go to seminars and always come away with new methods, shortcuts and even new looks for the end product. It always amazes me that these "new" methods have been in that program all along.

PS is very expensive although you may note that there are many different prices in the overall pricing structure. Not having bought PS lately I think the full blown current version is about 700 to 800.00. You may see the "student or educator" version for 250 to 300.00 These are full and complete working versions, however are not upgradeable. In other words when the new upgrades come out they are not capapble of being upgraded at all. The upgrades are usually 150.00 or so. 

What I may recommend is to buy a full blown- out of date version. Sometimes software vendors have them for 350.00 and up. They may be two or three versions ago, but these are certainly viable and working versions. Plus you can upgrade for 150.00 if you so choose. I would not go any further back than CS2. This, (I believe) is the version that introduced "PS bridge" which is a great library program. Upgrades will update your program to the current version, even if you are two or three versions back.

Do not discount these free versions on the internet...Infranview, gimp etc...they have tons of capablities, and are really rather well done. It just depends and how involved you want to get.....but make no mistake, Photoshop is the granddaddy of them all. It all depends on how deep your pockets are and how much of an interest you have.

Also Light room is a production software, in other words it is made to do the same command to multiple photographs. We use it some, but I am not sure I wil ever upgrade to other versions, as it does not seem to be all that needed.
Moke


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## toolcrazy

I have Photoshop CS2, Photoshop Elements 8 (had to upgrade 6 is not compatible with windows 7). I am now using Lightroom 3 and just love it. To the point I don't even open PSE 8 at all anymore. 

I still use PS CS2 for creating logos and buttons for web pages. But for my Photography, LR 3 all the way.


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## wjbowling

Don,

Lightroom 3 is hands down the program to use as it is very easy to learn and save a significant amount of time for editing.  It is a little expensive at $300, but worth it over some of the other programs that have been recommended.  You might try to find a use copy of Lightroom 1.0 or 2.0 on ebay.  They would work fine for you as Lightroom 3 has more professional updates for RAW, Metadata, Library groups, and watermarks.  They will all work on XP and Windows 7, but make sure to purchase either Mac or PC as there is a difference.

Wes


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## jtdesigns

1 vote for elements.  My only requirement was to post process camera raw images and it does it well.


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## panini

Just read this on getting a photo editing software..


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