Photoshop Advise

[Phil Lilley]

I've been using photoshop for simple applications for years. Yesterday I restored my main hard drive to another drive and lost all privileges... I can't find old serial #'s and I don't want to purchase another copy of it. I've tried fixing it through adobe and it hasn't worked either.

Very frustrating...

Anyhow, I really don't need photoshop for what I do (I think). What is another photo editing program I can look at.

I'm a MAC user.

Thanks.

[cnr]

GIMP is a free cross platform image editing tool that is the best choice out there. It is a very robust program that will probably give you all the tools you need.

http://www.gimp.org/

[Phil Lilley]

I'll look at it... thanks. But I'm not looking for free necessarily.

[bfishn]

GIMP's a good one, as is XnView (also free). If you're used to Photoshop though, I'd suggest Photoshop Elements, same interface with a few less bells & whistles for a lot less $ ($80 at Sams). I've used Elements for years and haven't yet needed to do something it couldn't handle.

[Flysmallie]

I'll look at it... thanks. But I'm not looking for free necessarily.

Don't let the price fool you. It's a nice program. Just like bfishn I use Elements for the majority of my stuff. It has a great photo management system that helps and can usually do everything I need it to. Lightroom is another good one. I really like working in it.

[ness]

Phil:

I would highly recommend you give Adobe Lightroom a look. The photo-editing portions are much more intuitive and easy to do. You can affect bright spots, dark spots or mid-ranges with sliders. So, if you have a nice picture with a sky that's too light, you can fix just the lightest part and leave the rest alone. They are global adjustments, so you don't have to go draw a line around something. You can also do the same with color channels -- like deepen the reds, etc. There are also "brushes" that let you fine tune the area you're affecting.

I really, really like the cataloging and keywording features, keywords especially. You can keyword photos and have a hierarchy too -- it makes finding things so easy if you're diligent about doing it. I don't use computer folders anymore -- I trust the program.

It does a ton more than I ever use -- printing, web galleries, what not. I gave up on Photoshop Elements several years back and have never regretted it.

[ness]

Oh yeah -- it also interfaces with Facebook, Smugmug, others